Not to be confused with the Fantasy thread, this is for hopes and fears, and any other old toss about this coming season, which starts on Sunday, with the Yankees going to Boston for their opening day (defeat).

Spring training has been the usual, but one guy has stood out for me: Jason Heyward of the Braves, who is a rookie, but looks to have it all: speed, power, timing and a good eye. He is likely to start in the 7 spot, but expect him to move up to 2 after he settles in (IF he settles in).

My predictions for the year are Tampa, Minnesota and Seattle for the American League (Yankees sneaking the wildcard), and Phillies, Cards and Giants (Braves Wildcard) in the National League.

One piece of trivia I heard yesterday... in the 1950 season Yogi Berra had 652 at bats in the regular season, and struck out 12 times.

12 times????? Have a wee think about that...

Heyward sounds impressive but bear in mind that in Aaron's age 20 season he hit .280 with 13 homers. In Mays' aged 20 season he .274 avg with 20 homers. Heyward'll do well to post similar numbers I feel. Of course, a lot has changed since the 1950's but he might not be as good as the hype machine suggests,especially as he's so young in baseball terms.

My predictions are Yankees,Twins and Angels with the Red Sox holding off the Rays for the wildcard. In the senior circuit, i'll go for the Phillies,Cards and Rockies. Dodgers for the wildcard. For surprise teams, hmm I think the Reds may be better, despite Dusty Baker.

Add me to the list of people who are excited about Heyward (and Aroldis Chapman, Stephen Strasburg (who won't start the season in the majors) and Matt Wieters). Bill's caution is of course valid, but it is also worth noting tha Aaron and Mays played in a very different run environment.

Here's an interesting (and bit creepy) article on the Braves' pursuit of Heyward.

A humorous take on the hype about Wieters.

The best sportswriter in America on Chapman.

Picks (do not under any circumstances put money on these):

AL: Yankees, Twins, Mariners, Red Sox
NL: Phillies, Cardinals, Rockies, Braves

(I picked Strasburg and Heyward in my fantasy team... sod the hype. Apart from 2007, I have finished nowhere)

Bill, I dont have any expectations of the Heyward chappy, and learned my spring training lessons previously, but pre-season cheering aside, he has many possibilities.

After last years Channel 5 debacle, I now have ESPN as standard, so will be watching regularly. Assuming him indoors doesnt kill me by May.

(Which is a serious possibility, although, in spring training, he has looked on at some serious close-ups... I think I have a groupie! Possibly a grouper.)

Oh, and I saw Chapman throw an inning... or at least I think I did. It was over so quick, I thought I was watching on fast forward.

I'm thinking about going up to see Strasburg's minor league debut for Harrisburg. It's scheduled to be at Altoona on April 11. I could carry a load of stuff up to State College and then drive down 220 an hour to Blair County Ballpark. I wonder if it will sell out early. (I'm trying to shift as much stuff to my parents garage until I do the real move to my new house at the end of May).

National's fan Reed?

If you drive at 220 an hour, I suspect you might get there in time...

Seriously, Reed, if you do go there and they have a programme... hang on, do you even have that? A magazine specifically for the days events?

Ursus, help here... you know what a programme is (not saying that you dont, Reed, but, I have never actually got one, or thought about one, and how do you do it daily, if so?

Gero, it's a "program" in American (and "220" is a road, not a speed).

And they don't do a new one for every game. What they do is to produce a glossy magazine type thing full of adverts several times a year (4,6,8, it depends on the team) and then insert into that a four page scorecard that has the rosters of the two clubs that are actually playing plus a blank scorecard itself.

The ritual of keeping a scorecard, is one of the great pleasures of the game.

If I make it to a Yankees game this year, I'll be sure to get you a program.

BTW, Yogi's strikeout totals are impressive, but the acknowledged king of that category is Hall of Famer Joe Sewell, an infielder who played most of his career with the Cleveland Indians before finishing up with the Yankees.

By clicking on the link and looking at the "SO" column, you will see that Sewell consistently put up other-worldly numbers in this category, posting ten consecutive seasons of less than ten strikeouts in years when he played virtually every game. He also holds the all-time record for most consecutive games without striking out (115). Over his 14-year career, Sewell had only 114 strikeouts in 8,329 plate appearances. To put that in perspective, Mark Reynolds of the Diamondbacks struck out 223 times last season.

I'm sort of indifferent to the Nationals now. I still follow the Reds.

I enjoy minor league baseball the most. I haven't ever been to see the Altoona Curve (yes, that's their name) because they didn't exist until after I moved away from home. But now that I'm moving back, I home to go down there a lot since our own team, the State College Spikes, is a short season team that doesn't start playing until June.

Indeed, I want to go to all 13 professional ballparks in Pennsylvania - 8 minor league, 2 major league and 3 independent. I may not get it done this summer, but certainly by next. If I do that, I'll move on to Ohio.

I'm trying to do the same with ursus minor and parks within easy public transport distance of Manhattan. The Brooklyn Cyclones and Staten Island Yankees are top of the list, but there's also the likes of the Newark Bears, Bridgeport Bluefish and some other teams that are within reach.

I had no idea that Pennsylvania had that many teams now; it must be one of the places where minor league ball has really taken off. Back in the day, it was Reading and Scranton. I don't even think that anyplace in the Lehigh Valley had a team, let alone places like Altoona or State College. Of course, way back in the 40s or 50s, there were teams all over the place.

