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It’s about that time again. Pitchers and catchers are on the verge of reporting. Spring Training is right around the corner. Major League Baseball’s Opening Night is less than 50 days away. For one reason or another I’m more antsy than usual for a new MLB season. 

I have a plan for the lead up to the 2012 season. The plan? A preview of each team.

This is how it will work (if everything goes right). Starting next Monday (2/20) for the next six weeks I will post a preview for one team Monday through Friday. Each preview will essentially contain five elements:

1. A write-up of each team as it heads into the 2012 season. This will touch on how the team fared last season, what its prospects are for 2012 and my overall feelings about the roster and where the organization is headed.

2. A list of the organization’s on the field moves during the offseason.

3. The projected opening day roster. This is divided by starting lineup, starting rotation, bullpen, and bench.

4. Variables: Keys to how the team will ultimately fare in 2012. These are things that can cause the team to do better or worse than expected.

5. Fantasy implications: How players factor in fantasy baseball wise.

The order of the previews goes from worst to first according to last season’s final regular season record and by playoff performance. Run differential was used as the tiebreaker for teams that finished with the same record. Playoff teams will make up the final eight previews and are ordered by the round in which teams were eliminated. Regular season record was the tiebreaker for playoff teams. Below is the preview schedule including a predictions post scheduled for the day before the first regular season game in the United States:

I decided to keep the schedule a little simpler and for my predictions to post just prior to the season taking off. The first game of the regular season will actually take place in Japan as the Oakland Athletics will take on the Seattle Mariners for a two game series March 28th and 29th. So, two games will be played by the time my predictions are posted. Opening Night featuring the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals versus the new look/new stadium/new name Miami Marlins is Wednesday April 4th.

P.S. Apologies for the lack of posts the last 10 or so days. Life has kept me busy and frankly I haven’t felt all that great about the writing topics I have mulled over. While I will be writing a lot about baseball over the next six weeks, I still fully plan on writing about various other topics as well. Hopefully everything will go according to plan.