Welcome to the 2010 baseball season!

Opening Night at Fenway is tonight against the Yankees, and I'll be there with The Hey way up in the bleachers somewhere. So, of course, it's time for my 2010 predictions.

First, we'll recap last years picks. In the NL, I picked the Mets (really?), Cubs (what was I thinking?), Dodgers and Phillies as the Wild Card. I had the Mets beating the Cubs in the NLCS, David Wright as the MVP and Cole Hamels as the Cy Young Award winner. Not so good, eh?

In the American League, the Sox, Indians and Angels were my division winners, with the Yankees as the Wild Card. The Sox beat the Yankees in the ALCS, then beat the Mets in the World Series. My MVP was Grady Sizemore and my Cy Young was C.C. Sabathia. So, except for grossly overestimating the Tribe, I didn't do too badly.

Here we go with the 2010 picks:

AL East: Red Sox - pitching and defense rule the day
AL Central: White Sox - If Peavy can stay healthy, Chicago has the best pitching in the division. Loss of Joe Nathan is a huge blow to the Twins.
AL West: Mariners - King Felix, Cliff Lee and very good defense enable Seattle to knock the Angels off the top of the division.
Wild Card: Rays - maybe I'm just being perverse by not picking the Yankees, but I think this is going to be a bounce back year for a lot of the Rays players who took a step back in 2009 after their surprise pennant the year before.

ALDS: Red Sox over White Sox, Rays over Mariners
ALCS: Red Sox over Rays
MVP: Evan Longoria
Cy Young: Felix Hernandez

NL East: Phillies - Roy Halladay might win 25 games with this team in the NL
NL Central: Cardinals - Pujols, Holliday, Carpenter and Wainwright are too much for the rest of this division.
NL West: Rockies - if Brandon Webb is healthy, this could be a four team race with everyone except the Padres competing down to the end. Rockies win by a nose.
Wild Card: Giants - Lincecum and Cain lead the Giants back into the postseason, but they don't have quite enough offense to take first place. Is Barry Bonds still looking for a job?

NLDS: Phillies over Giants, Cardinals over Rockies
NLCS: Cardinals over Phillies in an epic series
MVP: Troy Tulowitzki
Cy Young: Roy Halladay

World Series: Red Sox over Cardinals in a 2004 rematch, but the Sox actually lose a game this time.