FrontRowSportsReport.com: Sports Blog

The 2008 MLB season is upon us so what better time then to lay out our predictions for this baseball season - which promises to be one for the ages. So, below are our entire predictions for the 2008 MLB season, including final standings, who makes the playoffs and who will be the 2008 MLB World Series champions.

2008 MLB Regular Season Predictions 

American League East

1. Boston Red Sox
2. New York Yankees
3. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
4. Toronto Blue Jays
5. Baltimore Orioles

American League Central

1. Detroit Tigers
2. Chicago White Sox
3. Cleveland Indians
4. Minnesota Twins
5. Kansas City Royals

American League West

1. Los Angeles Angels
2. Seattle Mariners
3. Texas Rangers
4. Oakland A’s

National League East

1. New York Mets
2. Atlanta Braves
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. Washington Nationals
5. Florida Marlins

National League Central

1. Chicago Cubs
2. Houston Astros
3. Cincinnati Reds
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Milwaukee Brewers
6. Pittsburgh Pirates

National League West

1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Colorado Rockies
3. Arizona Diamondbacks
4. San Diego Padres
5. San Francisco Giants

2008 MLB Post-season Predictions

American League Wild Card: New York Yankees
National League Wild Card:  Atlanta Braves

American League Champion: Detroit Tigers

National League Champion: New York Mets

World Series Champion: Detroit Tigers

Yes, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has a nasty curveball but I think announcer Vin Scully might have went a bit overboard in his call during the game.

Former Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Mike Lieberthal announced his retirement yesterday after 14 years in the big leagues.

“I’m done,” Lieberthal said. “I decided a couple weeks after the season ended. If Dodgers had picked up my option, I probably would have played one more year. But I didn’t want to go anywhere else.” Last year Lieberthal played in only 38 games as backup to starting catcher Russell Martin. The Dodgers declined the option on Lieberthal and signed Gary Bennett.

Lieberthal, who is 36, played 13 seasons with the Phillies and 1 with the Dodgers. Over his 14 years Lieberthal was a career .274 hitter, knocked out 150 homers and played in 2 All-Star games.

The New York Yankees payroll for the 2007 baseball season topped out at $218.3 million – a record and the highest in the league by far. The payroll record is nothing new to the Yankees as they have had the highest payroll in baseball the past 9 years. However, the Yankees also had the highest revenue of any teams - $415 million; $100 million of it had to go back to the league in the revenue-sharing plan. Hmmm that doesn’t sound like good business to me, but hey what do I know.

Following the Yankees record payroll was the World Series champions Boston Red Sox with a distant $155.4 million, the Los Angeles Dodgers with $125.6 million and the New York Mets with $120.9 million. On the flip side the 3 lowest payrolls - and no bigger shockers here - were the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with $33.1 million, the Washington Nationals with $43.3 million and the Pittsburgh Pirates with $54.4 million. All told the entire MLB payroll for 2007 was $2.71 billion – up from $2.49 billion a year before. More importantly revenue topped out at $6.07 billion – up from $5.2 billion in 2006…that is a lot of overpriced beer and hot dogs.

So what does $218.3 million buy you - 94-68 record and 2nd place in the American League East. But I guess when you can clear $100 million your are getting a good return on investment.

Don Mattingly will not be the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ next year and will be moving to a role as special assignment coach - Mike Easler will replace Mattingly as hitting coach. The Dodgers made the announcement this evening saying that the move was due to family reasons.

Mattingly released the following statement through the Dodgers: “I’m very grateful that the Dodgers have allowed me to take care of these family matters and I hope that everyone can respect our privacy during this time. I truly appreciate the support of all Dodger fans since joining the organization and I look forward to helping the team win in 2008 and beyond.” Mattingly’s agent had this to say about the former Yankees 1st basemans decision: “Donnie is prioritizing his family first. The Dodgers have been very supportive, creating a position so Don can still make a contribution to the team throughout the year!”

Mattingly was a top contender for the New York Yankees manager job once Joe Torre headed to the Dodgers. However, after Joe Girardi was given the position, Mattingly followed Torre to Los Angeles and was initially named the Dodgers hitting coach.

Big day in arbitration deals in baseball today, some stars signed some are getting closer - in total 62 of the 110 players who filed for arbitration settled on terms.  Colorado Rockies outfielder Matt Holliday and Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera agreed to deals a couple of hours before todays  deadline to swap figures, Justin Moreau, Carlos Pena and Scott Kazmir are some other big names that avoided arbitration.

Holliday was the NL MVP runner-up last year and agreed to a multi-year deal ( a rarity in arbitration) worth $23 million over two years. Holliday made $4.4 million last year. Cabrera and the Tigers agreed to a 1 year deal worth $11.3 million.

On the other side, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and Los Angeles Angels closer Francisco (F-Rod) Rodriguez were not able to agree on terms and swapped figures with their respective teams in arbitration. Howard and the Phillies are $3 million apart and F-Rod and the Angels are $2.5 million apart. Those players and teams that went to arbitration will have their hearings during the first few weeks of February in St. Petersburg Florida.

Additional players who reached terms with their teams are:  Chris Capuano, Juan Rivera, Jose Bautista, Jimmy Gobble, Jason Kubel,  Jonny Gomes, Marcus Thames, Tim Redding, Matt Treanor, Joe Crede, Jason Frasor, Alex Rios, Brian Tallet and Gustavo Chacin.

The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to make some big off-season moves, this time they are bringing in center fielder Andruw Jones. Last night a preliminary agreement was reached with Jones that would give him $36.2 million and 2 years - which would give Jones the fifth-highest average salary in the major leagues.

Jones is a five time all-star who has one 10 straight Gold Gloves but is going off a horrible season where he only batted .222 but had 26 home runs and 94 RBI’s. Jones is a career .263 hitter so you don’t look to him for average, he does usually give a good deal more pop at the plate. Jones hit a career high 51 homers and 123 RBI’s in 2005 when he was named the NL MVP.

I would have guess that a team who singed Jones would have gotten a discount or put more performance bonuses into the contract based on last year. But, obviously the Dodgers are looking at Jones’ previous stats and the potential power he can bring to a club that needs all they can get.