Yankees better than Sox; Cardinals will win Series

OK, the time has come for the ever fearful and always written in invisible ink major league baseball predictions. Let’s begin with the home team.

The Yankees are better than the Red Sox. The problem for the Sox is the wild card is not going to be so easy to take. Baltimore, Toronto, Cleveland and Oakland are better than last year. They are all probably going to be wild-card hunting.

The Yankees win the AL East. Much has been made of Toronto and its offseason moves. With Troy Glaus and Lyle Overbay, they are better. Their rotation with Roy Halladay, A. J. Burnett and Gustavo Chacin is solid.

If Manny Ramirez will just play and stop his lips from moving, he and David Ortiz will set the numbers standard for MLB teammates. Boston pitching is an issue, and Terry Francona will have to manage that part of the game carefully.

He says he likes his bullpen and spent most of opening day raving about it. He’s trying to get them to believe in themselves. They don’t yet. They have to for the Sox to stay with the Yankees.

The White Sox repeat with the help of a big year from Jim Thome. He can hit. Cleveland and Minnesota will be there, Detroit and KC will not.

The West is the Angels, but not easily. Vladimir Guerrero is among the best in the game and their rotation is solid. Oakland, with a better rotation, but not a lineup, will make it interesting. Seattle and Texas will struggle.

In the NL East, the Mets are the hot topic with Cliff Floyd, Carlos Delgado, and Carlos Beltran in the lineup. No one wants to face that order. Pedro Martinez is the question on the mound.

The big-toe problem is also a bad shoulder problem. They have the closer in Billy Wagner. The Braves win the division.

You’re right, they do not look as strong as the Mets on paper. On the field, they have to be beaten before you say a team that has won 14 consecutive division titles is second best. They need a closer, and Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones need big years.

Washington, Florida and Philadelphia are cannon fodder.

The NL Central is the Cardinals’, period. Scott Rolen and Albert Pujols will put up staggering numbers if they stay healthy.

Houston, with or without Roger Clemens, will not win the division and that is why the Rocket will not go back there to pitch absent a shameful amount of money being thrown at him.

In the West, the Dodgers are Jeff Kent, the Giants are the embattled Barry Bonds, the Padres are pitching, and the Diamondbacks and Rockies are watching. Let the adage have its way here. Pitching wins and the Padres should take the West in a tight race.

The Cardinals beat all comers in the NL, with the Mets probably being the wild card they face first.

The Yankees win the AL, with Boston as the wild card again.

The Cardinals take the World Series and then celebrate in their new stadium.

There. You will forget what you have just read unless it comes true, in which case the column will be repeated in October.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.