Chacin tries to beat odds, make roster

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Folks wanted to get to know Rockies right-handed pitcher Jhoulys Chacin last year during Spring Training.

They wanted to see the pitches that led to startling Minor League numbers the previous year. They wanted to see how he'd do against Major League hitters. They wanted to learn to pronounce his name. Of course, as is the case with prospects, all this information was to store away for later, since he stood no chance to make the Opening Day roster.

In 2010, there are other new guys in camp. And although "yo-LEES cha-SEEN" rolls out almost musically, he isn't hearing his name called much by curious outsiders early in camp.

But Chacin, 22, who made it to the Majors for nine games last season, hopes those who count will call his name when it really matters.

"It's not like last year -- I just showed what I could do," Chacin said. "This year, I'm going to fight for one spot in the rotation, or as a reliever, whatever. I want to be on the roster the first day of the season.

"I have to start in Triple-A, I'm going to try to do the same. I'll try to pitch well and wait for my moment one day. I want to be on the roster the first day."

Making the team this spring is a lofty goal. It's also unlikely, given that the Rockies have five solid starters, a couple of reinforcements with Major League experience and a seasoned bullpen. The staff is structured so Chacin and other starting pitching prospects -- such as Samuel Deduno, Esmil Rogers and Christian Friedrich -- can complete their development.

"If there was a need for one of those, it would probably be in the bullpen. But in our perfect script, it would be for them to remain a starter, to get their continued progress as a starter, continue to develop," Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca said. "Those guys will all get a number of opportunities here in Spring Training to pitch, especially early, and to see the progress from last year to this year."

Last year, Chacin was 8-6 with a 3.14 ERA at Double-A Tulsa when the Rockies called him up on July 24 and threw him into important innings for a team fighting for a playoff berth. He began his career with three scoreless relief appearances. Then he yielded a solo shot to the Cubs' Kosuke Fukudome, but nothing else in two innings of the Rockies' 6-5 loss on Aug. 8.

"I saw some very good Major League hitters take some awful feeble hacks at his secondary pitches," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.

The strong work led Tracy to choose Chacin, over veteran Josh Fogg, to make a spot start start against the Pirates on Aug. 11. But Chacin was gone after giving up four runs -- with six walks and just one hit -- in 2 2/3 innings of a 7-3 loss.

"I took for granted after everything I had heard after an 18-3 season [at two Class A levels] the year before about the fastball command, but he was not commanding his fastball last year," Tracy said.

Chacin would be sent back to Triple-A Colorado Springs until September. He would finish 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA in nine appearances, but the rough start motivated him to pitch in winter ball in his native Venezuela (1-2, 4.45 ERA in eight starts for Caracas).

"I'm looking for another opportunity, so I can start and pitch good," he said. "That's why I pitched in Venezuela. I tried to do a lot with my control.

"Last year, I didn't know too many things. I think this year is going to be better than last year."

Pressure is on, but Gomez doesn't feel it

PHOENIX -- Some Brewers fans are still sore about the trade that sent popular shortstop J.J. Hardy to the Twins for a center fielder long on potential but short on production. This is nothing new for Carlos Gomez.

Two years ago, Gomez was part of the Twins-Mets blockbuster that sent Minnesota ace Johan Santana to New York. From the Twins' perspective, Gomez, then just 22, might have been the centerpiece of the deal, a five-tool talent expected to replace the departed Torii Hunter.

Two middling seasons later, Gomez was on the move again.

"The last three years have been kind of difficult because I've been trying to prove that I can play in the big leagues," said Gomez, including his 2007 debut with the Mets. "Now, this is going to be my first year here and they're giving me the opportunity. I'm supposed to be the starting center fielder."

While rookie Alcides Escobar takes over at shortstop for Hardy, Gomez is once again replacing a free-agent departure in center field. Mike Cameron took a two-year deal from the Red Sox, and in the end the Brewers saved more than $10 million between shortstop and center field to put toward pitching. Gomez, who was arbitration-eligible as a Super-2 player, and Escobar will combine to earn about $1.5 million this season; Cameron and Hardy will combine for about $13 million.

Now comes the pressure for the Brewers' youngsters to produce.

