Each new season brings us a new batch of individual milestones, and the 2008 campaign will be no exception. With that in mind, let's take a look at which offensive milestones have realistic chances of being met during 2008, and see what sort of entertainment that promises within the season. (Next time out, I'll take a look at the pitching benchmarks that might be reached this year.)

Here's I question I think can be asked with a surprising degree of legitimacy: Will the Arizona Diamondbacks be the best team in baseball this season?

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What follows is a little something I like to call the "Mock Stove League." Allow me to explain--I'm proposing a trade of the blockbuster variety, one that, from my remove makes sense for all teams involved. In terms of tenability, it depends; these are deals that may or may not have a chance of happening in the demonstrably more complicated world of reality. From the remove from which I make this suggestion, though, the deals I'm suggesting strike me as helpful and inspiring for all. So, serious prescriptive or idle daydreaming? A little helping of both, please.

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Here we have the story of Dwight Gooden's early and astounding rise to prominence taken from Chapter Eight: The Veteran and the Youngster (or, What Teams Can Learn from a Bottle of Wine).

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Winners is both narrative and numbers, and it examines the stuff of winning baseball over the last 25 years. What do winning teams have in common? What do they do well, and what do they not do well? How are they assembled? Young or old? Cheap or expensive? Pitching and defense or hitting? Power or small ball? All these questions are answered in a lively manner. Winners also tells stories: the stories of the great teams, great players and even great trades of the modern era. Numbers are crunched, yarns are spun and jokes are made. So, in the words of the inestimable Video Professor, "try my product."

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The payroll is ramped up; the fan base is mobilized. However, the general sense of things is that these additions won't meaningfully alter the AL East pecking order. I disagree--in strong terms. If pressed, right now I'd likely predict the Red Sox to win the division, but it's a particularly close call for me, with the Yankees and, yes, the Blue Bays both meriting serious deliberation. I like Ryan's chances to be an elite, shutdown closer for the life of his contract, but mostly my enthusiasm for Toronto's immediate future comes down to how the pitching staff's tendencies dovetail with the strengths of the defense. That means the additions of Burnett and Overbay are critical and, ultimately, wise.

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However, my prevailing gripe is that Andy Pettitte received short shrift in the chase for the NL Cy Young from credentialed voters and statheads alike. There's a reason for this, and it touches on a larger issue that's of much import. That issue is this: the way we employ park factors in the analytical community is wrongheaded, and it needs to change posthaste.

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The 2005 season was no different: I learned some things. After going back over our AL and NL staff picks, I was chagrined but not surprised to learn that I'd make some fairly galling predictions. So in the name of accountability and self-flagellation, let's revisit the dumbest of these sooths and figure out what we can learn from them …

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The D-Rays have in their midst a rare and astounding mélange of young talent that's without peer in the game today. The haplessness in the upper reaches of the organization is well known, but when you pick no lower than eighth in the annual June draft for seven straight years you're almost bound to stumble into a nice farm system. Whatever the reasons, the Rays, if they're able to cobble together the necessary supporting parts (not to be assumed in Chuck LaMar's case), they could be at the beginning of a nice run in the AL East, thanks to a deep well of under-25 talent. Consider …

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This calls to mind the eloquent and cogently argued piece that our own Christina Kahrl wrote on Barry Bonds' return to the Giants lineup. While Christina (and others at BP) and I (and others at BP) aren't diametric opposites on L'Affaire Bonds, we do, ultimately, see things a bit differently. There are two thrusts to the issue, both raised in Christina's piece: what role the media's filtering of Bonds the man plays in all of this, and the legitimacy of his accomplishments.

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Anyhow, that this year's NL West is among the worst divisions since divisional play began in 1969 is beyond dispute, and I'm hardly the first one to point this out. So let's delve a little more deeply into the "rolling brownout" that is the NL West.

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Player Year OBP Steals Bert Campaneris 1972 .278 52 Vince Coleman 1994 .285 50 Omar Moreno 1982 .292 60 Miguel Dilone 1978 .294 50 Omar Moreno 1977 .295 53 Bert Campaneris 1967 .297 55 Mookie Wilson 1983 .300 54 Jose Reyes 2005 .304 58* (* - Projected total based on 2005 season to date) Reyes has loads of potential long-term, and his efficiency on the base paths is nice, but he needs to learn the strike zone. That means drawing a walk more often than once every 28 plate appearances and ranking higher than 103rd among major league qualifiers in pitches seen per plate appearance.

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