If the Major League Baseball season continues to shake up like it has we could be in for a very special treat. Many Major League teams are adding to the excitement that we see night in and night out, but it remains to be seen what teams will have enough to withstand the tough month of September and stay alive. Let’s take a look at this year’s pretenders and contenders for the upcoming dramatic playoff race.

A.L. Pretenders:
Tampa Bay Rays- I feel really bad for putting the Rays in this spot, but I don’t see them making it out alive in the A.L. East. The Red Sox will find some way to make this thing close before September comes. If stud third baseman Evan Longoria and closer Troy Percival can get off the DL sooner rather than later the Rays could have a chance, but putting everything on Carlos Pena and Australian Grant Balfour is a tough thing to ask.

Minnesota Twins- Tip your hat to the Twins for staying in it this long. Losing Santana and Hunter gave the image of a losing year back in Spring Training, however the emergence of young pitchers such as Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey have kept the Twins floating. The main problem with the Twins lies with the lineup outside of All-Stars Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. The Twins will take on the Mariners and Oakland this week in a 7 game west coast swing; games in which they need to play well in to stay on top of the division.

N.L. Pretenders:
Philadelphia Phillies- The Phillies leader in wins is Jamie Moyer. Ouch. This squad has no pitching outside Cole Hamels and Moyer. And please don’t sit here and tell me that fat ass Joe Blanton was the answer to the Phillies pitching problems. They made a weak push for Rich Harden and are quickly learning that Blanton’s cheese curd fastball can’t hold much to Harden’s dominance. Their lineup is stacked, but their rotation isn’t. Balanced teams make the playoffs. The blue collar working class of Philadelphia will once again have to hope the Mets collapse in a New York minute (or seven games in seventeen days like last year).

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Hosts: Sonny, Ryan and Rich: This episode focused solely on the National League East. With Johan Santana now in the mix in New York, can the Mets rebound from last year’s epic September collapse? Or will the Philadelphia Phillies, led by their three MVP candidates, make it two titles in a row? Or…will the Atlanta Braves return to the postseason after a two year drought? All of this and more on this episode of the Sportable Spot.

Note: You may have noticed we haven’t recorded podcasts for the AL Central and AL East. Those will be posted in the next few days, we had a slight mishap with the order of divisions.

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Fish try not to fry in NL East. The perpetual re-builders of the NL East limped home in 2007, finishing 18 games off the pace and staking claim to the cellar of the division. Jeffrey Loria continued to slash payroll, trading the only two recognizable faces on the team in Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers for center fielder Cameron Maybin, pitcher Andrew Miller, and a box of sugar. Manager Fredi Gonzalez will have another shot to make this team look respectable and give the Miami area something to be proud of in lieu of the failings of the Miami Dolphins and Miami Heat.

Bats. Boys and girls, if there’s one thing you take away from this lesson, remember the name Hanley Ramirez. If you already knew, then you better tell somebody. Ramirez, in his second full season, posted eye popping numbers while mired in obscurity. On top of hitting .332 from the lead-off position, Ramirez slugged 29 home runs, scored 125 runs while driving in 81, and stole 51 bases. Ramirez is the gem of the organization now that offensive prodigy Miguel Cabrera has been shipped out and it will be up to Ramirez to put the Marlins back on the map much like Cabrera did two years ago. Next to him at second base is Dan Uggla. Uggla saw his batting average take a considerable dip last season, falling to .245. Still, the small slugger belted 31 home runs and drove in 88 rbi’s. Read the rest of this entry »

As part of our ongoing series of letters to various athletes and teams, I’ve written an article to the Florida Marlins. The Marlins, who have already won two World Series titles in their short existence, seem to be either great or god awful. It’s time to find the medium ground.

