When Matt Kemp sat on Monday with a hamstring strain (that landed him on the DL, much to my fantasy team’s chagrin), it snapped a streak of 399 consecutive games played. That was the longest active streak in baseball.

What’s up with that?

This season, by my unofficial count, only two first basemen have played in every one of their team’s games: Adrian Gonzalez and Joey Votto. That’s first base, one of the least taxing positions to play next to designated hitter, which I’m sure Gonzalez might have played a few games at. There are probably fewer than 40 players that have suited up and played every night for their team.

While players like Cal Ripkin and Lou Gehrig were both one-of-a-kind type players, what happened to guys like Miguel Tejada or Craig Biggio? Both held incredibly long iron man streaks with little notice, but at least they cracked a thousand games apiece.

Baseball has become a bit wussified in this regard. We’ll never see another true iron man like Gehrig or Ripkin for a couple of reasons.

First, players seem to get injured a lot easier these days. Despite having better training and medical staffs than ever, we seem to have more and more guys land on the DL every year. If you can make it through an entire season without a trip to the DL, that’s a badge of honour.

Second, managers try to get everyone rest every once in a while. I can understand this for pitchers and catchers, but majority of time guys are just standing around on the baseball field. This is like soccer where players are constantly moving, I’m sure the average third baseman doesn’t need a day off after playing seven games in a week.

Also, managers can be tempted to sit a guy if he’s in a bit of a slump just to take the pressure off the player. I don’t believe this works at all. Wouldn’t you rather have your guy try to work through his issues rather than sit and think about it?

It’s all these reasons that Cal Ripkin’s record of 2,632 games played in a row may now be one of the hardest records to ever break. It’s certainly right up there with 30 wins, a .400 batting average and a 56-game hitting streak. Just add one more to all of baseball’s unbreakable records.

So who were this year’s athletes and teams that stood out?

-It’s fairly obvious for anyone to see that soccer is the sport is the highest paying team sport. Out of the teams with the top 10 average weekly pay, seven were European soccer clubs. Helped by the fact that there will never be a salary cap in such a global game, most of the teams also increased over last year’s numbers. Barcelona’s average salaries went up 10% to almost $8.7 million a year. Manchester City’s average salary went up an astounding 26%, moving them from 10^th to third overall.

-Despite Barcelona having the highest average salaries, super-duperstar Lionel Messi isn’t the highest-paid Argentine. That title belongs to Sergio Aguero, who transferred to City during the summer. He’ll pull down a cool $16.6 million this year.

-Think a soccer player is England’s top paid athlete? Will guess again. It’s actually boxer David Haye, who remarkably made more than $24 million for one fight with Wladimir Klitschko. Simply stunning.

-Spain’s top paid athlete isn’t a footballer either, it’s F-1’s Fernando Alonso, who made a mind-boggling $40 million in 2011. Even more astounding is that the F-1 champion Sebastien Vettel wasn’t Germany’s top earner, losing out to Dirk Nowitzki at $19 million.

-But if you thought that was outstanding, Italy’s highest-paid athlete races on two wheels. Valentino Rossi, a Moto GP racer for Ducati made $20 million to top that country’s chart.

-Then there’s the sad state of Canada’s athletes, being topped by Jason Bay’s albatross of a contract. At least Joey Votto, a more respectable player will top this list soon.

-The NFL’s highest paid player wasn’t anybody you would expect it to be. Not a pretty boy QB like Tom Brady, not a diva receiver like Megatron and not a star running back like Adrian Peterson. It was Charles Johnson, who thanks to a massive signing bonus and front-loaded deal, made $34 million from the Carolina Panthers last year.

-Have you ever wondered how much fringe sport stars make compared to their mainstream brethren? Well look no further. Sean Rash made $140K in bowling prizes, Phil Taylor made nearly a million in darts. Joey Chestnut won $205K in Major League Eating, a quarter as much as Emmanuel Mutai made in distance running prizes ($815K). The lowest top dog made only $50,400, but also got a truck for his troubles; it was Dallas Seavey, winning of the Iditarod.

I could rant about starting the season in Japan while spring training is still going on for every other team in baseball, but I’ve done that before and really, it makes no sense. At least they sent Ichiro and Co. out there to draw some crowds that probably wouldn’t be matched stateside.

