The Major League Baseball season is merely hours away. The Braves and Phillies will meet Sunday night at 8pm EST on ESPN2 for the first of 4,860 regular season games. Is there anyone out there who is more pumped than me? Doubtful. Baseball is not merely a sport of leisure, it is a religion. Over the next seven months I will drink more beer, eat more chicken wings, do more sitting on the couch, and check my four fantasy baseball teams more than any healthy human being should, and every second of it will be glorious. My performance at work will undoubtedly suffer; final exams will fall even further down on the list of priorities; and my girl friend will become that much more disgusted with me. One may ask, is it worth it? Well if you have to ask, than you simply don’t understand. Baseball is the great American pastime and would be in the same class as the NFL had it not been for Bud Selig running it into the ground. With that, I give you my predictions for the upcoming season. Take them with a grain of salt as those who follow my posts quickly realize that I am ALWAYS wrong. I do things like this purely for my own entertainment and that of those who want to follow along.

AL East – Devil Rays (no, they are not the Rays, sorry) – They made it to the World Series last year and are now a year older and a year better. The team is loaded with young stars and now will have David Price for 2/3 of the season.

AL Central – White Sox – I like their rotation and if their bats can stay healthy, which is a big if, I think they will take it home in this mediocre division.

AL West – Angels – Oakland and Seattle seem to be the sexy picks every year, but the Angels are proven winners.

Wild Card – Red Sox – I can’t leave my home town heroes out of the playoffs, sorry. The Yankees are great; don’t get me wrong, the AL East is going to be a blast to watch. But when it is this close you can’t go against the allegiance to your boys at home. I would expect the same from everyone else.

AL Cy Young – James Shields

Runners Up – Jon Lester, Ervin Santana, Francisco Liriano

AL MVP – Evan Longoria

Runners Up – Mark Teixeira, Matt Holliday

NL East – Marlins – Young squad full of talent. Going with my gut here (sorry for jinxing all Marlin fans if there is such a thing).

NL Central – Cubs – Imagine if Rich Harden could stay healthy for an entire season? They have a great lineup, although letting Derosa go might hurt, and their pitching is pretty good, and their bullpen is awesome, and their competition is nothing to write home about.

NL West – Dodgers – Solid rotation, solid lineup, solid defense, solid bullpen, TERRIBLE division. I could see the Diamondbacks giving them a run for their money but when it comes down to it Manny Ramirez WILL carry them to the playoffs.

Wild Card – Diamondbacks – If they can get into the playoffs, with Haren and Webb at the front of their rotation watch out, they could do damage.

NL Cy Young – Ricky Nolasco

Runners Up – Johan Santana, Cole Hamels

NL MVP – Manny Ramirez

Runners Up – Hanley Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano

Playoff Results

American League

Red Sox over Angels (for like the millionth time)

Devil Rays over White Sox

Red Sox over Devil Rays (was it really a question)

National League

Diamondbacks over Cubs

Marlins over Dodgers

Diamondbacks over Marlins

World Series

Red Sox over Diamondbacks!

You know what this all means? None of the teams mentioned will make the playoffs and every player I picked for awards will be hurt by the all star break.

So there you have it, my completely biased predictions for the upcoming season, along with telling me how much of an idiot I am let’s hear some of yours. It will be fun to come back in October and see which of us got lucky.