1) Washington Nationals: RHP Stephen Strasburg
2) Seattle Mariners: OF Dustin Ackley
3) San Diego Padres: OF Donovan Tate
4) Pittsburgh Pirates: C Tony Sanchez
5) Baltimore Orioles: RHP Matt Hobgood
6) San Francisco Giants: RHP Zack Wheeler
7) Atlanta Braves: LHP Mike Minor
8) Cincinnati Reds: RHP Mike Leake
9) Detroit Tigers: RHP Jacob Turner
10) Washington Nationals: RHP Drew Storen
11) Colorado Rockies: LHP Tyler Matzek
12) Kansas City Royals: RHP Aaron Crow
13) Oakland Athletics: SS Grant Green
14) Texas Rangers: LHP Matt Purke
15) Cleveland Indians: RHP Alex White
16) Arizona Diamondbacks: 3B Bobby Borchering
17) Arizona Diamondbacks: CF AJ Pollock
18) Florida Marlins: LHP Chad James
19) St) Louis Cardinals: RHP Shelby Miller
20) Toronto Blue Jays: RHP Chad Jenkins
21) Houston Astros: SS Jiovanni Mier
22) Minnesota Twins: RHP Kyle Gibson
23) Chicago White Sox: OF Jared Mitchell
24) Los Angeles Angels: LF Randal Grichuk
25) Los Angeles Angels: CF Mike Trout
26) Milwaukee Brewers: RHP Eric Arnett
27) Seattle Mariners: SS Nick Franklin
28) Boston Red Sox: CF Reymond Fuentes
29) New York Yankees: CF Slade Heathcott
30) Tampa Bay Rays: OF Levon Washington
31) Chicago Cubs: OF Brett Jackson
32) Colorado Rockies: OF Tim Wheeler

Dustin Ackley went second to the Seattle Mariners (Image: Zuma Press)

Post from: Knuckle Curve

AL East – New York Yankees
The offseason spending brought in enough talent to win the division.

AL Central – Minnesota Twins
The Tigers and White Sox will disappoint and the Twins will surprise.

AL West – Los Angeles Angels
Mark them down as finishing with the best record in baseball again.

AL Wildcard – Boston Red Sox
The Rays will give it a good run but won’t be able to hang.

NL East – New York Mets
With their improved bullpen, there are no excuses this year.

NL Central – Chicago Cubs
Expect another fast start in Chicago for the Cubs.

NL West – Arizona Diamondbacks
Their hitting should be extremely dangerous.

NL Wildcard – Philadelphia Phillies
They won’t catch the Mets but they will still make the postseason.

AL Champion – New York Yankees
The Yankees will get pushed to the limits but their bats will prevail.

NL Champion – Arizona Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks get some clutch pitching to come out of the NL.

World Series – Yankees over Diamondbacks
CC Sabathia takes home the World Series MVP with two wins.

CC Sabathia will have been worth every penny (Image: Newscom)

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Some of you may know me from my fantasy basketball blog, Hoops Fantasy, here on b5media. I hope to bring that same passion for writing to baseball.

Baseball was my first love growing up and I played all the way through high school. I watch the game as much as possible and I expect that I’ll watch even more now that I’ll be blogging about the sport. Oddly enough, I don’t have a favorite baseball team. I’m more into following the storylines of each team and tracking the numbers. In the playoffs, I’ll usually root for the underdog – but that isn’t always the case. Basically, I’m just a baseball fan who loves the game and follows each team closely.

My goal is to blog at least twice a day and cover as broad a scope as possible. If it happens in the baseball world, I’m going to try to cover it.

Thanks for reading and I wish Geoff much success.

Image details: Baseball glove and ball served by picapp.com

Post from: Knuckle Curve

I hope that everyone had a wonderful turkey day, filled with food and naps.
There was one team that wasn’t napping – the LA Angels. They’ve gone and signed Torii Hunter to a 5 year $90 Million contract. What does this do to the Angels? Well it improves their outfield defense, but at the same time there outfield is now a bit crowded. Look for Gary Mathews Jr (their CFer last year) to move to a corner spot so Hunter can take his customary spot in the middle of the outfield. That leaves Vlad and Garrett Anderson to share time at the other corner and at the DH spot.

