Prior! Where the hell is Prior?

With the exception of those who are actively paid by Major League Baseball, you'd be hard pressed to find people who can rattle off the off-season movement short of the top-tier free agents and players who have hung up the spikes.

Of course, Sports Illustrated is there to help with an annual photo gallery and the player tracker is still chugging along at MLB.com after months of use.

Feel free to wander around over at the MLB site to see for yourself just how many veteran players are scrambling to call the cable company tomorrow to get their MLB Extra Innings package hooked up so they can catch some games.

In the interest of saving time, here are what Chicago fans of both teams need to know with Opening Day less than 24 hours away.

Cubs fans should know that:

* Wade Miller signed a minor league contract
* Daryle Ward and the team reached a mutual option
* Scott Eyre exercised his option
* Jacque Jones and Omar Infante switched lockers when Jones headed to Detroit
* Craig Monroe is in Minnesota now for a player to be named later
* Kerry Wood signed a one-year deal and is the new closer... for now at least
* Jason Kendall jumped the border and will backstop the Brewers this year
* Will Ohman and Infante were shipped to Atlanta for Jose Ascanio. I need to return my new Infante jersey
* Cliff Floyd is now in Tampa playing with the new-look Rays
* Kosuke Fukudome - once again, Foo-koo-doh-may - signed his four-year deal on Dec. 19.
* Mark Prior is now a San Diego Padere
* Angel Pagan headed to the Mets for two minor leaguers
* Jon Lieber came back to the Cubs from the Phillies
* Steve Trachsel was invited to Spring Training by the Orioles. I was, too. So was Babe Ruth's corpse.
* Alex Cintron was asked to join the North Side/South Side club by coming over from the White Sox - and was then released
* Reed Johnson signed a one-year deal

Also of note in the Central:

Milwaukee Brewers:
Mike Cameron (formerly of the Padres)
Eric Gagne (Red Sox)
David Riske (Royals)

Houston Astros:
Miguel Tejada (Orioles)
Kaz Matsui (Rockies)
Darin Erstad (White Sox)

Lost:
Adam Everett and Mike Lamb (Twins)
Brad Lidge (Phillies)
Chris Burke and Chad Qualls (Diamondbacks)

Released:
Woody Williams

St. Louis Cardinals:
Swapped Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus (Blue Jays)
Cesar Izturis (Pirates)

Cincinnati Reds:
Francisco Cordero (Brewers)
Josh Fogg (Rockies)
Dusty Baker (manager from ESPN)

Pittsburgh Pirates:
Doug Mientkiewicz (Yankees)

And for the White Sox fans:

* Juan Uribe signed a one-year deal (and was waived this week)
* Jon Garland was traded to the Angels for Orlando Cabrera
* Scott Linebrink moves from the Brewers to the South Side
* Erstad headed to Houston
* Nick Swisher joins the team from Oakland... not that he was even on the trading block, but what Kenny wants, Kenny gets. He's a rebel, a gunslinger, just like Brett Favre
* Ryan Sweeny heads to Oakland with two other players in the Swisher trade
* Alexei Ramirez joins the ballclub after playing in Cuba
* Octavio Dotel is signed after pitching in Atlanta
* Mike Myers is invited to Dodgers camp, Scott Podsednik is invited by the Rockies and Craig Wilson heads off with the Reds
* David Aardsma is sent to Boston for two young arms
* Tomo Ohka heads over from Seattle
* Josh Fields will start the season in AAA as Kenny Williams works his magic
* Third base coach Razor Shines is fired for a performance not as awesome as his name

Also of note in the Central:

Detroit Tigers:
Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera (Marlins)
Edgar Renteria (Braves)

Cleveland Indians:
Jason Tyner (Twins), Jorge Julio (Rockies), Scott Elarton ( and Brendan Donnelly (Red Sox) are all signed to minor league contracts
Masahide Kobayashi (Japan)

Minnesota Twins:
Lamb and Everett (Astros)
Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett are sent to Tampa for Delmon Young and Brendan Harris
Livan Hernandez (Diamondbacks)
Monroe (Cubs)

Lost:
Johan Santana (Mets)
Carlos Silva (Mariners)
Sidney Ponson (Rangers)
Matthew LeCroy (A's)
Torii Hunter (Angels)
Lew Ford (Japan)

Kansas City Royals:
Jose Guillen (Mariners)
Miguel Olivo (Marlins)
Brett Tomko (Padres)

(Image from: SeoulDelight.wordpress.com)

National League Preview - 2008

After years of sifting though press releases to figure out which were total garbage - and years before that spent transcribing every useless fax to have extra "just in case" copy - I get a cheap thrill by trying to deconstruct news cycles and media blitzes to try and figure out what the angle is.

Case in point is watching commercials for the upcoming season, which are frontloaded with NL talent before getting to the AL East standby reel towards the end. While it's a good idea for the league to hard sell a fighting chance for the kids in the National League, the talent is certainly there.