"I never feel any pressure," Gomez said. "It's not like, 'Oh, I was traded for Johan and I have to do something to make up for it.' I just enjoy playing baseball, and when you do that, you don't worry about things off the field."

On the field, Gomez's raw talent prompts jaws to drop one moment and heads to shake the next. During last year's American League Championship Series, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of Gomez, "He irritates people. Sometimes me."

But the Brewers are poised to give him a shot. If Gomez falters, the team has veteran Jim Edmonds in camp as a non-roster invitee vying for a job and is relatively rich in center-field prospects. Among the youngsters are Lorenzo Cain and Logan Schafer, both of whom were to be in camp before Schafer injured his groin last week.

"I think you have to give [Gomez] a chance with the direction we're going," Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said. "He should get most of the playing time. ...

"He's got tools that we all wish we had. I'm a big believer in speed, and that the offensive side of speed players develops a bit later. An example of that is [Mariners outfielder] Franklin Gutierrez. Everybody is raving about Franklin Gutierrez, and he's a guy we tried to get in the [Richie] Sexson deal [in December 2003]. He's a guy who didn't come into his own until he was 26 years old."

The Brewers' statistical gurus have one metric that ranks Gomez as baseball's second-best defensive center fielder behind Gutierrez. But like the speedy Mariner, Gomez's bat has been slow to develop. After being rushed to the Majors in 2007, Gomez started 143 games in center field for the Twins in 2008 and hit .258 with 59 RBIs, 79 runs scored and 33 steals, enough to enter 2009 as the Twins' incumbent. But he lost the starting job after hitting .195 through the 2009 season's first month and spent the year in a timeshare with Denard Span.

"The key is play every day," Gomez said. "I did that in 2008, and I think I did my job, but then last season I didn't get to play as much and I didn't do my job. Now I have experience, and I'm coming back to the National League. They play my kind of game."

Brewers manager Ken Macha is thinking of hitting Gomez either in the seven-hole or in the nine-hole as a sort of second leadoff hitter. The key to making the latter arrangement work is getting on base, and Macha has some ideas on that front.

On a rainy Sunday morning at Maryvale Baseball Park, Macha pulled out a sheet of statistics that showed hitters' swing rates last season in a variety of counts. Gomez took fewer swings on 2-0 -- 34 percent -- than on any other count. He swung most often -- 73 percent of the time -- on 2-1. Macha found that exceedingly interesting.

"That's nothing negative on him," Macha said. "He's ingrained to play the team game -- take a pitch, get on base and steal."

But 2-0 is a terrific hitter's count, and Macha would like to see Gomez be intelligently aggressive on those pitches in the coming season.

"I'm going to tell him what I tell everybody: I've never told a hitter to go up there to take a pitch," Macha said. "Have an idea of what's coming, and then punish the ball when it's in the strike zone."

Defensively, the Brewers know Gomez will be top-notch. He has crossed career paths with some of the game's best as teammates of Cameron and Carlos Beltran with the Mets and a long-distance admirer of Hunter after Hunter went to the Angels. Gomez asked for Hunter's telephone number and called the veteran seeking advice after the trade.

The advice from all of them, Gomez said, was similar: "Slow down."

"I want to learn something different every day," he said.

He has not been playing center field particularly long. Gomez grew up a shortstop in the Dominican Republic and was signed by the Mets in 2002 as a shortstop and corner outfielder. He didn't start playing center field until 2007 at Triple-A New Orleans. He didn't play the position in the big leagues until 2008 with the Twins.

If he had his pick of the outfield spots, it would be center "because you have the responsibility to move the other guys and you are the man." But he's still a shortstop at heart.

"When the season starts, you'll see me in Milwaukee every day talking ground balls at shortstop," he said. "That is my passion. Some day, I am going to play one game in the big leagues at shortstop."

Tuning up: Wells to start spring opener

MESA, Ariz. -- Randy Wells' baseball career is just taking off, and someday the 27-year-old Cubs pitcher may write a song about the experience.

Wells, who will start the Cubs' Cactus League opener Thursday against Oakland, spends his free time writing songs and playing acoustic guitar. Well, he's trying to write.

"It's really hard to put music to words," the young pitcher said.

