Believe it or not, Opening Day is almost upon us.

In just a few days, Major League Baseball will hit the field for the start of the 2022 season. Sure, it’s a little later than it might have been, thanks to the still-inexplicable lockout that resulted in an offseason packed with uncertainty only to land on a meet-in-the-middle compromise that probably should have been reached back in December, but whatever. We’re getting baseball!

The bat will still crack. The glove will still pop. Blazing fastballs and towering home runs will be abundant. Familiar faces will display their usual excellence and unknowns will display unexpected transcendence. And for the more data-driven – the numbers will continue to tell you the truth. The joy of that part of baseball is that there will ALWAYS be more numbers.

We all love it for different reasons.

So we’ll see if the Atlanta Braves can become the first back-to-back World Series winners in a generation. We’ll see what two-way talent Shohei Ohtani does to follow up on an MVP year. Can Bryce Harper win his second MVP in a row and third overall? What about Cy Young winners Robbie Ray and Corbin Burnes? We’ll find out which young phenoms are the real deal and which are fool’s gold, which long-timers are out of gas or still have a little left in the tank.

And so, in my ongoing futile quest to look ahead at what is to come, here is one man’s opinion on how the upcoming season might play out. One thing is for certain: there will be some surprises. There always are. Baseball is back, folks – better late than never.

Play ball!

(Division winners = x; Wild Card = y)

It might be hard to believe, considering how much snow we’ve seen recently, but spring is here. Whatever the weather says, the truth is that baseball season is just around the corner! Spring training is coming to a conclusion – we’re on the verge of seeing games that count!

There’s plenty to be excited about in 2019. The biggest contracts in the history of the game have been signed. The stars are poised to pick up where they left off; reigning MVPs (Mookie Betts and Christian Yelich) and Cy Young winners (Blake Snell and Jacob deGrom) and Rookies of the Year (Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto) are all ready to get back to work. Meanwhile, new faces like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Eloy Jimenez are almost here. Plus, there are the names that we don’t know well (or at all) yet, but who will capture our attention before the season is through.

There are going to be a lot of home runs and a lot of strikeouts. There will be stars who perform to expectations and unknowns who shock the world. There will be delightful highs and unfortunate lows. There’s no way to say for certain what will go down on the field in 2019.

But let’s give it a go anyway.

It might be hard to believe, considering how much snow we’ve seen recently, but spring is here. Whatever the weather says, the truth is that baseball season is just around the corner! Spring training is coming to a conclusion – we’re on the verge of seeing games that count!

There’s plenty to be excited about in 2018. The Houston Astros look ready to hit the field as defending champions for the first time in their history. We might get our first legitimate two-way player in nearly a century thanks to the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani. Young superstars like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are playing for what will likely prove to be record-shattering free agent contracts. Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw will continue to build on their Hall of Fame careers.

And once again, I have staved off the inevitable reality of age; we have not one, but two major league baseball players who are older than I am – pitcher Bartolo Colon, now with the Minnesota Twins, and outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who has returned to the Seattle Mariners, the team where his storied MLB career began.

As for the specifics – who knows? There are going to be a lot of home runs and a lot of strikeouts. There will be stars who perform to expectations and unknowns who shock the world. There will be delightful highs and unfortunate lows. There’s no way to say for certain what will go down on the field in 2018.

But let’s give it a go anyway.

(Division winners – x; Wild Card teams – y)

Once again, spring has sprung. Regardless of what the weather outside brings, there's no escaping the fact that we're just days away from the beginnings of another baseball season. Spring training is almost at an end. The crack of the bat and the smack of the mitt will soon surround us.