UA, are you back in the States now?

Yeah, in the AA Eastern league, there's Harrisburg, Altoona, Reading and Erie. AAA has Scranton-WB, which used to be a Phillies operation, but the Mayor liked the Yankees. So the Phillies moved the Ottawa team to a new park in Lehigh Valley, the Iron Pigs. In the single-A short season NYPL - same as Staten Island and Brooklyn - there's Williamsport and as of three years ago, State College. State College was founded by the same people who started the Altoona Curve. Their marketing data showed a lot of people from State College were going to Curve games. So they worked out a deal with Penn State to build a fantastic park and share it with Penn State baseball, which had been playing on a field not really up to BigTen standards.

In the independent Frontier League are the Washington (PA) Wild Things. That's a bit south of Pittsburgh. In the Atlantic League, they've got the Lancaster Barnstormers and York Revolution. They wanted minor league baseball but couldn't invade Reading and Harrisburg's area. Independent league teams don't have to abide those restrictions.

And of course, the Pirates and the Phillies. I still haven't been to either park.

UA, welcome back if that's indeed the case. And while I'm not sure what mass transit there is from the Trenton Train Station (unless the new Riverline goes there, but more on that later,) I'd give my highest recommendation to the Samuel J. Plumeri Stadium in Trenton. The NY Post went to every minor league stadium a few years back, and the Trenton Thunder stadium won.

It's right on the river (be sure to get seats on the 3rd base side to see it,) and the River Horse beer out of Lambertville is dynamite.

If you're really brave, you can catch said Riverline to Camden to see the Riversharks. They play under a giant bridge to Philly. The Riverline is a block from the Trenton train station, and is supposedly one of the prettiest rides around.

Unfortunately there's not a train station within 5 miles of the Somerset Patriots, but they're worth going to as well. You know the way they're building football stadiums along with Tescos in England ? That's already happened in Bridgewater, NJ. The same big blocks that build Home Depot-Wal Mart-Comp USA are used to build this stadium. Somehow it all works pretty well. If NJ had a professional league, this stadium would certainly rival Red Balls.

I guess what I'm saying is don't leave out the Dirty Jerz (outside of Newark, that is. But you should get Junior over to the Ironbound for any Portugal-Brasil match this summer, anyway.)

I've also started my NPB watching, with a beautiful moment this morning of North Carolinian Percy Sledge hitting a game-winning bottom-of-the-9th 4-run blast for the Yokohama BayStars against the Yomiuri Giants this morning for a Yokohama come-from-behind 8-5 win.

Percy Sledge, as you don't remember, hit the game-winning grand slam for the Nippon Ham Fighters against the Rakuten Eagles in last year's Climax Series.

The surprise this season in the Orix Buffaloes starting at 7-1. It's their last year of being called the Buffaloes, as they will probably return to the Blue Wave name. They merged with the Kintetsu Buffaloes a few years back, the team that was famous for Hideo Nomo.

In the Central, Hanshin Tigers have started well at 4-1, and are tied with the Yakult Swallows. Jamie D'Antona, a Canadian with absolutely evil bad-guy-from-a-Steven-Seagal-film sideburns, has hit 4 homers already for the Swallows. He is obnoxious in interviews, and may become a very popular star over there.

Thanks, now I have "WHEN A MAA-AN LOVES A WO-MAN..." on continuous loop.

There are a lot of newish parks in New Jersey. Indeed, Trenton is usually the park that gets mentioned in articles about the boom (resurgence?) in minor league baseball over the past 20 years. Cities like Trenton or Altoona have found that they can really improve their downtown with a nice minor league park and it's a lot more cost effective than it is for big league teams.

Unfortunately that means that the cities that don't have especially nice facilities and/or that are not so well off economically are losing their teams to places that do. It's also just simple economics and human geography - The lower the league, the more potential owners there are who can afford to own a team at that level. And of course, there are a lot more cities out there that are big enough to support a minor league club than a big league club, and more cities that can support a AA team than a AAA team and even more that can support a single A team.

This year, the Oneonta Tigers (SS-A, NYPL) are leaving for Connecticut (I forget exactly where - Norwalk, I think) to take the place of the Connecticut Defenders (AA, EL) who are moving to Richmond to become the Richmond Flying Squirels. Richmond became open when the Richmond Braves (AAA, IL) left to become the Gwinnet Braves because the Atlanta Braves wanted to upgrade the facility in Richmond, the city wouldn't do it, but Gwinnett, which is very close to Atlanta, was willing to put out, as it were.

I think the Nats should have tried hard to get one of their affiliates in Richmond. They need to stake out Virginia as their fan territory and having a minor league affiliate in an area helps a lot if it's not too far away, but right now their AAA club is in Syracuse and their AA team is Harrisburg. The Senators get good support but those people are always going to be Phillies or Orioles fans. Richmond is a Giants affiliate and the Norfolk Tides are the Orioles' AAA team.

Oops, got me there FF. It's Terrmel Sledge.

According to the always-excellent Marinerds blog, the lyrics to his song sung by his supporters goes "
'North Carolina Power, Homerun Sledge' and all of this stuff about 'heating up the hammer' and such. "

When my daughter woke me up this morning, I woke up to find Hanshin with a 5 run lead over Chunichi and Hiroshima with a 4 run lead over the Giants. My the end of both games, that 9-run combined lead became a pair of combined 2-run losses. AIN'T DAT A KICKINDATEETH !!!

Let the fun begin.