Happy Opening Day! Some odds, rankings and stuff.....

I'm trying to clean up my inbox on this glorious Opening Day. Here are some of the many things I've been sent over the last few months:

ODDS

Many of you love a "little" action, Bovada, an on-line gambling site, has released a bunch of odds on which players will be award winners this season. In case you are wondering, I cleared posting these with the office:

Jose Bautista is a 13/2 favorite to lead the league in home runs. (no Twins listed)

Albert Pujols is an 11/2 favorite to win the AL MVP award (Joe Mauer 20/1, Justin Morneau 30/1)

Justin Verlander is a 9/2 favorite to win the AL Cy Young award (no Twins listed)

The Twins pop up in a couple other categories.

The Twins are +275 to win the series against the Tigers.

The website predictionmachine.com played out the season 50,000 times and sees the AL Central fishing like this:

Tigers 57 percent
White Sox 20
Indians 18
Royals 3
Twins 2

Bovada then sent me a list of managers most likely to be fired this year:

Bud Black 3/1
Brad Mills 5/1
Dusty Baker 11/2
Buck Showalter 6/1
Ron Gardenhire 6/1
Jim Tracy 9/1
Charlie Manuel 10/1
Joe Girardi 10/1
Bruce Bochy 10/1
Mike Scioscia 12/1
Gardy and Scioscia have as much job security as anyone. Don't know they should on this list.

Another website, vitals.com, has ranked all team doctors, according to patient ratings (not sure what that entails).:

1 Detroit Tigers
1 Houston Astros
1 New York Yankees
1 Baltimore Orioles
5 San Francisco Giants
6 Pittsburgh Pirates
7 Atlanta Braves
8 Oakland Athletics
9 Toronto Blue Jays
10 Texas Rangers
11 Cleveland Indians
12 Boston Red Sox
12 Philadelphia Phillies
12 Tampa Bay Rays
12 Washington Nationals
16 Colorado Rockies
17 New York Mets
18 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
19 San Diego Padres
20 Chicago White Sox
21 Arizona Diamondbacks
22 St. Louis Cardinals
23 Los Angeles Dodgers
24 Chicago Cubs
25 Minnesota Twins
26 Miami Marlins
27 Cincinnati Reds
28 Kansas City Royals
29 Seattle Mariners
30 Milwaukee Brewers
Again, I'm not sure how these rankings work. Lewis Yocum is considered one of the best around, and the Angels are ranked 18th? Frank Jobe is with the Dodgers, and they are 23rd?

BOOKS

Just received a copy of R.A. Dickey's book, Wherever I Wind Up. The book has made headlines because Dickey admits to being sexually abused by a female babysitter when he was eight years old. There's also a few pages devoted to his time with the Twins, and his thoughts on playing for Gardy.

I enjoyed chatting with Dickey during his time with the Twins. For a team that has talked for years about having a knuckleballer, I'm surprised they gave up on him so soon. Dickey considered himself to still be in his formative years as a knuckleballer, and the Mets are benefiting from it.

TRAVEL

In my never-ending quest to keep the persistent Julian Loscalzo off my back (just kidding), Ballpark Tours has released details for its annual road trip. Ballpark Tours was launched near the end of Metrodome stadium wars by souls loyal to outdoor baseball. They vowed, while on the grounds of the State Capitol one late night, to go watch outdoor baseball every year. They are in their fourth decade.

This year, they will catch minor league games before watching the Twins play in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. And there's more. If you are interested in this mission, go to http://www.ballparktours.net/ for more details. Word of warning, these people are loyal, but they are nuts. If you decide to go, please tell Julian you read about it here to get him off my back!!! Just kidding, again.

PICKS TO CLICK

Polls will remain open through the weekend. Click here for details.

Joe C. and Jim Souhan are in Baltimore. I'm back in town after spending 53 days in Florida. I will join Dan Barreiro and Justin Gaard on KFAN today at 5:20 p.m. - hopefully the Twins will be done by then. On Monday, I'll will join Paul Allen live from Brothers in downtown Minneapolis at 10 a.m. before the Twins home opener.