The Duke, Yabu, Ethy, Sarly, and Cruz would each have a spot on most rotations. We have more than enough backups to whip Seattle's ass, and their mule for that matter.

Here are a few:

Conor Jackson has spent half a season in AA. THere would have to be injury problems for him to even get called up. (as in both Gonzo AND Green/Cruz Jr) They already have raw but talented center fielder and good hitting utility man Scott Hairston. No need to rush him.

The angels rotation is so good that ever growing Colon and his 5 ERA is the number one. that 3 otu of five pitchers had an ERA of worse than 4.64 last year. And Escobar and Byrd had a 3.93 and 3.94, respectively. Just Great.

Mariners rotation is not good enough. Moyer and Meche had ERA's over five. Pineiro, a good bet to rebound, had a 4.67 (he's a good bet, but you can't discard last year). Ryan Franklin was at 4.9 and their best ERA was part time starter  (rookie) Bobby Matdrisch with 3.27 (thats by memory).

I find it hard to believe that Huston STreet will win rookie of the year. If he finishes with a 2 ERA and 20 saves, maybe. But with McPherson, Swisher, Blanton it will be pretyy hard.

Atlanta is so good that their best offensive force from last year was replaced with Raul Mondesi and Brian Jordan. I'm not discarding them don't get me wrong. But that won't win the WS.

Horacio Ramirez is not a number one on half the teams in baseball. Sorry.

How can Houston finish ahead of St.Louis, the defending NL Champs? Clemens will regress, Bags and Biggio will continue their declines, they lost Carlos Beltran, the man that led them to the playoffs. Carlos Hernandez the underachiever won't help.

Why is Greene everything we wished Crosby was? I couldn't disagree more.

Detroit ahead of Minnesota? How? You can't just assume Santana won't be as good. He really is THAT good. Detroit is not good enough yet. Cmon. Their pitching stinks. Bonderman is their only good pitcher (and thats betting that he evolves into the ace he is projected as).

Cleveland does not have the best pitching. It continues to be Minnesota who is solid in the rotation, as well as one of the best bullpens. If Bonderman pulls a Santana, that still doesn't give them the best pitching. Cleveland still has a shaky bullpen, and no real Ace.

I like your pick of Phil Nevin as MVP though.

I don't see the Braves doing much, actually (wild acrd at best); big drop off in offense, yes Hudson will have a huge year, though (I see him as NL Cy Young winner).

NY/BOS a trade-off-- Texas does better than Seattle.  In terms of the A's; I'm too emotionally invested,it's hard to see clearly (starting p[itching will determine everything in OAK).

SF collapses, true. Angels also collapse (although maybe not until the playoffs).

Cards clobber the Cubs in the NL Central (Carpenter, Marquis, Mulder and Morris is not too shabby of a rotation, plus the Cubs have a disastrous bullpen and the Cards still the NLs best offense).

I see FLA winning the East, and either FLA or STL taking the AL East winner this year in the WS.

If the A's finish ahead of Seattle, I'll mail $20 to the charity of your choice.

Horacio's was around 85-87% last year, which was the primary cause of his ridiculously low ERA.  This is not something that's repeatable, it's just a matter of luck and circumstances.  Watch Horacio's ERA balloon to 4.00+ this year.  The statement that he would be a #1 on most teams is so false, it does even warrant discussion.  

Since the A's are deeper in all areas this year.

Since the A's are underdogs to do it all.

Gotta go underdogs,
Gotta go A's!
A's all the way!

Oh yeah! BB managing for the 3rd richest owners in MLB doesn't hurt either.

ANers take note:
The rosters that open the season are rarely the rosters that finish it. I expect A's to benefit from some expert "tweaking" by mid season if not sooner. A couple tweaks and this roster does it all.

• A's MVP Chavvy
  
• A's best record by starter; Haren. As #3 H makes efficient work of opposing pitcher match ups. Blanton handles #4 better than expected.
  
