Fantasyland

Here's a rule to live by - never trust a sportswriter who wears a ball cap backwards for his column mugshot.

Such is the case with CBS Sportsline.com's renegade baseball writer Eric Mack. I have to be honest and say I had never heard of this loose cannon, Eric Mack before I saw his latest MLB Power Rankings posted on the website. Lets just say I can't believe the Flava he's kickin in my ear.

Mack has the Indians ranked THIRD out of the 30 major league teams, behind only the White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.

Now there is not one person on this earth who would love to believe the Tribe is that good more than me, but lets be serious. An Indians team that failed to make the playoffs last year when literally everything that could have gone right did. All 5 starters stayed healthy the WHOLE season - which happens about never. Two rookies, Peralta and Sizemore, step in and become studs. No significant injuries period?

Now they have dismantled the best bullpen in the league and let the ERA leader walk and replaced him with an injury prone journeyman. THIS is the third best team in baseball?

With Coco Crisp, Manny Ramirez, Papi Ortiz and Jason Varitek in their lineup, the Red Sox could win 80-85 games with the Akron Aeros pitching staff. So what will they do with Josh Beckett and the boys? Yet Mack only has them fifth.

You know whats going on here? Every year we are completely inundated with preseason projections, predictions and power rankings. By September, does anybody really remember who picked what? I think these writers actually just go for shock value at this point, anything to set them apart from the herd.

That could be the only explanation for the wild, wacky line of stuff Eric Mack is feeding us.