Phil Rogers

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST

Before they went upscale at Target Field, the word that best described the Minnesota Twins varied according to whether they made the playoffs. They were efficient in the good years, cheap in the other ones.

The cost of everything has soared post-Metrodome, however, so now we recognize Minnesota baseball by its stability. But here's a thought: Is this about to turn into just another franchise instead of the lovable mom-and-pop operation the late Carl Pohlad took over from Calvin Griffith?

Bryce Harper hasn't played a day in the big leagues, and unfortunately for him there is only one way to go. It is opposite of up.

But if you want to bet on Harper as the second coming of Corey Patterson and Oddibe McDowell, you haven't been paying attention. The teenage hitter is a stone-cold killer with a bat in his hands, which is why fans in Washington will flock to Viera, Fla. -- one of the last remaining spring training outposts -- to see him and old man Stephen Strasburg (24 in July) next month.

Harper's as real as death, taxes and rush-hour traffic. As an 18-year-old, he put up an .894 OPS in his first pro season and then scorched the Arizona Fall League, driving in 26 runs in 25 games and assembling a slash line of .333/.400/.634.

Get ready for a 2012 season with J.J. Cale's "After Midnight" as the theme song. On many nights, the best baseball will be played in the Pacific time zone, with the Rangers, Angels, Diamondbacks, Giants and Dodgers creating must-see TV after much of the country has gone to bed.

With Yu Darvish expected to sign with the Rangers and Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson already with the Angels, the American League West should give us the type of power struggle we have been used to in the AL East during the wild-card era. The punch-counterpunch approach that general managers Jon Daniels of the Rangers and Jerry Dipoto of the Angels have taken in building their respective rosters underscores a significant change to the baseball landscape.

There has been a lot of teeth-gnashing about the amateur spending limits included in baseball's new collective bargaining agreement, limits that are to be enforced through a system of taxes and lost draft picks for repeat offenders.

Teams from the Cubs to the Pirates are unhappy, although few executives are willing publicly to take on Commissioner Bud Selig and the owners, who engineered the system.

A source with the Cubs suggested "it just became a slower and more difficult process" to build from the ground up and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Dejan Kovacevic wrote that any positive reactions to the new CBA were "delusional, deceitful and all fallacies in between" because it will continue to keep low-revenue teams like the Pirates down rather than help them.

Before the White Sox signed Adam Dunn last December, they tried to make a trade for Adrian Gonzalez. But Gonzalez went from San Diego to Boston in a perhaps-too-convenient transaction between the Padres' Jed Hoyer and the Red Sox's Theo Epstein.

Both Epstein and Hoyer are now on their way to the Cubs, carrying five-year contracts in the backpacks they will tote to their transition housing in Wrigleyville.

When Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts first identified Epstein as the decision-maker he had to hire, he rejected the idea of having someone like Hall of Famer Pat Gillick in his chain of command. He said he didn't need "a baseball guy to watch my baseball guy."

As much fun as it would be to see the Brewers and Tigers create havoc in October, this is shaping up as a postseason that will be low on surprises. The three best teams entering the playoffs are likely to be the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox, in that order.

The forecast here is we're looking at a Yankees-Phillies World Series, after the Yankees have a relatively easy time against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. The Yankees' edge against the Red Sox is that they have better pitching, and their bullpen figures to be the best in the playoffs -- a strong statement considering the Tigers' Jose Valverde's perfect season and the Braves' All-Star combination of Craig Kimbrel and Jonny Venters.