Sports 5 MLB preview: three teams to watch this season Brady Stark Team Member Wi the MLB spring training camps starting to ramp up, it’s time to start predicting. New York Yankees: We start with the most notorious team in all of sports. Hailing from the Bronx, the Yankees are easily the team with the most change and question marks coming into this season. The return of Alex Rodriguez from the year and a half suspension for using and distributing performance enhancing drugs will be at the center of the controversy. Will A-Rod be able to fit into the new team? How will the predictably poor reception that he will receive from every stadium the Yankees visit play into his on field performance? Even though Rodriguez is no stranger to pressure, the length of a full 182 game schedule might take a mental toll as he tries to rebuild his legacy. The next question about the Pinstripes is: how will they manage without arguably one of the best shortstops of all time? Last year Derek Jeter played his swan song as he retired for the game of baseball after 21 seasons with the Yankees. The Yankees did do some major damage control in response to losing their iconic shortstop by making a deal in December to acquire 25-year-old Didi Gregorious from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Gregorious is a far cry from the talent that Jeter was, but scouts have said that the young man has great potential. According to George King from the New York Post, Gregorious has the best defensive skill of any young shortstop in the MLB. The one glaring weakness that will be the biggest hole left by Jeter is his consistent hitting. Throughout his career, Jeter had a career batting average of .310. Having such a hole in the batting lineup will give opposition pitchers the ability to select the batters they want to face and which they want to walk. Prediction: If the Yankees can increased production from their pitching rotation, they will definitely be able to capture a wildcard spot in the American League conference. Toronto Blue Jays: The Toronto Blue Jays epitomize underachiever. They spent over $100 million dollars on free agents to start the 2014 campaign. Unfortunately, the Jays played to a mediocre season going four games above .500 and missing the playoffs for the 20th season in a row. General Manager Alex Anthropoulos had a busy off-season trying to change the fortunes of this struggling Franchise. The Jays made the biggest splash in the off-season by shipping out Brett Lawrie, Sean Nolin, Kevin Graveman, and Franklin Baretto to the Oakland Athletics for all-star third baseman Josh Donaldson. Donaldson appeared in 158 games last year driving in 98 runs and hitting the ball out of the park a total of 29 times. The Jays wanted to go out and get a reliable third baseman instead of relying on Lawrie, because Lawrie had been hampered by injuries the last couple of seasons. With some stability on the defensive side of the ball and some added power with the bat, the Jays can now concentrate on stringing some winning streaks together. The other trade of note came a few days later when the Jays sent underachieving pitcher J.A. Happ to the Seattle Mariners for outfielder Mitchell Saunders. Saunders had played all of his first five seasons with the Mariners. With the change of scenery, the Jays are hoping that being in the middle of the batting rotation and change of outfield position (from center to left) will spark the potential that saw him be drafted in the 11th round. The Jays did a little tinkering in the off- season when the free agent market opened up, snatching up on big name in the catching position. Russell Martin is aname that Canadian baseball fans have come to know in the past few season as he has made significant impacts on teams such as the Dodgers, the Yankees, and the Pirates. Martin signed a five year, $82 million contract with the Jays in the hopes that he can continue to be one of the best catchers in the league. The Jays are hoping that Martin can provide some offense in the latter half of the batting order, as well as having the ability to catch star pitcher R.A Dickey’s Knuckleball. The biggest head scratcher of the last few seasons is: why are the Jays sticking with John Gibbons as the manager of the team? Gibbons has a record of 462-472 in 6 seasons as the manager. The Jays brought Gibbons in to replace John Farrell in the 2013 season because he had a modicum of regular season success from 2004-2008 with the team. The Jays found out that Farrell was not the problem, as he managed the Boston Red Sox to a World Series Championship the very same season. The Jays are not likely to dramatically improve if they continue to give Gibbons chance-after-chance to turn the team around. Gibbons is on thin ice to start the season as Anthropoulos will be looking at the first sign of trouble to change to the managerial staff. Prediction: Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, they are in one of the toughest divisions in baseball with the likes of the Yankees, Rays, Red Sox, and Orioles. Don’t expect the Jays to make the promised land of the post-season. You should likely expect the firing of manager Gibbons partway through the season with Athropoulos being canned at season’s end. Seattle Mariners: The Seattle Mariners are a struggling franchise. The Mariners finally put together a winning season after going the previous five season with below .500 records. There are two keys to seeing whether the Mariners are playoff pretenders or contenders. The Mariners are in the enviable position of having a star on either side of the baseball. On defense, Seattle has one of the best pitchers in baseball. With a record of 15-6, Felix Hernandez has quickly become of the best stories in the majors. Hernandez gives the Mariners a weapon to go to when they need the other team’s bats to be silenced for the night. King Felix, as the fans at Safeco Field have dubbed him, set records multiple times this past season with the most notable being a record that was set in 1971. In 1971, New York Mets pitcher, Tom Sever, set a record with 13 straight games with going more than 7 innings of work and only allowing 2 or less runs; Felix Hernandez went 16 games. The other workhorse that the Seattle Mariners have is on the offensive side of the ball. Robinson Cano is the team’s second baseman with a canon for a bat. His career batting average is an astounding .310 with 1,832 hits in 9 seasons. The Mariners signed Cano in last year’s off-season for a mind-blowing 10 year, $240 million dollar deal. Cano did not disappoint the fans and organization as he lead the Mariners offense in every notable category. Like every team in the MLB, the Mariners used the off-season to fix their lineup, trying to plug any holes in their game that was exposed in the previous season. Gone are the likes of Justin Smoak and Michael Saunders to the Toronto Blue Jays. In their place is Baltimore Orioles slugger Nelson Cruz and pitcher J.A. Happ from the Jays. Cruz is known for the long ball, which can be very advantageous in a short ballpark, like Safeco. Cruz is a fantastic short term solution for the loss of Michael Saunders. Prediction: The Mariner’s will likely be fighting for a wildcard spot again this year. However, look for the pitching rotation and the plethora of strong bats to lead the way into the post-season. Oakland has gotten a little weaker with the exits of Donaldson and Cespedes, while the Astros are never a threat and the Royals will not have a repeat performance. Now is the time for Mariner nation to cheer for a long run into the playoffs. All in all the season is looking like an exciting one. I can’t wait to watch!