The Way Too Early 2010 MLB predictions

Ah, the crack of a wooden bat on a baseball.

Not that aluminum ping (although I do love college baseball), but that crisp, sweet crack of the bat as Albert Pujols or Manny Ramirez demolishes a ball 400-plus feet into the bleachers at Fenway Park or Wrigley Field.

Alas, the MLB season cranked into high gear last week and there are not many people more excited than this dude.

I am a sports guy, so that means I have a college minor in fortune telling. All of us sports folks love nothing more than to try and predict the future, right?

So even though there are more than five months to go in the season and more than 150 games to play, here are my never-too-early (some serious and some not) predictions for this season.

15 Things to Look Out for in 2010

1. The Cubs will not win the World Series – I’m not really going out on a limb here being they are 0-for the past 102 years. But yeah, all of you “We’ll get ’em next year,” people, next year isn’t coming anytime soon.

2. The Giants will stand tall in NL – The Giants will stay true to their name and be one of the best teams in baseball this year. With that deep starting rotation and a new-look, revamped offense strengthened by Mark Derosa and Aubrey Huff, look out for the Bay City boys in September.

3. Dontrelle Willis will return to form … kind of – He won’t be the dazzling ace he was with the Marlins, but the D-Train also won’t spend any time in the minors, either. He was fabulous in spring training and will be a formidable No. 3 starter in Detroit this season.

4. More than five players will test positive for PEDs – It’s sad, but it’s also just part of the culture we live in. Bigger, faster, stronger is the only thing athletes strive for and there’s no doubt a few bad apples will risk the 50-game suspension and try to get an edge.

5. Bobby Cox will “unretire” – 2010 is supposed to be the final year for the Braves’ longtime skipper. But with Atlanta fielding a promising team, there is no way the passionate Cox will be able to walk away – especially if the Braves live up to their potential and win in the ballpark of 90 games this season.

6. Heyward, Strasburg, Chapman will dazzle – There is some amazing and young talent just on the cusp of the big leagues. Heyward started his five-month Rookie of the Year audition last Monday and blasted a 3-run homer in his first game as a Brave. Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman will begin the year in the minor leagues, but with both the Nationals and Reds expecting to fizzle (again) this year, expect Washington DC to get its first taste of Strasburg around July and Cincinnati to experience Chapman by mid-June. But make no mistake about it; the ROY is all Heyward this time around.

7. Big Names will be dealt at trade deadline – I know it’s all the way in late July, but you can see the writing on the wall of some players who might be available at the trade deadline. Want a pitcher? How about Houston’s Roy Oswalt? A bat? How do you feel about Toronto’s Vernon Wells? Both players could easily become available if their teams fall out of contention by mid-summer.

8. Rangers will rally around Ron Washington – The Ron Washington saga was such a unique deal. How often does a team’s manager get in trouble – much less for testing positive for cocaine? But the Rangers are overflowing with talent (including new signee Vladimir Guerrero) and these guys will get over the hump and make the playoffs.

9. AL Wildcard may not come from East – It’s usually a given that the AL Wildcard will be the second place team in the AL East (usually the Red Sox or Yankees). But with the emergence of teams like the Rangers, Mariners, Tigers and even the White Sox, it is not a foregone conclusion that two AL East teams will play postseason baseball.

10. Dodgers will tumble off a cliff in NL West – The team did next to nothing in the offseason and as a result they are a stagnant shadow of their old selves. Combine that with ownership disputes and these guys might have a pretty rough go of it this year.

11. Jose Canseco will say something ridiculous – Whether via Twitter, an exclusive interview or even in another tell-all book (I always wondered how someone could write more than one tell-all book), Jose Canseco will open his mouth and say something utterly senseless again. If you have an office pool for the next time it will happen, take sometime in early May. After a month of the season, the selfish has-been/never-was will want the cameras pointed on him again. Book it.

12. Pujols will hit 50-plus home runs – The game’s best player will thrive under new hitting coach Mark McGwire and be even better (if that is even possible) in 2010. Something to the tune of about a .330 average with 50 to 55 dingers and about 140 to 150 RBI sounds about right. And the dude is a free agent after this season. If A-Rod got $250 million, just imagine what teams will give this guy.

13. Orioles will be that team no one wants to face in AL – They won’t make the playoffs. They might only win 70 or so games. But the Orioles will be very exciting and will have the talent and speed to give a team fits in a three-game series. If only they could get a little pitching. If only.

14. A player on a last-place team will determine World Series home field advantage – The MLB All Star Game stinks about as bad as 2-week old shrimp peelings in the middle of July. The starters are pulled from the game by about the fourth inning, so that leaves players from teams like the Royals and Padres to decide the winner and who thus has home-field advantage in the World Series. I would say “In your dreams, Mr. Padre,” but even in the Padres’ dreams, they don’t make the playoffs.

15. Three no-hitters will be thrown, no perfect games – I know you’re probably thinking that three is such an exact number for something so unpredictable. But here’s my reasoning. Every year there is that one guy who you never expect to do it – like Jonathan Sanchez in 2009. And there is also usually that legitimate ace that brings his A-game and does it, too – like Mark Buehrle in 2009 or Carlos Zambrano and Justin Verlander in 2008. So I will take the ultimate stab in the dark and call the nobody no-hitter for San Diego’s Kevin Correia and give the other two to San Francisco’s Matt Cain and Oakland’s Ben Sheets.

I know I can’t make a list of predictions without giving my World Series picks, right?

So give me the Giants in the NL, the Red Sox in the AL and the Red Sox to win it all.

We’ll review these in October and see how well (or terribly) I did.