Man, I’ve had this thing written up for about 5 days now, I’m just know getting it published. How horrible is that? I had an extremely busy weekend, getting some shopping done, working and starting on some home projects, playing volleyball, and other various things. I wanted to get this out by Opening Day, and I basically have minus the one game played last night. I also wanted to get out my Carlos Zambrano prediction before it became a truth most likely this week or possibly next. Enjoy my predictions, and give me your thoughts.

I saw an article over on yahoo with some player related predictions, so I thought I’d throw my own predictions in the mix. You can view the article here. The article also included their predictions for the playoffs and The World Series. I’m going to wait for till after the first week of the season to give my full predications on that.

The darkhorse is a player who puts up the stats to be considered for the award but likely their team will take them out of the real running. Take a few years ago when Derrek Lee had his career year. He didn’t win the MVP because the Cubs did not make the playoffs, and for that reason only. I tried to stray away from some of the experts choices, just so I’m not mimicking their answers, but I’m also putting a lot of my own opinions in the matter. Some of the answers will be followed up with my reasoning below.

NL Batting Champion Darkhorse: Matt Holiday. I chose Holiday because he really is a good hitter. He hits for average and power. He batted in the .320’s last season, and he’s still a really young player. I think it’s feasible that he could get into the .340’s with no problem. AL Breakout Hitter: Greg Norton. If he gets consistent at-bats either while DH’ing or playing first base, he could put together a really good year. He did some good damage with the small amount of at bats he did have. AL MVP: Travis Hafner. He finally gets the respect that he deserves. He also will finally be voted into an All-Star game as well.