Reviews and Previews 2000

Pitchers and catchers begin to show up for work next week, but between the football and basketball you haven't kept up with any baseball. Well, here are some of the top articles on the Internet about what's happened this off-season and how it will affect the 2000 season.

Off Season Review If you want to see what the teams have been up to this off-season, here are a couple of overviews of the dealings so far. Jon Heyman of the Sporting News writes one: http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/jon_h... and Dave Campbell speaks up on ESPN: http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/campbell_... Heyman seems to think that the team with the largest quantity of trades is the off-season winner, since he gives Colorado the nod.

The most improved teams are the Cardinals, Mariners, Devil Rays, Phillies, and Mets. The Devil Rays still won't contend. The Phillies made a great move in getting Andy Ashby and Mike Jackson, but their division will be too tough. The Mets now have a dominant pitcher in Mike Hampton that may be all they need to compete with the Braves. The Cardinals are in a division that has quickly flattened out this off-season, as players go to St. Louis and Chicago but leave Houston.

Teams that have spun their wheels are the Braves and Yankees. The Braves made a trade for starting players, but it's hard to see any meaningful difference in the team. The Yankees resigned two of their own. Maybe neither team needed to do much.

The Red Sox and Indians took steps to close the gap between themselves and the Yankees. The Indians got Chuck Finley and the BoSox got Carl Everett. The Finley deal got the publicity, but Boston got a very good player in Everett. Everett's numbers last year were .325-25-108.

Does anyone know if the Dodgers are cutting payroll or adding it?

Season Previews

Even though we can expect some more changes before Opening Day, most of the "Season Previews" are starting to trickle out onto the Internet. If you want to check out where your team is ranking, then here they are:

1. Paul White, Baseball Weekly http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/... White is one of the most insightful baseball writers around.

2. Peter Gammons, ESPN http://espn.go.com/gammons/index.html His previews are still trickling, so keep an eye out for your team. In a real shocker, he picks Cleveland to win the AL Central.

3. The Sporting News http://www.sportingnews.com/baseball/spr... Like Gammons, it's a work in progress.

This column will wait until later to make any predictions. Let's see where Griffey plays and maybe who he gets traded for.

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