Evan Longoria will be the starter at third for the Tampa Bay Rays.

The NCAA Tournament is underway, and the only thing predictable was the 1 seeds destroying the 16 seeds.  Yesterday, was not only the most exciting day in recent tourney history, it made history.  For the first time in Tournament history one site had four lower seeds beat a higher seed.  The Last second heroics busted some brackets, but what was more amazing than the buzzer beating shot in the Western Kentucky game, was the pass made by guard Tyrone Brazelton.  Most point guards will drive that ball as close to the 3-pt line as possible then make a last second off balance shot, but no he had presence of mind to drop the ball off to a shooter that was squared up and ready for the ball.  That to me is the play of the day, not the shot, the pass.  Let’s move on to the UConn game.  This game was ugly from the start; SD came out early and stood toe to toe with the basketball juggernaut, and found themselves in the lead at the half.  If there was one mistake that killed UConn it was letting SD know that they can play with the big boys.  In the Second half, UConn forced into overtime, and then the unthinkable happened with 1.2 seconds left and both stars fouled out, De’jon Jackson knocked down a long jumper for the win.  Yesterday was the day in which madness really happened.

Now that I got that out of my system, lets move on over to the diamond, where the Boston Red Sox decided to take a stand.  On Wednesday the Red Sox players voted on their own to boycott the trip to Japan because they were told that the coach’s were not going to receive their $40,000 bonus.  Everything had been worked out and agreed upon months ago, but at the last second the MLB front office changed their minds.  To me, this move was a tremendous show of respect towards a group of players that help keep the team running like a well-oiled machine.  Wednesday’s game was delayed by a few hours, but in the end they got what they wanted.  The reason that this particular part of the agreement was so important to players is that to the majority of the coaches this bonus will be almost half of their yearly salary.  Bullpen coaches and training staff don’t get the millions of dollars that the players make, most of them make less than $100,000.  As embarrassing as this was for Major League Baseball, it was something that needed to brought out into the open.

Staying in Boston, the Red Sox are looking good, but they do have some problems.  The ace of the pitching staff Josh Beckett has been bothered by back spasms and Coco Crisp is still bothered by a groin injury.  Beckett claims that he is feeling better, but you never know how long this is going to keep him out.  Beckett plans to start a minor league game on Sunday, until then it is unknown when he will rejoin the club to make his first start of the season.  The Red Sox will likely activate Crisp for the season opener, but his groin injury is still a cause for concern.  If he is needed they will put him, but they would like to keep rested.  Mike Timlin has a bum finger with stitches in it, and should be on the roster after the Japan trip, but it doesn’t look like he will be available for the Sox on Tuesday. 

Lets move on over to the Texas Rangers camp where there is a battle for the closer job underway.  Currently pitchers C.J. Wilson and Joaquin Benoit are fighting the injury bug, which could open the door for Kazuo Fukumori to start the season as the Rangers closer.  Fukumori doesn’t have the fast ball to be a dominate closer, but he has a back up slider pitch that will freeze lefties, and shatter bats of righties.  Watch for Fukumori to save 20 games for the Rangers.

In the Rays camp there has not been a decision over who is going to get the third base job yet, but Willy Aybar sitting on the bench this weekend Evan Longoria will get more at bats to prove that he is worthy of the job.  So far this spring Longoria is hitting .333 with 3 home runs and 10 RBI.  Even if Aybar is healthy I don’t think that he is going to get the job.  At best Aybar will split time at third with Longoria; Longoria will be the starter in my mind.  Look for Longoria to hit .285 with 15-20 home runs and 75 RBI.  Longoria should be considered a fantasy sleeper in all formats of fantasy baseball. 

With the regular season just a few days away, now is the best time for me to make my predictions.

AL East: Boston Red Sox

Al Central:  Detroit Tigers

AL West:  Los Angeles Angels

AL Wild Card:  Cleveland Indians

NL East:  Philadelphia Phillies

NL Central:  Chicago Cubs

NL West:  Arizona Diamondbacks

NL Wild Card: NY Mets

AL Champion: Boston Red Sox

NL Champion:  Arizona Diamondbacks

AL MVP:  Miguel Cabrera

NL MVP:  David Wright

AL Cy Young:  Justin Verlander

NL Cy Young:  Dan Haren

AL ROY:  Jacoby Ellsbury

NL ROY:  Jayson Nix

AL COY:  Francisco Liriano

NL COY:  Pedro Martinez

AL MOY:  John Mclaren

NL MOY:  Bobby Cox

World Series Winner:  Boston Red Sox (7 games)