Is this the end of the line for the Detroit Red Wings and their 22-year playoff run, I think so. I am a loyal Red Wing fan, but with the change to the Eastern Conference scheduled to take place during the 2013-14 season, and their lack of team size in my opinion in just may happen unless they take a different direction and add some size to their lineup. I mean come on, how many times can this team be punished by teams with a huge size difference for which they will face on a nightly basis.

Let's be serious here for a moment, seeing teams like the Bruins 5 to 6 times a year will not be good for the smaller Wings unless they make changes and add size and even more toughness than Jordin Tootoo and Justin Abdelkader provide. But we will see what direction the Wings head after the playoffs are over, these changes are necessary in order for them to compete in the East, and has to happen during this offseason. 

Is this the answer to the Detroit Lions problems as a team, I highly doubt it. Honestly I believe Martin Mayhew missed the boat again when he drafted him number 5. I personally believed they should have drafted a tackle to replace Jeff Backus who retired during the offseason. But this is typical Lions draft strategy since the Matt Millen era, draft a project (Charles Rogers, Titus Young) and pray that they work out. When they don't they release them in order to save face. I am not knocking their entire draft, but there were a lot better players out there that were ready to play this year, not two years down the road. I guess its time for the Lions to find a real general manager, who will draft to the needs of the team, and break the draft day trend. Oh wait I forgot, that is why they are the only Detroit team that I have never seen win a championship during my near 49 years on this earth. Why is this, because they do not have a clue!

Well I have to admit that this weekends series against the Indians has been rather interesting, and not the walkover I thought it would be. Nice to see that Tito, Nick and all the other additions are starting to pay off for the Indians. If this trend continues like it should, because those I mentioned will not let the others quit, then the Central Division might stay interesting this year. 

Thanks for stopping by, and I will see you the next time.

With games starting as Sunday night when the newly minted American League Houston Astros host their cross-state rival Texas Rangers on Sunday night, the 2013 Major League Baseball season is upon us. No more talk about the Hot Stove, no more trade or free agent speculation, just baseball. Pure and simple.

But we still have a few days left before the first pitch is thrown and the long, arduous season is underway. That means we have a few more minutes to make some predictions and assumptions about how things will play out and who will be wearing the crown when the dust settles.

Today, we'll work on the American League, and then we'll follow that up with the National League tomorrow. So let's get started, shall we?

American League East

1.) Toronto Blue Jays

2.) Tampa Bay Rays (WC)

3.) Boston Red Sox

4.) Baltimore Orioles

5.) New York Yankees

No team in baseball did more to improve their overall team than did the Toronto Blue Jays. Adding three quality starters (R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, and Josh Johnson) to their starting five and then securing two solid top of the order hitters (Jose Reyes and Melky Cabrera) and a pair of universal infielders (Maicer Izturis and Emilio Bonifacio), the Blue Jays may be the deepest team in baseball. They will beat teams on the mound, on the basepaths, and in the batter's box. Some pundits worry about how the team will gel, but the players acquired are all professionals of the highest order and that shouldn't be an issue. The AL East, in a weakened state, should be their division to lose.

Tampa will take second place and one of the two wild-cards in the American League. The Rays have the one thing all teams envy, and that's a deep pitching staff that will keep them in any game, and help them win quite a few. Unfortunately, the line-up outside of Evan Longoria is at its most barren and Tampa will again struggle to score runs. That may improve once the team bites the bullet and promotes Wil Myers, but they'll need to wait three weeks before that happens.

I may shock some people by picking the Red Sox to vault up to third place this season, and then again some will think this is a homer pick. That said, Boston did a lot to improve themselves throughout the order, adding Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, Jonny Gomes, and Ryan Dempster. Furthermore, the pair of Clay Buchholz and Lon Lester have looked great this spring and they'll have a healthy Will Middlebrooks back. The only question mark is David Ortiz, but the team is deeper and may be able to withstand a short-term loss of Big Papi.

The final two squads could easily flip-flop in the standings. As much as I appreciated what the Orioles did in 2012, I think they overachieved and are in for a market correction. Baltimore did little to improve on a squad that managed only a +7 run differential and won more games with their bullpen than any other team in the American League.

Meanwhile, the Yankees are going to struggle to overcome the injuries to Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, and Alex Rodriguez. They may have a solid starting five, but they'll lose more offense than any team in baseball for the first three months of the season, and an aging Kevin Youkilis, Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells, and Lyle Overbay are not going to be the answer the Yankees need.

American League Central

1.) Detroit Tigers

2.) Cleveland Indians

3.) Chicago White Sox

4.) Kansas City Royals

5.) Minnesota Twins

The AL Central is likely going to be a brutal division in 2013. The Tigers are still the toast of the town and should be better than the 88-win team that won the division in 2012. The addition of Torii Hunter and the return of Victor Martinez should make the line-up even deeper and the pitching staff should be solid, with Justin Verlander topping the rotation and a full season of Anibal Sanchez to add to the mix. Closer is a concern, but the role is overrated anyway.

