The Diamond Fan

Before I look into the crystal ball and predict the divisional winners for 2008, I thought I’d throw out my picks for the teams most likely to exceed expectations this season.

National League: Atlanta Braves. With all the talk about Mets and Phillies, everyone seems to have forgotten about the Braves. but they look like a solid team to me and are likely to contend throughout the season. I’m not saying they will win it, but I expect them to be in the hunt with the mets and Phillies into September. the outfield is a little weak, but Francoeur is a solid player, and Diaz in left is at least average. Kotsay is an offensive hole in center, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Josh Anderson take over at some point during the season. The infield is solid, as is McCann behind the plate. The rotation has steady veterans at the top with Smoltz, Hudson, and Glavine. Hampton has looked good this spring, and I really like young Jair Jurrjens in the fifth spot. Chuck James will give some depth when he returns from injury.
Keys to success: Keeping Chipper Jones healthy,Raphael Soriano stepping up in the closer role, and finding an answer in center field.

American League: Tampa Bay Rays. I’ve blogged about the Rays recently, so I won’t go into details here, other than to say I really like the look of this team. One indication of the quality players here: in my fantasy draft held this weekend just about every position player and most of the major pitchers were drafted. That has never come close to happening with a Tampa Bay team before.
Keys to success: Continued development of their young stars, Percival coming through in the closer role, avoid having a rash of injuries.

September and October are probably my favorite time of the year. I love both the balmy last days of summer and the crisp beginnings of autumn. I love the pennant races and the baseball playoffs, plus you have the beginning of my second favorite sport, college football. But “Closing Day” is always a melancholy time: a time for good things coming to an end. I just finished watching the Braves-Astros game, which the Astros won 3-0. The game meant nothing in terms of the pennant races, but it featured the final game of future Hall Of Famer Craig Biggio and the final regular national telecast of Braves baseball on TBS. There was a nice tribute to Biggio as he made his final at bat (a groundout) and later was taken out of the game after he had taken the field in the top of the next inning. And after the telecast, TBS aired a brief tribute to the 30 years of Braves baseball on TBS, 30 years that had made the Braves “America’s Team”, the team for people in out of the way places in Montana or rural Arkansas or North Carolina, who had no local team to cheer for.

I am not an Astros fan, but I’m going to miss Biggio, one of the guys who just seems like he’s always been around, never shining as the brightest star on the field but always steadily playing a marvelous game of baseball. The Braves are not my favorite team either, but I’m certainly going to miss their TBS broadcasts too. I’m not in a Major League market myself, so I don’t get nearly as much baseball on TV as I would like and it was always nice to be able to pick up the paper and see that, yes, there was a Braves game being telecast this evening.

Maybe I’ll find a way to fill in the gap, subscribe to MLB Extra Innings or something (I’m sure that’s what the millionaires who own the league want me to do). Or maybe I’ll just stick with subscribing to the radio feeds in the Internet. Either way, I’m feeling a loss right now. Final day of the season …. a time for endings. A time for feeling melancholy.