April: What to Watch For

I will have a more appropriate season prediction post up for tomorrow but until then here are a few story lines, battles, players, matchups, etc. to watch out for in April (besides the showers bringing in flowers):

• Closer Battles: The Royals, Red Sox, White Sox and Reds all have injured or unsettled closer situations and it will be interesting to see if anyone takes the reins and runs with it. Also, look out for Mets and Orioles to have some potential closing carousels going as well with Jim Johnson and Frank Francisco struggling in the spring.
•  Albert Pujols: Any time the best player in a sport changes teams, it's worth watching. Albert Pujols was on fire in the 2nd half last year (.319/.375/.584) and it has carried over this spring with Pujols batting .407/.460/.870 with 6 home runs. 
• New Rivalries: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's offseason acquisitions of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson certainly makes their division rivalry with the Texas Rangers more compelling, especially considering the Rangers signing of...
• Yu Darvish:  Will he be an ace worth the $100M+ investment or will he unimpress like Daisuke Matsuzaka? Or will he just be boringly effective like Hiroki Kuroda who signed with the...
• New York Yankees: Sure, there may be an East Coast Bias in sports coverage and even I may prefer the Yankees (emphasis on Ben's Baseball Bias) but there are simply too many intriguing storylines: the Michael Pineda injury/mph saga, Andy Pettitte's return, aging vets, and how they will cope with the Red Sox and...
• Bobby Valentine: It's not even opening day and Curt Schilling already has spoken out about his dislike of Bobby Valentine. Of course, nobody cares what Curt Schilling thinks unless you play RPG video games or agree with Sean Hannity (hint, Curt Schilling is a 'job creator'). Anyway, this will be an exciting year around the Red Sox and we can only hope to see more of this.
• Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles Via Brooklyn: How will the new ownership group run the ship from the get go? You don't pay over $2 Billion for a franchise to then be frugal - but will they try to make some noise early or play it patiently? 
• Contract Extensions: I don't think it's a complete coincidence that right after the Dodgers were sold that the Royals and Reds locked up their best players (Alex Gordon/Joey Votto). There is a new, rich team around and if your players reach free agency they may be gone forever. 
• Games that matter: Besides two games  in Japan we haven't had any real games yet and no matter what the matchup is, the best thing to watch in April is simply live baseball games that count!