Erev Yom P'tichah

This is it -- the night where anything is possible, where everyone except Royals and Orioles fans have hope. Tomorrow games will begin, weak #1s will get shelled, someone we'll never hear of again will hit three homers. We'll look at the starting outfield of St. Louis and wonder what happened. We'll get way overly excited about the Reds. We'll fondly remember the Mets' collapse last year (well, some of us will). And then we'll move on to Saturday night and what has to be the best Final Four ever. It's Opening Day, baby.

Here are my picks:

• Best Team: Boston. I don't see any reason they won't easily repeat. I don't buy the pitching depth in Detroit or Anaheim.
• Team Most Likely To Win Other Than Boston: Cleveland.
• Biggest Player Bounceback: Travis "Pronk" Hafner -- see above.
• Non-Pitcher Of The Year: Alex Rodriguez. Tough choice.
• Pitcher Of The Year: Johan Santana. Tougher choice. You mean the best pitcher in the AL is going to the weak-hitting NL?
• Most Valuable Hitter: Matt Holliday -- he's the difference in a very competitive NL West.
• Most Valuable Pitcher: Santana.
• Fantasy Player I'm Most Happy I Got: Hunter Pence.
• Talented Royal: Alex Gordon, Mark Teahen, Billy Butler. Not much there.
• Player I Least Care About: Albert Pujols.
• Most Underrated Team: Tampa -- their running game should be great.
• Most Overrated Team: Do I have to answer? They play in the Bronx, they haven't won a championship since three years before Florida won their last, they screwed over their great manager. Here's hoping the Baseball Gods get some sweet revenge.