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Ask Anthony: Season 2

BY ANTHONY RIEBER | anthony.rieber@newsday.com

11:14 PM EDT, April 1, 2007

Welcome to Season 2 of Ask Anthony and welcome to the 2007 baseball season. One of those is a huge thing, the other not so huge. We'll let you decide which is which.

If you're new to this corner of Newsday.com, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Anthony Rieber, a sports writer here who spends April-October mostly at Yankee and Shea Stadiums helping with coverage our local nines. Sometimes you'll find my work in the newspaper, sometimes you'll find it on our Yankee and Mets blogs and sometimes you'll find it here, as I try to answer your baseball questions once a week or so. They can be opinion questions, factual questions, serious questions, silly questions. Whatever makes you happy. I'm here to serve.

Before we get to this week's questions, I hope you had a chance to check out our baseball preview section. In the printed section, we all made our picks for the season, and I decided to go out on a limb a little. In the spirit of Ken Davidoff, our fearless baseball columnist who once predicted Richard Hidalgo as the AL MVP, I decided to avoid picking the Yankees, Mets or Red Sox, since they are pretty much the favorites to win the World Series. Where's the fun in that?

I tried to think of a team, like the Cardinals or the Tigers, who would leap out of nowhere. (How many of you had the Cards to win it all last season? Didn't think so. Me neither.)

So my picks for the divisions and beyond are as follows:

AL EAST: Yankees AL CENTRAL: White Sox AL WEST: A's WILD CARD: Red Sox

NL EAST: Mets NL CENTRAL: Brewers NL WEST: Dodgers WILD CARD: Cubs

WORLD SERIES: CUBS over A's

Think I'm crazy? My feeling is the Cubs have a lot of talent, a terrific manager in Lou Piniella, and are coming off a horrible season, so they're motivated. All that matters these days is getting into the playoffs; once you're in, anyone can win, as the Cardinals proved. So that's my pick.

What's your pick? E-mail me at anthony.rieber@newsday.com and we'll discuss them in a future mailbag.

On to some questions:

Q: Anthony...a three-prong question regarding Bonds...any chance he gets indicted before he breaks Aaron's record...if he approaches the record, any chance opposing pitchers will pitch around him...will Aaron and Selig take a vow of silence...Bob B.

A: BobYes, I think there's a chance he gets indicted before he breaks Aaron's recordbut the larger question to me is, how long are they going to go after this guy? I mean, either indict him already or move onYes, I think opposing pitchers will pitch around him as he gets closer because a) no one wants to give up the moneyball and b) the Giants have no one batting behind him (Ray Durham in the cleanup spot? Please.)I don't know what Aaron will do. I think that's a huge part of the story. What would you do if you were Aaron? As for Selig, he'll say something self-serving and bland and try to blend into the background. He's good at that.

Q: Good Morning Anthony. Lately all the writers and "people in the know" are saying Brian Cashman has elevated the Yankees' prospects to maybe about 5th best in the minors. My question is, while there has been improvement, how good are these prospects, in your opinion? And, how soon can, we the fans, begin seeing some of that talent coming to play in the Bigs? Joe C., Trumbull, Conn.

A: Hiya Joe. How good are these prospects? I don't know. No one does, not even Brian Cashman, the writers and "people in the know." When it's reported that the Yankees have more prospects, that's just a way of saying they have more pitchers now with the ability to reach the majors and be really good than they used to. Whether Phil Hughes or Dellin Betances or Joba Chamberlain or Ian Kennedy or Chris Garcia or Tyler Clippard or J. Brent Cox or Mark Melancon or Humberto Sanchez or Kevin Whelan or Anthony Claggett or Ross Ohlendorf become the next Andy Pettitte, Chien-Ming Wang or Mariano Rivera depends on the individual gifts of each young man. Let's say two of the above-mentioned pitchers become 15-game winners and two more become effective relievers. That's pretty much all you really need, right? As to when you, the fans, can begin seeing some of that talentI would say end of this season, beginning of next.

Q: Even if A-Rod were to carry the Yankees into the playoffs on the strength of a Triple Crown season; hit .500 in the post-season; and then in the 7th game of the World Series hit for the cycle and come up in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs and the bases loaded and the Yankees down by 3 runs, if he then hit a 400-foot game-ending, Series-winning grand slam "home run" -- except that the centerfielder robbed him by making an all-time great catch over the top of the outfield wall, falling into the stands while holding onto the ball I'm afraid that many fans would still call A-Rod a "loser" and a "choker" who never got a clutch hit when they needed it most, like Derek Jeter would! A-Rod just can't ever "win" with Yankee fans and their love for Jeter. Richard S., Plainview

A: Maybe. But if Jeter had hit that ball, the centerfielder would have dropped it before he fell into the stands. That's just the way life is, my friend, and it's one of the reasons why A-Rod will not be a Yankee this time next year.