Please allow me to introduce myself…

Kevin Wheeler makes his first entry here at Seamheads and begins by letting you know who he is, what he’ll be bringing to the table in future entries and where he’s coming from regarding the 2009 MLB season.

I’ve always found it easier to read someone’s work when I know where they are coming from, so I thought I’d use this first post to give you an idea of how I see the game of baseball and what I thought about the ’09 season as of Opening Day.

What I’m planning on doing in this space each Wednesday is just some free-form baseball stuff. Sometimes I’ll try to delve into an issue, other times I’ll just offer observations on what I saw over the past week. When the opportunity presents itself, I’ll post Q&A’s with players, managers, coaches and front office personnel. In short, I’ll try to keep things fresh and go with the flow. When there is a lot of stuff going on I’ll roll with it. When it’s a little slow, I’ll dig into my bag of “pet topics” (like how ridiculous pitch counts have gotten – that’ll be a good one!) and let it all hang out.

Here are my predictions for the 2009 season, again just as a means of letting you know where I’m coming from. I made these on the air on April 6th so there’s been no fudging of anything…

AL EAST
1. Boston
2. New York – wild card
3. Tampa Bay
4. Toronto
5. Baltimore

AL CENTRAL
1. Cleveland
2. Detroit
3. Chicago
4. Minnesota
5. Kansas City

AL WEST
1. Los Angeles
2. Oakland
3. Texas
4. Seattle

NL EAST
1. Philadelphia
2. New York – wild card
3. Atlanta
4. Florida
5. Washington

NL CENTRAL
1. Chicago
2. St. Louis
3. Cincinnati
4. Milwaukee
5. Houston
6. Pittsburgh

NL WEST
1. Los Angeles
2. Arizona
3. San Francisco
4. Colorado
5. San Diego

I have Boston over Philadelphia in the World Series…

And no, none of my preseason beliefs have changed…yet. I don’t think Toronto, Seattle or Florida will be in first place on June 1st, let alone at the end of September. I do still think teams like the Yankees, Angels and Mets will be in the playoffs.

Beginning next Wednesday I’ll get away from this kind of fluff piece and move into the good stuff, but since I only arranged to do some work here on Seamheads yesterday I didn’t have time to really get anything together. This is just a primer…

Here are some other things you may want to know about me when reading my stuff:

* I’m a total baseball geek and I watch 7-8 games on most days.

* I’m a former ballplayer, though I never reached the professional ranks. My “career” consisted of my stint as a backup catcher at the University of Miami, FL and a few failed tryouts with various teams down in Florida before Spring Training.

* I’m a baseball instructor who teaches hitters and catchers both in private lessons and as part of a high-end travel program for players ages 12-17.

* I’m a “media guy” whose primary job is hosting a sports talk show, plus I’ve written for The Sporting News (prospects & fantasy stuff) and Diamond Library.

* I am neither “old school” or “new school” – I believe in sabermetrics AND in what my naked eye tells me, but neither “school” is good enough on its own. Scouting and sabermetrics must go together.

If you want to reach me via e-mail, do it right here: thebaseballgods@gmail.com

Until next week…

KW