The Carnival

Roller Coasters.

Have you guys been watching March Madness? My bracket picks went good early, starting off 14-2 on the first day. And then I tanked the rest of the first round, and sort of floundered in the 2nd round, leaving me with only 9 out of the 16 teams in the Sweet 16. And then something funny happened. Not only did I end up with 7 out of 8 correct in the Elite 8 (with only USC whiffing, but I already knew that on the first day of the tourney), but then I also managed to get all 4 Final Four teams correct. Sadly, I'm not in an tourney pool this year. Oh well. But the funny thing is that my big predictions all went off well - Bill Self got the monkey off his back. X ran into the Elite 8, and faced off against Huggie in a nice OT game in the Sweet 16. If Kansas really beats Memphis in the finals, you'll see me really start to believe my own hype.

Crystal Balls.

It's time for baseball. And much like with college baseball, this is probably the most uninformed that I have been since I can remember. Normally, by now, I will have blown off a few afternoons worth of class to come home to watch spring training games. I think that I've watched maybe 2 at-bats of spring training. So, this year, we're sort of flying blind. Naturally, expect the best preseason predictions to date. I'm also reverting to an old standby. Yanks and Braves, and build your predictions around that idea :-)

AL Division Winners (and Wild Card): Yankees, Tigers, Angels, Red Sox
NL Division Winners (and Wild Card): Braves, Cards, D-Backs, Mets
Teams that will just miss: Indians, White Sox, Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs
Teams that will make a run early and fade by August: Blue Jays, Mariners, Brewers, Reds
AL Pennant: Yankees
NL Pennant: Braves
World Series Champs: Yankees
All-Time Best Redundant Name for a Coach: Dick Pole
All-Time Best Non-Redundant Name for a Coach: Rusty Kuntz
AL Cy Young and MVP: Chien-Ming Wang and A-Rod
2 Other AL Cy Young Candidates: Erik Bedard and Mariano Rivera
2 Other AL MVP Candidates: Manny Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera
Under the Radar AL Cy Young and MVP Candidates: Javier Vazquez and Gary Sheffield
NL Cy Young and MVP: Johan Santana and Mark Teixeira
2 Other NL Cy Young Candidates: Carlos Zambrano and Jake Peavy
2 Other NL MVP Candidates: Chase Utley and David Wright
Fun NL name to write and say: Fukudome
Under the Radar NL Cy Young and MVP Candidates: Aaron Harang and Derek Lee
Hitters ready to blow up (that no one talks about): James Loney and Melky Cabrera
Intriguing young AL bats and arms: Adam Jones and Hughes/Chamberlain/Kennedy/Lester/Bucholz
Intriguing young NL bats and arms: The Upton Brothers and Johnny Cueto/Edison Volquez
edit 4/2: Meant to say the D'Back Brothers (Upton and Drew)

People are really high on the Cueto and Volquez duo for the Reds. If they can manage to pitch well, the Reds will have a chance to contend. If not, we may be in trouble. But, adding a legit closer should help stabilize our entire pitching staff. Oh. And I think that the Yankees will be really good, like I do every year.

-RG