MLB Bullets Gives You A Preview

Last night I made pizza for dinner. My daughter looked at it and said “Can I have frozen peas instead?” (And no, this isn’t about my cooking.)

I have a very strange child.

It’s MLB Preview time!

• My colleagues at SB Nation have made things easy today for both you and me. Head on over there right now and read the complete 2017 Season Preview. From the photo they used, it seems like Kris Bryant is happy that the preview is now out. Anyway, read that piece now and my job is done for two more days.
• OK, OK. A few more just so no one thinks I’m lazy, even though I am. ESPN.com has this preseason power rankings that gives a best case and worst case scenario for each team. I’ll give you one guess who is ranked number one and what the Cubs “best-case” scenario is.
• However, Jayson Stark goes through each team and explains why they won’t win the World Series. I wonder how much research went into determining why the Padres won’t win the World Series.
• Baseball America does a roundtable season preview.
• David Schoenfield breaks down how to build a World Series contender in five easy steps. First, collect underpants. Second through fourth: ???? Five: Win World Series.
• Sports Illustrated talked to scouts to get their anonymous take on each major league team.
• Dieter Kurtenbach has two stories: one on five teams that will win more games in 2017 than they did in 2016 and one on five teams that will win fewer.
• Will Leitch writes a long, detailed breakdown of the 2017 Cardinals. He said he wrote it as a Cardinals fan and that only Cardinals fans should read it, but what is he going to do to you if you do read it? Make you eat St. Louis pizza? Gross, but I don’t see how he can make you do that.
• Jon Heyman reports that the Cards and Yadier Molina are getting closer to agreeing to a contract extension.
• Ted Berg has an MLB Under-25 All-Star Team.
• Mark Feinsand presents a “Plan B” for every team in the NL East in case their “Plan A” doesn’t work out. Since the Phillies plan is to be awful and get a good draft pick, I guess “Plan B” should be what happens if they’re actually good. (reads article) Nope, I guess not.
• Jordy McElroy thinks that Francisco Lindor is the “next face of baseball.” Could be. He’s darn good. I’m not sure why you’d pick him over, say, Manny Machado however. Or Kris Bryant.
• Anthony Castrovince ranks the top-5 starting pitching rotations in baseball. The Cubs are somewhere on this list.
• Castrovince ranked the Mets as number one, but that assumes health. The shaky health of the Mets starting rotation is one reason why the durability of Noah Syndergaard is so important, writes John Perrotto.
• Eno Sarris looks at what the Yankees should do with the back end of their starting rotation.
• Steven Goldman thinks the Yankees should just trade for Jose Quintana and then they wouldn’t have to worry about the back end.
• White Sox reliever David Robertson says that he’s not going to worry about the trade rumors surrounding him.
• Jeremy Dorn thinks the Dodgers should at least consider just releasing Scott Kazmir.
• Ben Lindbergh writes yet another story about the coming “Andrew Miller” revolution where teams will use their best reliever in high-leverage situations, but what makes this one different is that he tries to find a candidate from each team to perform in Miller’s role.
• James Wagner writes about how Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson incorporates large amounts of water into his training regimen.
• You may have heard that the Oakland Raiders are moving to Las Vegas. With the Warriors also moving to San Francisco in 2018, the Athletics are getting ready to be the only game in town.
• The A’s have got some nice street art going on for them in Oakland.
• Mike Axisa explains why MLB is unlikely to put a team in Las Vegas anytime soon. Really, the only one that matters is “It’s not big enough.” The NFL could make money in Billings, Montana. They already make a fortune in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The NHL is just stupid, although they don’t need to generate as much money to turn a profit. They’re still stupid. They already have a team in Phoenix that is on the brink of insolvency every year.
• The Braves have backtracked and will now allow outside food into their new stadium, meaning that the (ham-sandwich-wielding) terrorists have won.
• The Reds claimed former Brewers infielder Scooter Gennett off of waivers. Gennett is from Cincinnati, so that’s nice for him.
• The Rays acquired outfielder Peter Bourjos from the White Sox (yes, I had to look that up) for a player to be named later or cash.
• Jeff Sullivan argues that the strike zone is already shrinking.
• The Braves broadcast team (yep, including Chip Caray) thought that Tigers outfielder JaCoby Jones was the same person as former NFL wide receiver Jacoby Jones.
• And finally, there were some baseball video games released this week, but I don’t think any of them top this version of “Duck Hunt” starring Randy Johnson.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.