He's self-taught as far as the guitar goes, playing seriously for about a year. He's had a guitar for three, four years.

"But I never really made myself sit down and try to learn how," he said.

You probably won't hear his favorite artists on country music radio stations. Wells' play list includes Stoney LaRue, Cross Canadian Ragweed, the Randy Rogers Band, Wade Bowen and the Robert Earl Keen band. Their style of music is hard to describe -- it's a combination of country, rock and blues with honest lyrics and a swagger. Somehow, Wells connected.

"Those guys, it's just different," he said of the genre. "Everybody tries to put a label on them -- is it Texas country? Is it Red Dirt country? To me, it's good music, good people, good friends. I have fun with those guys and they like coming up [to see games]."

Check out the YouTube video of LaRue singing "I've Got That Old Feeling," and you'll get a sample. It can be a combination of country, rock and the blues, but the one unifying element is that the lyrics are honest.

I've got that old feeling
you're leaving.
I'm so tired of goodbyes
I can't wait on your love forever.
Will you change your mind?

Wells scribbles down lyrics when they hit him.

"You try to think of something that would make a good song," he said. "I took a vacation in January up to Steamboat for a country music festival. I tried writing a song about the whole experience and the mountains and good times and good friends and stuff like that.

"Then you try to think of a hook and try to think of a good chorus and something that'll grab people. Sometimes the chorus is the easiest thing to get, and then you have to think of words to fill in and write a song.

"It's tough. When you don't have any music to go along with it, it's really tough. Usually I just put words down or just write an idea. I've never written a full song. I'll write a bunch of choruses and send them to those guys and let them pick and choose. They haven't chosen one yet."

He's watched LaRue and his band brainstorm, saying the sessions are not "PG." Some adult beverages are usually consumed at the sessions.

"They sit on the back of the bus and jam out and play guitar and different chords and riffs and make stuff up and laugh, and then something pops and it's like, wow, that's good," Wells said.

He said inspiration can come from different sources other than liquid refreshments.

"[LaRue and Cody Canada] were just messing around and drinking wine and playing old Merle Haggard songs and started freestyling," Wells said. "All of a sudden, one of the words that jumped out hit Cody and they started writing it down just like that. All of a sudden, they wrote a song. It's pretty cool.

"Those guys are creative. We can play baseball, but that's their thing. It's really hard for somebody like me to venture into it. I don't do it as a serious thing at all. A lot of time, you're sitting in a hotel room and you're bored."

There is a lot of downtime for ballplayers on the road. Wells brings his guitar and works on his chords.

"It keeps you out of trouble and from spending money and doing dumb stuff," he said.

Pitcher Rich Harden, who was with the Cubs the last 1 1/2 seasons and is now with Texas, showed Wells his creative side with the guitar.

"He was really good at taking chords and scales and making up his own stuff," Wells said. "I enjoy that more than playing other people's songs.

"The hardest thing is remembering a chord. [The musicians] are so good. They can sit here and talk and say, 'Oh, that's a good song. It's G, C, D, E, E-minor and F-scale,' and they'll play it."

Wells may be able to grip a baseball but he's having a tough time making the transition from one chord to another.

"I'm just starting out," he said. "I enjoy writing down thoughts and memories. We get to do so much cool stuff. It's nice to write down and remember it. It's like taking pictures."

Last year, Wells convinced LaRue to sing the national anthem before a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. He often wears T-shirts from the band's concerts to help promote them.

"They're not really mainstream yet, and I don't know if they're going to be," Wells said. "They enjoy what they do in Texas and Oklahoma and they have a big following. They're superstars down there. Everybody wants to write the song that defines them, but those guys have fun and I can respect that more than doing it as a business."

This spring, Wells' focus is on baseball. Last season, he was called up from Triple-A Iowa in May and never looked back, finishing 12-10 with a 3.05 ERA in 27 starts. They were the most wins by a Cubs rookie since Kerry Wood won 13 in 1998.

"This last year of my life has been pretty special and pretty [amazing]," said Wells, somewhat awestruck that he can call the musicians his friends. "It's just cool to relate to those guys."

