I've said it before and I'll say it again - the first week of April is the greatest sports week of the entire year.
The Final Four concludes and baseball's Opening Day starts off the best six months of my year. Well, for us Cub fans, that's usually the best two months of our year, then the worst two months of our year, then the most forgetable two months of our year.
But this year will be different my friends! Oh yes, it WILL be different.
Anyways, my thoughts after the first three-plus days ...
-- Grady Sizemore will be in the Top 5 of AL MVP voting at the end of the year
-- We won't even remember the ugly slump Ryan Howard is going through a month from now.
-- Felix Hernandez has turned the corner. This is the year he finally becomes special, as almost everyone had predicted two years ago.
--Cole Hamels is the real deal too. You'll be wishing you drafted him throughout the entire year.
-- Mark Prior will come back to win 12 games for the Cubs this season, and Carlos Zambrano will rebound from his ugly Opening Day effort to put up 18 of them.
-- Dice-K is good, but not THAT good. Remember, people, those 10 strikeouts came against the Royals.
-- Barry Bonds looks as good as he has in more than two years. He'll pass Aaron this year for sure.
-- I'll suffer my first heart attack this year if the Cubs bullpen keeps blowing saves like they did to the Reds today. Absolutely disgusting.
Hey expert, and use that term loosely, don't go out on too much of a limb here. Sizemore in the top 5 MVP, we all knew that before the season even started.
Howard's slump, of course no one will remember that in four weeks, we are way too concerned with three-day stats, if Howard's slump is a concern, then I guess we should just assume Sizemore's gonna hit 162 homers right? But do remember something I commented a while back when you were touting Howard as the #1 fantasy pick, while he's going to break out of his slump, he's going to do that and see a lot of walks coming his way, he has no protection behind him.
I don't know if Dice-K is going to be that good or not, but people better not sleep on the Royals, they are not as bad as everyone thinks. Good young ballclub. There pitching may fail them and the losses may pile up, but mark my words, they are a lot better than they get credit for.
Bonds, "f" that guy, 'nuff said.
Might as well fill up on brats and beers cuz that heart attack is coming anyway, your bullpen is going to be bi-polar all year. And oh yeah, Prior winning 12 games with the Cubs, maybe the West Valley Cubs in the L.A. Parks and Rec Municipal League, though I think my Van Nuys Angels and stud starter Dusty could take him.
