WBC Bashing Time

Dice-K. Injured.

Blame the f'ing WBC. Go ahead. Oh, you already did...

According to the Boston Globe, "the team" is blaming Daisuke's injury on the WBC. How about this? Instead of bitching, teams that have players that are to play in the WBC should begin training them for competitive baseball earlier. I'm tired of every injury to a WBC participant blamed on the WBC. It's like the media is waiting for one of these players to be injured so they can call for the end of the WBC.

My dream scenario would play out as such:
A Yankee is hurt in the regular season after playing in the WBC. Hank Steinbrenner would storm into Selig's office and demand an end to this "pathetic hoedown" (his words). Selig would then punch him square in the face. It wouldn't just be any punch, though. It would be the wussiest punch ever thrown by a man. This would develop into the wussiest fight ever between two men. This goes on until both men are even too tired to lift their arms anymore...at which point the Incredible Hulk enters and punches them both in the face.
The End

I'm cheating...

...but I'm making my predictions on the second day of the season.

AL EAST
Boston
Tampa Bay - WC
New York
Toronto
Baltimore

AL CENTRAL
Minnesota
Cleveland
Chicago
Detroit
Kansas City

AL WEST
Anaheim (Sorry...I mean Los Angeles)
Seattle
Texas
Oakland

NL EAST
New York
Philadelphia - WC
Atlanta
Florida
Washington

NL CENTRAL
Chicago
St. Louis
Milwaukee
Cincinnati
Houston
Pittsburgh

NL WEST
Los Angeles
Arizona
San Francisco
Colorado
San Diego

In addition to my picks for each division, I am going to throw out all of the story lines I expect to see this year:
- The new Yankee Stadium is great (this story will be spearheaded by ESPN)
- The contrast between the ultra new Yankee Stadium and decrepit Fenway Park (ESPN again)
- Joba Chaimberlain has lost his fastball - in all fairness, this story has already begun. I think it will continue...all season. The media loves Joba Chaimberlain for some stupid reason. Personally, I think he's kind of a dink.
- Tim Lincecum will have a season for the ages - this dude's a monster
- New big names surface from the steroid list. Big Mac and Sammy are finally exposed definitively.
- The Mets break their choking ways and make the playoffs.

Notice that most of the story lines come from the east coast...thank you national media. Thank you for reminding us that there are no other divisions besides the AL EAST and the NL EAST. Thank you for also reminding us that the Blue Jays, Orioles, Marlins and Nats don't actually exist. The way you see it, it is a huge race between the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays for the AL pennant, and between the Mets, Phillies, and Braves (to a much lesser extent; kind of a hold over from the mid 1990's) in the NL.

I hate you national media. You don't play fair. I'm taking my ball and going home.

P.S. By the way, TST was one year old as of March 25. Hooray for us. That just goes to show that this blog wasn't some stupid idea that we came up with when we were drunk and abandoned a few months in.