In November, Wells hosted a fundraiser in his hometown of Belleville, Ill., to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and he's hoping to do something this year in Chicago as well. He's trying to line up one of the bands to perform.

Maybe by then, he'll have a song done.

"I love music, I'm always listening to music," he said. "I love going on the road with my friends and watching them play and getting in touch with their lives and how they go about their business.

"It's kind of like being in baseball. You're away from home a lot. You've got a lot of time alone. Their creative juices flow. For us, we're most comfortable here on the field."

He's getting ready for the big stage.

Smoltz has no interest in running for office

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Count John Smoltz among those who were surprised about the details of a report that indicated the Republican Party may approach him to campaign to become a U.S. congressman.

Atlanta-Journal Constitution political insider Jim Galloway reported on Saturday that Republicans are thinking about approaching Smoltz to run for the congressional seat that will be vacated when U.S. Rep. John Linder retires at the end of his current term.

"This is not in my plans," Smoltz replied via a text message on Sunday morning.

When asked about this report that was based on information Galloway received from a source in Washington, D.C., Smoltz immediately indicated he felt there was a mixup, and then playfully said that he was sure a number of his friends were having some fun with this information.

While spending 21 of his 22 Major League seasons with the Braves, Smoltz established himself as a highly respected figure who, according to the AJC, has assisted with campaigns staged by U.S. Rep. Tom Price and U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss.

Smoltz, who pitched for the Red Sox and Cardinals last season, is still keeping the door open to pitch again. The 42-year-old right-hander is currently working out in Atlanta, with the intent to be ready to pitch if a Major League club were to present a desired opportunity within the next month or possibly during the final months of the season.

"I'm actually excited about this opportunity," Smoltz said two weeks ago. "I'm going to take it at my own pace. I've been part of several things that look good in the beginning and don't turn out the way you envisioned."

Setup job remains for the taking

PORT ST. LUCIE -- Prevention and recovery, the newest logo message for the Mets, hasn't been a smashing success just yet. Prevention has worked well. With more caution applied, no new maladies have developed in a camp of 66 players. But recovery has been a tad behind only because two players critical to the team's success arrived with preexisting issues.

The inactivity of Carlos Beltran was anticipated. His right knee surgery, for all the fuss it caused, came so late -- Jan. 13 -- that little chance existed that the center fielder would return to playing before May. And even if "mid-May" now seems to be the estimated time of return, the Mets have been able to implement contingencies.

The likely absence of Kelvim Escobar because of right shoulder weakness is a different set of dominoes. Angel Pagan distinguished himself to some degree last summer when he served as Beltran's understudy. The Mets had planned for Escobar to be the primary or regular eighth-inning guy, the bridge to Francisco Rodriguez, and now that he is likely to begin the season on the DL, the club has no obvious choice to fill that role, no second domino.

One day after manager Jerry Manuel spoke of Escobar's time-line recovery, he was reluctant or unable to identify the likely replacement for the veteran pitcher, who before he arrived in camp, was a long shot to be in the Opening Day mix. Manuel spoke of three pitchers as possibilities. No surprises here: Bobby Parnell, Ryoto Igarashi and Sean Green. No probable, either.

Meanwhile, changing relievers twice in the eighth inning has zero appeal to the manager who wore out his soles in the second half of 2008 and parts of last season, as well. The need for a crossover reliever has existed for that long. The Mets had a diminished need for one last year because they had fewer leads to protect. And on two occasions, they used Billy Wagner in an audition for a trade to fill the need.

And now what? Parnell prompted mixed, though mostly positive, reviews in his 66 relief appearances. The reviews of his eight starts were neither mixed nor all that positive. Green had good and bad days, more of the latter, early in the season, and fell into disuse until his arm angle and the Mets' season dropped down. And Igarishi, his split-finger fastball and new slider have yet to oppose a big league hitter.

Two days after Manuel said Fernando Nieve was suited to pitch in long or short relief, he backed away from that thought but said "[Nieve] is flexible enough to be a late-inning guy." So go figure.

"That's why the Mets are out and around looking for a reliever," a scout from a different club said Saturday. "From what I've heard, they want a lefty so Jerry can mix and match with what he has, or they want someone who can handle the eighth no matter who he has to face. It's a little late now to get the quality they want."