Where the NL lags is building competitive teams year in and year out. While talent rises to the top, aside from Atlanta's run, no National League team really stands apart as building a team for the long haul. Say what you will about the Yankees, Red Sox and Angels and their spending habits, but their teams are performing most years.

While it's nice that most of the Top 10 Fantasy Players in this year's draft are National League products - I'll refer to the SportsOverdose.com link from the other day - which has its ten best consisting of:

Alex Rodriguez
Hanley Ramírez
David Wright
Miguel Cabrera
José Reyes
Matt Holliday
Chase Utley
Jimmy Rollins
Albert Pujols
Johan Santana

I think it's interesting that the Mets field a trio of Wright, Reyes and Santana and the Phillies have Utley and Rollins (and Ryan Howard) as the National League tries to get a foothold in the dynasty-making business.

While teams like Chicago and New York are proving they're willing to spend for wins and Arizona shocked everyone when their youth movement gained traction last fall, it has to make National League fans feel a little better with multiple paths back to respectability on a national level.

NL East

The Sexy Pick: The Mets have to put things together one of these years and signing Santana to shut down games in the National League can't hurt. While my man crush on Santana is well-documented here (oh, the intangibles this man will bring to Shea!) I truly feel that having that type of impact isn't too much to ask for the premiere pitcher in baseball.

Then again we have the recent history of failure in 2006 and 2007.

The Smart Money Pick: Phillies to repeat, regardless of the Mets and their growing payroll. As someone pointed out on one of my Johan Santana posts, he's just one man on a team and he'll only play every fifth game at best. Brad Lidge is an upgrade on paper, but he's already injured and will miss the season opener.

My Picks:

Philadelphia Phillies (1st 89-73)
New York Mets (2nd 88-74)
Washington Nationals (4th 73-89)
Atlanta Braves (3rd 84-78)
Florida Marlins (5th 71-91)

NL Central

The Sexy Pick: Chicago again this year. Sure, they won the division last year, but were rushed out of the playoffs when the offense fell apart and the Cubs were outclassed from the first pitch.

They've added a Japanese import (Kosuke Fukudome) and have reshuffled the lineup to inject a little youth as they did during last season's push.

The reality is that the bullpen is still a work in progress with Kerry Wood moving in and Ryan Dempster moving out and those questions will need to be answered before the Cubs can be considered a true contender for the Central title, much less as World Series champs.

The Smart Money Pick: Milwaukee nearly took the Central last year and have spent the offseason repositioning their players to put Ryan Braun in left field and Bill Hall at third base. The key pieces from last year return and the bullpen looks good on paper, if not in practice.

There's a serviceable rotation in place that's primed for a mid-season pickup to push them through August and September, but as long as the Brewers' bats don't go into a prolonged slump, the team should have the Central this year with wins to spare.

My Picks:

Milwaukee Brewers (2nd 83-79)
Chicago Cubs (1st 85-77)
Houston Astros (4th 73-89)
Cincinnati Reds (5th 72-90)
St. Louis Cardinals (3rd 78-84)
Pittsburgh Pirates (6th 68-94)

NL West

The Sexy Pick: The Diamondbacks to build on last year's success and repeat as NL West champs with a young, talented team. Add Dan Haren in the offseason to shore up the pitching rotation and Arizona looks loaded for the next few years.

The Smart Money Pick: The Rockies were a bit of a surprise in last year's playoffs, riding a relatively unknown group of players to the World Series. If they can hold off Arizona and to a lesser extent, Los Angeles, there's no good reason that Colorado won't make a return to the playoffs. I'm pretty excited to see what kind of a difference the confidence gained in last year's playoffs makes this year for the Rockies.

For what it's worth, I don't think the Padres are going to be as improved as they're hoping to be in 2008. I guess I have a hard time taking a team seriously when it plans to start Jim Edmonds in center at this point in his career.

My Picks:

Colorado Rockies (2nd 90-72)
Arizona Diamondbacks (1st 90-73)
Los Angeles Dodgers (4th 82-80)
San Diego Padres (3rd 89-74)
San Francisco Giants(5th 71-91)

The Round Up

My best guess for 2008 comes down to the Phillies, Brewers and Rockies with a total shot in the dark for which team will make it in as the Wild Card. I'm going to go with Arizona there, for the simple reason that with the Diamondbacks playing the Dodgers, Padres and Giants all year, they'll be able to fatten up their win totals for October.

(Photo from AntiqueAthlete.com)

American League Preview - 2008

For the record, I just copied and pasted last year's preview template because I wanted to reuse the formatting that looked so stellar last season, so if this looks familiar, that's why.

The funny thing is that much of the breakdowns from last year are still in place, only amped up a little bit. The Red Sox and Yankees are stacked as usual, only a little more so. The Tigers, who I tabbed as last year's smart pick in the AL Central are the smart pick there again, only more so. The AL West is another murky shootout again this year, with beefed up lineups for the Angels and Mariners.

So, the more things change, the more they stay the same, but with legitimate contenders rising in the West, and perennial doormats in Kansas City and Tampa Bay taking steps to move out of the basement, the refrain I'm hearing in a lot of preview pieces is that the era of easy wins from the usual also-rans is drawing to a close.

