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Take a stroll with me through the My Opinion on Sports Empire!

With the Major League Baseball season just days away make sure you are caught up on our Q&A’s with the team blogs whom we have selected as division winners. Most recently was Amazin’ Avenue and the New York Mets.

Mets Q&A with Amazin’ Avenue

Los Angeles Angels Q&A

Minnesota Twins Q&A

New York Yankees Q&A

Giving Bonds His Juice Wasn’t Enough for Sweeney

It appears that the San Francisco Giants and Mark Sweeney are about to part ways. Known more recently for being involved in the Barry Bonds’ amphetamines circus than for his .251 batting average last season Sweeney has been in competition with Jason Ellison and Lance Niekro for an opening day roster spot.

NL Central Preview

Steve and I ran into a little snag working on our National League previews called time. Mostly it’s my fault because Steve can’t add to what I don’t send him. Anyway the result was us setting down at the computers and hammering out the NL Central on IM in PTI fashion. Here it is uncensored and fully edited of the typo's:

Chicago Cubs
Matt: Strength?
Steve: Soriano and that’s it! You have Derrek Lee with a bum foot and I don’t see Prior and Woods being anywhere close to an ace
Matt: I'm hearing rumors that woods will be relief anyway.
Steve: Can't get 20 KO in relief. It’ll be good for the cubs, they don’t have a bullpen as is.
Matt: We definitely know that pitching is a weakness
Matt: I actually think that Lee will have a decent season
Steve: Cubs better hope so
Steve: And having Pinella as the manager, they might have a few shows of a dugout tossing.
Matt: Did they upgrade the manager position or get worse switching from Baker to Pinella?
Steve: Actually, better, Baker didn’t do much to help out the cubs and Pinella always has a way to win.
Matt: I would say their entire outfield is a strength. LF Matt Murton hit .297 with 62 RBI's last season.
Steve: I agree with you on that, who do they have in the infield?
Matt: We talked about Lee but 2B Mark DeRosa is solid as well, .296, 74 RBI's
Matt: The infield as a whole looks solid except for short stop.

A New #1
In five Nextell Cup Races Jeff Gordon has finished as low as 12th and as high as 2nd (twice). Despite starting out twice in first place Gordon has yet to finish in the top position this season.

Around the Empire

First things first, if you haven't already done so sign up for the March Madness contest before the opening tip tomorrow.

National League East Preview (Complete Preview at My Opinion on Baseball)

Atlanta Braves – Last Year’s Record 79 – 83, 3rd in Division.
Strength: Infield hitting, the Braves infield hit 263 RBI’s last season.
Weakness: Pitching, the Braves Ace is an aging John Smoltz who had a 3.49 ERA last season. Behind him is Tim Hudson with an ERA of 4.86.
Keys to success: Braves need a third pitcher to have a solid starting rotation, offense needs to wake up and be a dominate force
What to watch for: Hudson leads the Braves with 19 wins and the Joneses
Red Flag: They no longer have the pitching of the Braves of the 90s
Projected Finish: 3rd 78-86

Where’s Junior? (Complete Story at My Opinion on NASCAR)

While Jimmie Johnson was winning his third race in a row in Las Vegas Dale Earnhardt Jr. was finishing his first Nextel Cup race in his third attempt.

"We're not happy about it, but we're keeping our heads up," Earnhardt said. "We've had some rough starts before and came back strong. We were 38th in the points after two races in 2003, and we came back to finish third.”

Sunday’s 11th place finish Sunday in Las Vegas moved Junior to 28th place from 40th after crashing at Daytona and blowing an engine in California. While the 11th place finish was a welcome relief for a team who hadn’t even finished yet it could have, and should have, been better.

In the Forum

Finally, we've got a little NASCAR talk

Doesn't matter that we're only in Spring Training it's Yankees/Red Sox

Around the Empire

Its time to take our weekly stroll through the My Opinion on Sports Empire.

Time is running out to sign up for the My Opinion on Sports Fantasy Baseball League. The registration will close on Sunday. Sign-up here!

My Opinion on Baseball has the AL West Preview posted. Here's a sneak peek!

American League West Preview

Los Angeles Angels – Last Year’s Record 89 – 73, 2nd in Division.
Strength: DH, the Angels are deep with designated hitters and they went for a combined 70 home runs last season.
Weakness: Infield batting, the Angels infield only hit .242 last season.
What to watch for: Gary Matthews Jr career after the steroid investigation
Keys to success: Strong pitching and dependable offense, only team to have a winning record versus the Yankees since 1998.
Red Flag: Name changes to California Angels in the Anaheim section of Los Angelas, and fans stop attending games.
Predicted Finish: 1st 93-69

We are still looking for a writer but My Opinion on NASCAR has launched and here is a sample of the first post.


Time to Pimp Jarrett’s Ride

The UPS Store® is kicking off its third annual Toys for Tots campaign and celebrating NASCAR legend Dale Jarrett’s new racing team and car with the “Design Dale’s New Ride” coloring contest – inviting kids ages 5-12 to design the special paint scheme for The UPS Store /Toys for Tots #44 Camry.

If you are interested in writing for My Opinion on NASCAR please contact me for complete details.

On the Message Boards

Las Vegas Motor Speedway 3-11-2007
NASCAR RACING 2007
AL East Predictions
Yankees vs Red Sox, The Rivalry
Joey Porter

Around the Empire

Here’s what’s going on around the My Opinion on Sports Empire.

The My Opinion on Sports Fantasy Baseball League is forming right now. You need to hurry and sign-up before all the slots are filled.

We are still looking for a writer to help us launch My Opinion on NASCAR.

My Opinion on Baseball has the AL East and Central previews posted. Here's a sample.

American League Central Preview
Chicago White Sox – Last Year’s Record 90-72, 3rd in Division
Weakness: Pitching, Contreras, Buehrle, Garland, Vasquez and Floyd are all probables for the starting rotation and each of them had an ERA above 4.00 last season.
Strength: Getting on base, the White Sox starting lineup has a combined .348 on base percentage.
What to look forward too: Sox, Tigers, and Twins will be in a heated race for the division crown. Three different winners in the past three years.
Red Flag: Weaker team overall could ruin division run late in the season.
Predicted Finish: 3rd 89-73

American League East Preview


Baltimore Orioles - Last year’s record 70-92, 4th in division
Strength: Batting, the O’s starting infield smacked a combined 88 homers last season led by Miguel Tejada’s 24. Tejada also posted a .330 batting average.
Weakness: Pitching, the six possible guys for the starting rotation have a combined average ERA of 4.65. That won’t be good enough to hang with the Yankees, Red Sox or even the Blue Jays.
What to watch for: A comeback season from Tejada back by a 25 home run 80 RBI campaign.
Keys to Success: Tejada having a career season and a surprise bat in the line up.
Red Flag: Not enough talent to have a winning season.
Projected Finish: 4th 71-91

The Baseball Forum has threads going about fantasy baseball, the AL East and Central.

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