The Mets have been chasing left-handed free agent Joe Beimel for two months. He would serve as a second left-handed reliever after -- or actually before -- Pedro Feliciano. The later, more challenging left-handed-hitter situations would go to Feliciano. The Mets have made Beimel an offer. But he signed quite late last year -- March 18 with the Nationals -- and was able to command a $2 million salary, a figure he isn't likely to command now or come March 18. The Mets hardly are poised to offer a No. 2 left-handed specialist more than they are obligated to pay their regular catcher.

Ron Mahay, late of the Royals and Twins, follows Beimel on the Mets' wish list.

That's where the Mets are now, trying to cover themselves until Escobar, an if-and-when proposition himself, has recovered and restrengthened his right shoulder. Mets general manager Omar Minaya is in the mode Manuel too often has found himself -- trying to make do in the eighth.

"It's our biggest challenge," Manuel said Sunday. "I'd like to see one of them separate himself from the others."

When the club signed Igarashi in December, indications were that he would compete for the eighth-inning assignment -- with whom was unclear. Escobar hadn't yet signed. And now Escobar in under contract, all the candidates are in camp, and no clarity exists yet.

Johnson relishing job on Red Sox staff

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Asked to perform the seemingly mundane task of putting on his home white Red Sox uniform for the annual Spring Training photo day on Sunday morning, first-base coach Ron Johnson had enough enthusiasm to fill the entire facility.

Really, how much fun was that for the man who will wear No. 50 for the Red Sox in 2010?

"Jacked," said Johnson. "Just jacked. I couldn't wait to get it on. It's the simple little things."

Yes, the simple little things for Johnson that officially and symbolically emphasize the fact that his past 18 years -- in which he managed in the Minor Leagues -- have been replaced by a full-time job in the Major Leagues for one of the premier teams in baseball.

Johnson is a big man with a booming voice and infectious enthusiasm, and his new job gets a little sweeter for him each day.

"It's been fantastic," said Johnson, who aside from coaching first, will also be in charge of outfield defense. "I think I get a little prouder every day I come out here to be part of this. It is kind of a realization sinking in. I know I'm on the staff. I know I have a job this year with the Major League staff. Still, when I think about it, I have to take a second to digest it after being in the Minor Leagues for so long.

"I couldn't be more excited, and at the same time, I'm very proud of what I'm doing right now. It's good to be here."

In a way, it feels like the 53-year-old Johnson has been "here" all along. Johnson has been in the Red Sox's organization since 2000, managing Triple-A Pawtucket for the past five years. One of the perks of that job was helping out as a coach in Major League camp and getting a September callup once the Triple-A season was over.

Because of Johnson's personality, it never took him long to fit in with manager Terry Francona and his staff.

"I remember when he got hired, he made mention of the fact that he felt like he was the sixth coach, or the extra coach, however you say it," said Francona. "You give him a responsibility and he goes and does it. But now when we get on the flight [to start the season], he'll break camp with us. I know today when we were taking pictures, he put on his uniform top, and he was very proud, which is good. But he's always been a part of what we're doing, especially down here. So it's not really that different."

The way Johnson looks at it, the only thing that is different is, well, everything.

"It is completely different. It is totally different," Johnson said. "This time that I've spent here is totally different than the last five years I've spent in the camp and also in Septembers. It's nothing different the staff does, because these guys have always made me feel comfortable. In fact, that was one of the things we talked about in the interview. I've always felt like I was part of this staff anyway.

"Tito has always made me feel like I was the sixth man or whatever. But it's different this year, because I come in and I know that I am part of this coaching staff. I'm very excited and very proud and having a ball every day. I can't wait until the games start."

They will start soon enough, and Johnson is familiar with the cast. In the Minors, he managed Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, Kevin Youkilis, Manny Delcarmen and Daniel Bard, which represents more than one-third of Boston's projected Opening Day roster.

"He's awesome," Pedroia said of Johnson. "He's helped a lot of us out to get to the big leagues. We're all pumped for him to be here. He's a fun guy to be around."

The vacancy that Johnson filled came about when bench coach Brad Mills left Boston to manage the Astros. Yes, the same Astros team that Johnson's son, Chris, is a rising prospect for.