Will there be a few teams that completely go in the tank? Sure there will, there always are, but at the base level, the thought process is solid. Maybe teams don't take 75 percent of each series in Kansas City any more, thus dropping the overall win totals for the division leaders. Whether that actually shows up in 85- to 90-win division champs remains to be seen, but on the surface, it's easier for the team-specific bloggers to say nice things this year about all of their teams.

Even those teams that suck.

AL East

The Sexy Pick: Red Sox to repeat as champs. The core and more have been kept together - as opposed to 2005, which saw roughly half of the starting rotation bail out after the World Series - and it's not much of a stretch to say that the team is still upgrading with their youth movement from last October. Even pitching injuries haven't slowed Boston much, with Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester ready to take over as Curt Schilling heals and Bartolo Colon plays himself out of the majors.

(Update: Hey, look, I'm a genius at prognostication!)

The Smart Money Pick: This honestly has to be the Red Sox again. The big divide is whether they will win it in a runaway, or have to fight it out with the Yankees, a beefed up Blue Jays and Tampa Bay, which looks ready to be more competitive than they have been in the past.

Bonus Coverage: This is the division most likely to see the gap in win totals closed, with Tampa and Toronto leveling the playing field with New York and Boston. Tampa has added Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza from Minnesota via a trade and will bring blue chip prospect Evan Longoria in at third base. Garza joins Scott Kazmir and James Shields to provide a viable 1-2-3 in their rotation and their trademark strength in the outfield is in place as well.

This will be the year that teams get nervous when playing the Rays.

My Picks (with last year's final standing and record):

Boston Red Sox (1st 96-66)
New York Yankees (2nd 94-68)
Toronto Blue Jays (3rd 83-79)
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (5th 66-96)
Baltimore Orioles (4th 69-93)

AL Central

The Sexy Pick: Cleveland. Budding players, emerging stars and a stunning lack of concern for the problems with their closer position. That's word-for-word what I said last year and it holds true with a small substitution.

The closer situation seems cleaner - somehow Joe Borowski keeps putting up the numbers and this year doesn't feature a last-minute retirement from the consensus closer - but the starting rotation seems weak. The team's official depth chart has seven starters and once you get past C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona you have Paul Byrd, Jake Westbrook, Aaron Laffey and Cliff Lee.

This is still the team that put Boston on the ropes in last year's playoffs and held off Detroit to win the division. No reason they can't do that again.

The Smart Money Pick: Detroit Tigers. In becoming the mini-Yankees, Detroit has assembled a serviceable All-Star team and landed one and a half major players in Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. It remains to be seen whether or not Willis gets back on track as the young gun he was a few years ago, but with the Tigers behind him in the field instead of the Marlins, he can't do any worse.

Add Edgar Renteria at short and the Tigers are the favorite in the weak AL Central.

Bonus Coverage: The Sporting News has the division picked as Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Kansas City and Minnesota. Good for you, Royals, you've arrived. Minnesota fans shouldn't expect much this year as they continue their slide into their new ballpark with Joe Mauer and the Rochester Red Wings. As much as they've proven in the past that they "find ways to win" it's a lot tougher without your signature player and the top left-handed pitcher in the game.

My Picks:

Detroit Tigers (2nd 88-74)
Cleveland Indians (1st 96-66)
Chicago White Sox (4th 72-90)
Minnesota Twins (3rd 79-83)
Kansas City Royals (5th 69-93)

AL West

The Sexy Pick: The Mariners addition of Erik Bedard gives them an immediate ace at the top of the rotation, with Felix Hernandez and Jarrod Washburn filling in at two and three. Carlos Silva and Miguel Bautista should worry Seattle fans at the bottom of that rotation.

The Smart Money Pick: While Seattle is taking the conservative approach of building a winning team, the Angels are trying to win now. Owner Arte Moreno wasn't on board for their World Series run, which has to eat him up and it's interesting to see the team pursing free agents as they make serious runs at the championship each year.

Torii Hunter is a solid pick up, Jon Garland is a big name who has never performed well in his new home stadium (lifetime ERA of 4.94, roughly a half a run higher than his career numbers). The Angels will need to get off the line quickly, despite pitching injuries to start the season.

My Picks:
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (1st 94-68)
Seattle Mariners (2nd 88-74)
Texas Rangers (4th 75-87)
Oakland A's (3rd 76-86)

The Round Up:

The Red Sox out of the East, the Tigers in the Central and the Angels out West. For the Wild Card, I have to go with Cleveland, based on how well they did last year and the fact that the AL East tends to eat its young with the division beating the hell out of each other. With the gap in the East closing as the Central is widening, I think the numbers will fall in place for the Indians.

(Photo from: GasolineAlleyAntiques.com)

In the interest of full disclosure

With both league previews officially posted, it's always fun to show just how dumb I can be on a consistent basis.

You can check my 2006 Final Standings or my 2007 previews for the National and American leagues.

Yeah, yikes.