Maybe I’m a bit jaded but is Hunter really worth the 90MM? I mean he’s good don’t get me wrong, but I’m thinking he’s a bit over valued and a bit over priced. But we’ve seen this trend when it comes to the free agent market lately and this contract could set the tone for a guy like Andruw Jones who still hasn’t found a team to play for yet and who won’t sign just a one year deal.

I just don’t think this is the answer the Angels were looking for when it comes to “impact” bat. Sure he’s shored up your outfield defense, but I honestly feel they’re still missing something when it comes to a bat. Then again it’s a long off season…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Once again the geniuses in the marketing department Of Major League Baseball have done it again. Now you can try and bid your hard earned cash on – you guessed it bug spray.

Yes, your eye’s aren’t playing tricks on you. You can bid on the bug spray that was used when the Yankees were taking on Cleveland during the American League Playoffs. So if you were trying to find that ‘hard to find’ gift for the Yankees fan who has everything look no further. They have some other things that they’ll be auctioning – but this seems to be the ‘hot ticket item’.

Yikes – I’ll have to pass on that one.

In other news, Jimmy Rollins is the National League MVP – just beating out Matt Holliday of the Colorado Rockies. Huh? Maybe I’m just not seeing it (which might be truer than you think..), but the guys who vote do. This was the closest vote since Terry Pendleton beat out Barry Bonds for the MVP award back in 1991. Honestly I was pretty darn sure that Matt Holliday would’ve walked away with the MVP with the kind of year he had.

Here’s what Rollins had to say:

“It never crossed my mind that I would go out there and win an MVP,” Rollins said on a conference call from California. “I had a real big smile on my face, to make it simple. I was excited but I wasn’t quite sure what to feel.”

This is also the first time teammates have won back to back MVP’s since Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds did it for the Giants in 2000 and 2001.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Normally you would be expecting a post from Geoff, well he’s taking a bit of a break for the week. And I, TD have been asked to fill his enormous shoes for the time being. I guess you’d want to know a bit about me first, well as I’ve stated my name is TD and I blog over at rain-delay.com. You may have seen me here in the comments here and there.

Anyways I’ve been pulled out of my off season hibernation, I mainly blog the Braves and the Mariners.

So let’s get to it shall we.

It seems that the prodigal son has returned home.

On Monday, the Braves signed Pitcher Tom Glavine to a 1 year 8 million dollar deal, in what could possibly be his last season in Baseball. Honestly I’m not sure where I am on this, in one sense it’s good to see Tommy back in a Braves uniform for one last run on the other what kind of expectations are going to be heaped on Glavine. Right now he’ll sit 3rd in the rotation, behind Smoltz and Hudson which is a good place for him seeing that Chuck James shouldn’t have been 3rd last year (4 or 5 would have been a lot better). The wildcard in this is, Mike Hampton. Just typing that name makes me shiver, it seems like years and years since I’ve seen him pitch.

And from all accounts, the Braves are counting on him to be the #4 guy, leaving the 5th spot open to guys like Chuck James , Jo-Jo Reyes, newly acquired Jair Jurrjens among others fighting out for that last spot in the rotation. If James or Reyes does it, it’ll be 3 southpaws in one rotation, something I haven’t seen before to be honest.

There’s only a few things I expect from Glavine in his return to the Braves.

1. That he keeps his ERA below the 5 mark, low 4’s would be nice.
2. And that he can eat some innings.

Head over to TalkingChop.com, Martin has some great quotes from a few of the Mets blogs. My favorite is that they’re saying the “Tom Glavine wasn’t a true Met.”..

Gosh, where have a heard that before when it comes to a New York Baseball team?

Post from: Knuckle Curve