You don't need to hand Ron Johnson a Spring Training pocket schedule to let him know when he will coach against his son this spring.

"We play him on the 16th and the 21st," Johnson said with excitement.

It didn't immediately dawn on Johnson that he would be promoted to the Majors once Mills left for Houston.

"I got a call from [assistant general manager] Ben Cherington first," Johnson said. "I must have sounded kind of matter of fact, because I talked to Ben and was like, 'Yeah, OK', because I've had calls in the past for certain situations. It was about 15, 20 minutes later I got a call from Tito and he said, 'Hey, listen, I want to let you know, you have a legitimate chance for this job, so make sure you prepare.'"

Johnson did just that, arriving to the interview with a comprehensive list of every player in the organization he had managed or coached.

Though he was excited to get the job, Johnson was by no means in a desperate situation.

"I look back at it too, I was very fortunate to do that," Johnson said of his 18-year managerial tenure in the Minors. "There's a lot of people in this country that are hurting for jobs, looking for stuff. Even last year, we talked about it. I'd be talking about it at home with my wife.

"When the interview process came about and we interviewed for this job, of course it's human nature, and we want these things, but I was thinking, 'I'm really fortunate. I have a really good job, I make decent money, we've got a roof over our heads. We eat. We've got some things.' And when this thing came about, it was like, even more."

As things tend to go in baseball, Francona and Johnson go way back. In 1984, when Francona was batting a National League-leading .346 for the Expos and blew out his knee, the player that was called up from the Minors to replace him was Johnson, who had two previous cups of coffee with the Kansas City Royals.

Johnson lasted just five games on the Montreal roster, but he will go all 162 on the same team as Francona this year.

"I've done enough bus rides," Johnson said. "They're not that bad, but I'm not afraid to get on a charter plane."

Sports calendar flips to baseball

Now that the American sports clock has clicked past another of its major annual appointments with the Super Bowl in the books, only one sport can take the ball and start running with it, just as it has the previous 43 years and for decades beyond that: baseball.

So for baseball fans, the clock tends to run backward this time of year. As in, 10 days (or, about 240 hours) till pitchers and catchers hit the fields in Florida and Arizona, and 56 days (oh, about 1,300 hours) till Opening Day.

And like that last 15 minutes of your toughest class in school, the clock just can't move quickly enough these days.

This much we already know: Baseball will thrill us around the clock again in 2010 -- morning, noon and night. And the only thing it'll have in common with every baseball season before it is that it'll be different.

So, what will make 2010 unique? Here are a few glimpses at what will rock us around the clock until a World Series champion crowned:

Morning

Spring awakening: Once those first magical pops of the glove and cracks of the bat are offered up in Florida and Arizona, 2010 will be officially on the clock. And things will have changed before the first pop and crack.

The Cincinnati Reds have made the trip across the country on Interstate 10 and will be training in Arizona for the first time, making it a 15-15 even split between the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues for the first time. Having made some noise with the Aroldis Chapman signing and a few other moves that make them look like possible National League Central contenders, the Reds join their Ohio neighbors, the Indians, in Goodyear.

There also will be many new faces in new places, with John Lackey moving to Boston, Jason Bay joining the Mets, Roy Halladay with the Phillies and Cliff Lee with the Mariners -- among many, many others. Also, general managers Alex Anthopoulos in Toronto and Jed Hoyer in San Diego will be overseeing their teams for the first season, and new managers Brad Mills of the Astros and Manny Acta of the Indians will be running their respective camps for the first time.

Aces high: Arizona figures to be a good place to check up on the aces on the mend this spring. Jake Peavy is preparing to pitch his first full season with the White Sox after missing much of 2009, and D-backs right-hander Brandon Webb and A's signee Ben Sheets are returning after 2009 was a bust.

The Royals' Zack Greinke, the American League Cy Young Award winner, will be out in Surprise and the Giants' two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum will be toiling -- for how much pay, we'll find out in the coming days -- over in Scottsdale, and Felix Hernandez will working alongside Lee for the Mariners in Peoria. Good starting pitching won't be hard to find in the desert this spring.