• A's best ERA by starter; Zito! Has to! He must compete against other teams #1 starters. AL teams hit him for half as many home runs as '04. Major difference!
  
• A's ROY; Swish. Swish finds his groove and favorite seats and cranks out 17 home runs by all star break. Adds only 8 more bin the 2nd half after opposing pitchers adjust.
  
• A's All star game; Kotsay, Byrnes, Chavvy, Haren, Zito (Mgr picks from Kendall, Durazo, Dotel &  Ellis)

AL Rookie-of-the-year -- Swish

NL Champion: Florida in 7
World Champion: A's in 7

AL West
   1. Oakland
   2. Los Angeles
   3. Texas
   4. Seattle

AL Central
   1. Cleveland
   2. Detroit
   3. Minnesota
   4. Kansas City
   5. Chicago
Cleveland has the best team in the division

AL East
   1. Baltimore
   2. Boston
   3. New York
   4. Toronto
   5. Tampa Bay
As said above; the league change, DH's, 7-8 games vs division rivals Boston and O's, and more injuries render Big Unit a Big Bust (NYC Media loves his losses more than the wins!). Boston slips because starters no big deal and Foulkes falls mightily. Baseball G*ds smile down on Miggy & the boys (... such a "little guy"!)

NL West
   1. San Diego
   2. Los Angeles
   3. San Francisco
   4. Arizona
   5. Colorado
Agreed! The Padres are completely under-rated

NL Central
   1. Chicago
   2. Milwaukee
   3. St. Louis
   4. Houston
   5. Cincinnati
   6. Pittsburgh
Milwaukee the 2005 "cinderella team" freed of Selig and feeling good about themselves they catch some breaks and Nat'l attention. You gotta feel good for those loyal Brewer fans! Cubs squeek it out at the end and No Karma Cards fall to #3.

NL East
   1. Florida
   2. New York
   3. Atlanta
   4. Philadelphia
   5. Washington
Florida is scary. Mets improve. Braves starters can't score runs and save games.

Greene's offensive numbers are quite a bit better than Crosby's, and that's even before you factor in that Crosby played in a basically neutral park and Greene played in a truly spectacular pitcher's park.

I didn't see Greene enough defensively to talk seriously about his vs. Crosby, but my impression of Crosby was that last year, at least, he was a good but not great major league shortstop with the glove. If Greene is even average -- I think it's fair to say that people in San Diego believe he's at least that -- his stick makes him a more valuable property than Crosby.

I think I like Ramirez over Escobar, too, but in trems of what they've done so far, you're right, Escobar would be the Opening Day starter.

Hey, cutthemullet, your arguments have a certain Bixby-ish stink to 'em. I wonder if you're another pseudonymous stalker.

Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard and one of the more distinguished members of the bar in the US, isn't part of the executive structure of the ACLU, and of course, even if he was, the ACLU is a non-profit.

In the NL MVP voting last year, Loretta and Nevin were the only Padres to get votes; pitchers like Peavy (166 innings last year; never over 200) rarely attract MVP support. While Giles is a good player and conceivably could end up playing a key role on a good team, this spring he's 15th on the Padres in RBI, so he has a ways to go before we start talking about him as anyone's MVP.

I'll stand by the notion that the Big Unit was robbed of a Cy Young last year; putting his stats next to Clemens, there's just no comparison. Shoot, I might have voted for Clemens fourth, behind Oliver Perez and Jason Schmidt, too. Saying that because Johnson got robbed, Perez will be, too, well, if you want to invest in the voters being idiots, you're welcome to it. You'd even be right some of the time.

What I actually said about Ramirez, to paraphrase, is that he could be a #1 starter on a whole bunch of teams, and he's currently penciled in as Atlanta's #5, and that that's a real sign of how strong Atlanta's pitching is. I haven't seen a single word to make me change my mind about that.