1. Build a new stadium. It’s harder than it sounds, I know. There’s a whole lot of people in South Florida who would rather sip Pina Coladas and play Shuffleboard instead of watching the Marlins play baseball every day. The new stadium is one of the main ways to change that. And besides, Joe Robbie Stadium Pro Player Park Pro Player Stadium Dolphin Stadium is a turquoise dump anyways. Among other reasons such as ad revenue and not having to share with a football team, a baseball only facility is much more attractive to the regular fan who wants to go to a nice atmosphere and watch a game. It doesn’t matter how good the team is; look at Pittsburgh. As long as the stadium is beautiful (which it undoubtedly would be in Miami) and the atmosphere is nice, more people will come to the game.

2. Trade Dontrelle Willis. No, don’t trade him for prospects. People will say “but hey, thats the Florida way!”. No, that’s a good way to build a bad team. Get guys who are proven at the major league level and who can come in and make an immediate impact. That doesn’t mean Joe Randa and it doesn’t mean Kip Wells. Dontrelle has struggled this year but he’s still young and his stock is still pretty high. If the Marlins don’t deal him, they’ll find themselves in the same situation that they will end up in with Miguel Cabrera, a free agent who brings the team nothing in return. That brings me to my next point…

3. Lock up Miguel Cabrera. I don’t care what you have to pay or who you have to whack, get him signed for the rest of his career. Cabrera might just be one of the best baseball players of this generation and he’s only 24. He’s a career .314 hitter and already has 127 career home runs. His weight is something that is becoming a minor issue, but in the whole scheme of things his talent is growing just as fast as the scale is. Just like Dontreezy, if Cabrera isn’t locked up by the time his contract runs out in 2009, he will walk and his annual salary will be more than most South Beach drug king pins.

4. Drop Jeffrey Loria like a bad habit. This one will probably be the toughest to do because he’s the owner but it’s the most important. Loria is the lynch pin to this whole disaster that is the Marlins franchise. Once he’s out and someone else can come in and run this team, the sky’s the limit. Loria was the reason 2006 NL Manager of the Year Joe Girardi was fired and he’s the reason that Florida won’t increase payroll. It’s not like he doesn’t have the cash; Loria just built a new building at Yale for the History of Art department. As an indication of how bad of an owner Loria is, his first move as chief of the Marlins was to fire 60 team employees and replace them with mostly former staff members of the Expos. The freaking Expos.

Well, there you have it Marlins fans. Four somewhat easy steps to reviving a franchise that has all sorts of potential. It took the Red Sox almost 100 years to win one World Series and it only took the Marlins four. With the core nucleus of young talent, it’s time to get it together and starting winning more.

For the entire month of March, the Sportable Staff will look at one Major League Baseball team a day. We?ll look at their lineups and pitching and in the end, assess their playoff chances. Previews will be done by division, starting with the American League East. Each new division will also feature a new podcast devoted entirely to that division.

Fish out of water. In pulling a Rachel Phelps and cutting nearly 3/4 of their payroll in 2006, the Florida Marlins were one of the biggest surprises last season. A motley crew of rookies and unprovens, the Marlins made a serious run at a postseason birth, only to fall short and finish at a still respectable 78-84. With outstanding seasons out of rookies Dan Uggla and Josh Willingham along with the continuing improvement of young star Miguel Cabrera, the Marlins have a solid core of young talent. The biggest stand out of last season for the Marlins, however, was the no hitter thrown by rookie Anabal Sanchez in September. With manager Joe Girardi being fired, the Marlins will have yet another new coach this year. Whether they can adapt to new manager Fredi Gonzalez will make a huge difference in the Marlins 2007 season.

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Hosts: Sonny, Ryan, Kevin: This episode focused solely on the National League East. We take some time to make fun of the Washington Nationals, as well as predict the playoff chances of tough teams like the Phillies, Braves, and Marlins. Will the Mets make it two in a row? You can snag Episode 16 here.

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Note: You’ll notice the sound quality in the March Madness podcasts and this preview are worse than other podcasts we’ve done. That comes from an error we made while setting up the microphones. We apologize in advance for any blown eardrums.