The Cleveland Indians have flirted with respectability each of the last two seasons, but stumbled in the second half of both. The front office reloaded by bringing in Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn, Mark Reynolds, and Brett Myers, but we should all keep an eye on Scott Kazmir. If Kazmir can be a shadow of what he used to be, this could be a very entertaining team to watch.

The White Sox have a lot of good going for them, but they are still only a third place team at best. Chris Sale and Jake Peavy are a solid 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation, but the rest of the starting five has its question marks. Will Tyler Flowers be able to carry A.J. Pierzysnki's weight? Will Adam Dunn ever get himself away from the Mendoza line? Can the starting outfield avoid regressing in 2013? That's a lot of questions to answer to make a two-team jump for the division title.

I really like what the Kansas City Royals did this winter. The front office finally said "we need to win", and they went out and traded their top prospect (Myers) to Tampa for James Shields and Wade Davis, and acquired Ervin Santana from the Angels. Still, will it all be for naught when these markedly better Royals squad still has to jump three other teams in the division? Will they regret losing a talent of Myers' proportions?

What can you say about the Minnesota Twins? This is a still a team that revolves around Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, but their window of opportunity has passed and the team seems to be set on building for the future. The fans will be treated to a talented rookie in Aaron Hicks and the team will likely turn to other young building blocks as the season progresses. The lack of a solid pitching staff and a young line-up likely means that the Twins will make more noise at the trade deadline than they will in the standings. Expect Morneau and Josh Willingham to be shopped extensively when the Twins fall out of contention in early June.

American League West

1.) Los Angeles Angels

2.) Oakland Athletics (WC)

3.) Texas Rangers

4.) Seattle Mariners

5.) Houston Astros

To me, this is the toughest division to pick. In the end, I went with the Angels taking the title, as they are just a dangerous team to have to face consistently. The addition of Josh Hamilton to a line-up that already contained Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, and Mark Trumbo will be devastating for even the best rotations to face. Jered Weaver is a solid ace at the top of the rotation, but the rest of the starting five is made up of number 4 starters at best, and that's giving Joe Blanton a lot of credit. Still, the team's offense should carry them.

Oakland is my runner-up, but could very well steal the division again. The starting rotation is as deep as they come, and Billy Beane's teams always seem to have another arm waiting in the wings, which they may need if Brett Anderson continues to struggle with his health. Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick will likely continue to improve and are solid offensive building blocks. The addition of Jed Lowrie is another good buy-low move by Beane.

What were the Texas Rangers doing this winter? A team with so much to gain just by retaining their top offensive weapon, Texas instead let Hamilton walk to a division rival and did nothing to replace him. They have the best prospect in the game in Jurickson Profar, but no place to play him, so why they couldn't swing a deal for Justin Upton with Elvis Andrus as a center piece, I don't know. The combination of Yu Darvish and Matt Harrison at the top of the rotation is solid, but losing out on Greinke is going to hurt them.

The Seattle Mariners, like the Royals above, did a lot to improve their team, first bringing in the fences, then bringing Kendrys Morales and Mike Morse to help an anemic offense support one of the most underrated pitching staffs in baseball. Still, they face an uphill battle with the Rangers, A's, and Angels still having stronger rosters to fall back on. The presence of Danny Hultzen, Taijuan Walker, James Paxton, Mike Zunino, and Nick Franklin gives the Mariners a top-5 prospect list to be envied by any organization.

Moving from the NL Central to the AL West was the right move for the Astros and will help them create a natural rivalry with the Rangers. Unfortunately, they have a few years of building a roster ahead of them, especially after dismantling the current one. There is something to be said about building a winner by losing on the field, but entertaining is not one of them.

Virgil “Fire” Trucks, one of 5 pitchers to throw 2 no-hitters in a season, and the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers oldest living ballplayer passed away at the age of 95. He also was only one of two pitchers to win a World Series game without wining a regular season game. Virgil also tossed 4 no-hitters in the minor leagues.

In 17 seasons Trucks was 177-135 with a era of 3.39 and 1,534 strikeouts.

Trucks was the uncle of Butch Trucks, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, and his great nephew Derek Trucks is also a member of the Allman Brothers Band and has his own band with his wife, Susan Tedeschi, called the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

Virgil’s niece was my supervisor at the post office for 11 years. I have never met Virgil but I have met Butch before.

  Happy Saturday Gabbers, and welcome to Sexy Action Sports Saturday with your old pal IHM. Not a whole hell of a lot going on this week in the world of sports. Spring training is interrupted with the World Baseball Classic, the NFL is preparing for the draft and free agency, and college basketball is winding down to tourney time.

  The big story today is the episode on ESPN's First Take between Seahawks CB Richard Sherman and ESPN commentator Skip Bayliss. If you haven't seen it, here's what I'm talking about...

  Long story short, dude goes into a confrontation with Skip Bayliss and HE comes out of it sounding like the jerk! Jesus! Look, we all know Skip Bayliss has had this coming for a long time now... but Sherman just seemed to walk into this thing with a vendetta! He starts out by telling him "when you address me, address me as Richard Sherman, All-Pro and Stanford Graduate, two things you will never be able to achieve". Then he tops it off by coming right out and saying "I'm better than you. In my 24 years of life, I'm better at life than you". For once, Bayliss comes out of something looking like the good guy... Sherman comes out looking like a petty tool. FYI Sherman... it's CREATON, not CREANTON, Stanford grad.