Of course, there will be plenty in Florida as well, with Lackey taking his first Grapefruit League action, Halladay turning in his Blue Jays blue for Phillies red, and Stephen Strasburg, the No. 1 pick a year ago with a bullet, drawing all eyes in Nationals camp every time he twirls the pea.

Opening Daze: It won't be the first -- that'll belong to Yankees-Red Sox on April 4 -- but the biggest Opening Day celebration might belong to the Twins, who are going topless for the first time since 1981 with the opening of Target Field on April 12. Best of all, Minnesota will have both its power twins -- reigning AL MVP Joe Mauer and 2006 MVP Justin Morneau -- jogging to the lines during introductions.

There will be ring ceremonies at Yankee Stadium and Citizens Bank Park as the season cranks up, and each of the 30 teams from Miami and Atlanta to Detroit and Pittsburgh to San Francisco and Seattle will put up the bunting, strike up the band and celebrate a new season.

Noon

An NL edge, finally? Now this really would make 2010 unique: an NL victory in the All-Star Game, to be played July 13 in Anaheim. After all, it would be the first NL victory since 1996. But, whether all their sluggers enter it or not, the NL might have a surer edge when it comes to the Home Run Derby.

Cardinals superslugger Albert Pujols now has teammate Matt Holliday at his side for a full season; Bay has switched leagues from a year ago as well; and Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard have already established themselves as members of the homer elite. With Arizona's Mark Reynolds and San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez joining the 40-homer club, the NL held the top five spots in homers at the end of last year. Milwaukee's Ryan Braun and Adam Dunn are other 40-homer threats.

For the league without the designated hitter, the NL is becoming the bopper league.

Hello again: Interleague reunions abound in the late spring and early summer, but there can be no better juxtaposition than these: Halladay returning to Toronto with the Phillies, and Manny Ramirez returning to Boston with the Dodgers. Consider that the longest ovation and longest, well, we'll see exactly what happens when Mannywood meets Boston Being Boston.

Hawk, Rat and God: With five-tool man Andre Dawson, manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey being bronzed and feted, this year's Hall of Fame class certainly will have its own personality. Although the Hawk will become the second player whose plaque bears the Expos logo, there's no question there will be a Chicago theme to his speech at the July 25 ceremony, when he joins the two white-haired icons of their respective roles.

Night

Stretch runners: By the time August rolls around, we'll know a lot more about how some of the darlings of the 2009-10 Hot Stove season have performed when the heat is on. And with the July 31 Trade Deadline, possibly stoked by an interesting crop of pending free agents, we will see even more change.

Will the Mariners' winter work pay off in the AL West standings? With 2009 postseason hero Lee in Seattle, will the Phillies' acquisition of Halladay push them to new heights in 2010? Will Sheets still be in Oakland, probably meaning the A's are in the hunt, or will he have been shipped elsewhere a la Holliday? Will the Twins have made the right moves to build around their twin powers?

By the time the Trade Deadline passes and the stretch begins, we'll know a lot more.

On any given day: Parity figures to be a theme in every division in baseball in 2010. Without naming names, it's safe to say more than 20 teams could be very much in the mix come Sept. 1.

Both the AL West, with the Angels' three-year run threatened by the Mariners, Rangers and A's, and NL West figure to be multihorse races. The AL Central and NL Central have the same potential, especially if the Cubs get back in the conversation. And with the AL East and NL East without runaway favorites either, there's a good chance the standings will be a must-see in more cities through September than even the last few years of unprecedented competitive balance.

Perhaps more than ever before, it's all up for grabs.

Repeat offenders? Still, when it comes down to it, the Yankees have a very reasonable chance to be the first back-to-back winners of the World Series since their 1998-2000 threepeat, and the Phillies have a chance to make even more NL history. Another title and they would become the first NL team to win three consecutive pennants since the Cardinals in 1942-44. And if both were to happen, it would be the first back-to-back World Series matchup since 1977-78 with the Yankees-Dodgers.

Then again, that doesn't take into account the Cinderella story (see: 2007 Rockies) that is always a possibility before the clock strikes midnight.

But, hey, it's only dawn now. It's not midnight for a good long time, thankfully.

Dawn is breaking. It's warming up now. Check your clocks.

It's time for ball.