  So what say you Gabbers... who is the bigger asshat here? My vote goes to Sherman, but be sure to cast your vote in the comments below.

   Masters champ Bubba Watson bought Tiger Woods Florida home this week... yeah, THAT Florida home, where he "allegedly" wasn't beaten down by his ex-wife for "allegedly" being a man whore. My biggest question, of course, is why the hell would you want Tiger Woods old house? Gotta be some bad juju floating around in there...

  Other news out of Florida has the Tigers shopping around for closers. Seems like the kind of thing they should've taken care of already... you know, during the offseason when there were some free agents out there. Hopefully they can find someone who'll take Rick Porcello for a closer. Hell, throw in a decent defensive short stop and you can have the corpse of Johnny Peralta, too!

  The Lions have a big couple of months coming up if they're going to get back on the right track... and to be honest with you all, I am terrified! Hopefully they can get a corner or two in free agency, there are quite a few good, still fairly young corners out there on the free agent market, and use the draft to beef up the defense and offensive lines. I honestly hate that #5 overall pick... really wish they could find someone to trade down with, and pick up an extra second or third round pick in the process. Probably won't happen... but it'd be nice to see.

  Not to put a whole lot of stock in the World Baseball Classic or anything, but if you're the Blue Jays, you have to be a bit worried about R.A. Dickey so far this spring. He got shelled by team Mexico, and hasn't been in 2012 form so far during the spring, either. If the Jays plan on making this thier year, they need Dickey to be in top form at the top of that rotation. Especially with all the money they've put into him.

  Props to the Zags on finally reaching that #1 spot in the polls. So far this year, it has been more of a curse than anything, but it's good to see Gonzaga finally get there. Never see it in college football, that's for sure.

  Before I go for the week, here's a little something I think you're going to enjoy. Remember good 'ol Casey Kasem... America's Top 40 announcer and the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo? Well, here's that sweet old man going ape shit on a variety of things...

  That's it for me, Gabbers. Have a great weekend, and thanks as always for reading and for any comments you leave on the way out.

ScottJax takes on the Yankee haters, Ponder has a girl friend, NASCAR, PGA, and more in this weeks edition of…

So Christian Ponder is dating ESPN’s Samantha Steele. Is she worth it guys???

Does it come as any surprise that Ozzie Guillen was fired as the Marlins manager. He was even a worse choice to manage a team than Bobby Valentine.

The New York Islanders are moving to Brooklyn, and no, they are not changing their name to Brooklyn Islanders. The team will still be named their New York Islanders. The team will move to the Barclay Center after their lease expires after the 2014-2015 season and their new lease is iron-clad and will be for 25 years.

To All You Yankee Haters!!!

I finally figured you out. It took me many, many years and now I know the reason you hate the Yankees.

Yankee Haters - those people who's baseball teams can't come close to matching the great history of the Yankees, and are jealous of them.

27 World Series (16 more than the St. Louis Cardinals), 40 American League Pennants (No one comes close), Great Hitters, Great Pitchers and Great Managers.

No Team can come close to the greatness of the New York Yankees!!!

So while other teams just strive to make the playoffs, for the Yankees anything less than winning the World Series is a failure.

Now that Dwight Howard and Steve Nash are with the Lakers, are the Lakers the team to beat in the NBA? Can Miami give them a run for their money?

NASCAR has the Sprint Car Series that towards the end of the NASCAR season the top 12 points leaders have the chance to win the Championship. So how come 40 cars are still racing? I think only the 12 cars in the chance should be allowed to race. Look how wide open the track would be. No crashes, only pit stops. If these are the best of the best, that should be enough for me.

The 2012 PGA Tour had 98 golfers who won more than $1 million dollars. WOW. Peter Hanson won $1,511,221.30 in only 11 events ($137,383.76 an event). Rory McIlory won $8,047,952 in 16 events ($502,997 and event) was the leader.

Career money leader is Tiger Woods who went over the $100 million dollar mark. He is followed by Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, both have earned over $67 million dollars.

Meanwhile only 10 ladies on the LPGA tour won $1 million dollars this year.

What ever happened to the PBA???

I do miss Wide World of Sports. “The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat.” That was a Sunday staple on TV. Cliff diving from Mexico, skiing in Norway, bull riding, hurling, rodep, curling, jai-alai, firefighter’s competitions, surfing, logger sports, and how about demolition derby, softball, badminton, track and field, gymnastics, figure skating plus odd sports that never made it big on TV found its way on this ionic show. Damn I do miss it.

Wide World of Sports was the first to broadcast Wimbledon, The Indy 500, NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, Daytona 500, U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Little League World Series, British Open Golf Tournament to name a few.

Is there College Football on the West Coast?

Congrats go out to the San Francisco Giants who will play the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. The Giants have won 6 World Series and the Tigers have won 4.

Til Next Time

Scott