So, what’s the point of this post? Well since the season has started, why not keep up my tradition by throwing out some predictions, preview-style. Hey, it worked pretty well for my NBA predictions, where I called that Dwight Howard would finish the season with Orlando, but Derrick William would win rookie of the year.

-The Yankees will win 100 games. This is a team that won 97 games last year, can still rake on offence, didn’t lose any important pieces and improved their rotation significantly. A-Rod even went to Germany for that experimental Kobe Bryant-style blood treatment. What’s not to like here?

-The Red Sox will still do alright. Sure, their rotation isn’t the greatest, but the Yankees’ wasn’t last year either. Their lineup can do some damage and they can’t possible suffer through as many injuries as last year.

-Detroit has the AL Central locked up. Cleveland might be able to compete with them, but the Tigers are loaded up for a nice run. Even if their defence will be garbage.

- Jose Bautista won’t lead the majors in HRs. His number won’t be as rough as his second-half split from last year, but they won’t be as good as 2010 or the first half of 2011.

-We’re going to have some great races thanks to the extra wild card. Between Tampa Bay, Boston, Texas, the Angels and maybe even the Jays, Indians or Royals, three spots are up for grabs in the AL. Then in the NL, there’s even more parity, especially with Miami and Washington coming up in the East and the Central getting hurt by free agent departures.

-The Cubs will not win the World Series. But at least Theo Epstein can start them down the right path.

-Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw won’t repeat their amazing seasons. Kemp won’t lead the NL in home runs and nearly get the Triple Crown and Kershaw won’t win the pitching Triple Crown. The fact that they accomplished what they did last season was marvelous enough, there’s no way they can repeat it.

-Adrian Gonzalez will win the AL MVP. The Yankees’ lineup is great and balanced, same with Texas. The

As for Albert Pujols, who knows if L.A. even makes the playoffs?

-The biggest surprises (players): Aroldis Chapman (finally getting a chance to close?), Ichiro (bounce back from last year), Mark Buehrle (surprisingly good after switching leagues?).

-The biggest surprises (teams): Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals.

-The biggest disappoints (players): Brett Lawrie (can’t possibly match his stellar 2011 stint), Michael Pineda (Slumped in second half of 2011, showed up overweight), Ryan Braun (PED scandal will hang over his head)

-The biggest disappointments (teams): Toronto, Milwaukee, Atlanta.
-So, to round things up, here are the 2012 playoffs…
AL East: New York Yankees.
AL Central: Detroit Tigers.
AL West: Texas Rangers.
AL wildcards: Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays.
NL East: Philadelphia Phillies.
NL Central: Cincinnati Reds.
NL West: San Francisco Giants.
NL wildcards: Miami Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks.
AL championship: Yankees over Rangers.
NL championship: Phillies over Marlins.
World Series: Yankees over Phillies.

Oh, and in case you wanted to know, the Mariners won this morning in extra innings, 3-1.

Why in the world would they want to do that? Ichiro has hit leadoff since coming to America ten years ago and has done an excellent job doing so. He has a .326 career batting average and a .370 OBP although his numbers did dip last season. In 2011, he only had a split of .272 and .310. It was also the first time in his career that he didn’t amass at least 200 hits.

The move really doesn’t make sense for two reasons: They don’t have anyone to replace him atop the lineup card and Ichiro isn’t the right type of hitter to bat third.

Let’s take a quick look at his possible leadoff replacements:

-Chone Figgins: He’s 34 years old, batted leadoff for the Angels earlier in his career and has been terrible since joining the Mariners. He hit only .188 last season in 81 games, missing the other half of the season injured. In his two Seattle seasons combined, he has hit a meek .236. He is – startlingly – the Mariners’ most likely leadoff replacement.

-Franklin Gutierrez: He’s a speedy centre fielder that is playing more for his defensive capabilities. He hit .224 last year with a .261 OBP. Not exactly a nice resume, but probably a better option than Figgins.

-Dustin Ackley: Pretty much set for the No. 2 spot in the lineup. He’s a good young prospect but will be better at driving in runs. He doesn’t really have leadoff man speed either.

-The others: Brendan Ryan is a journeyman and Mike Carp doesn’t have the speed either. Both are far more likely than Justin Smoak or Jesus Montero though.

Then there’s the question of why move Ichiro to the three-spot when he doesn’t fit there. He doesn’t have home-run power and he has not regularly displayed power to the gaps. If Seattle thinks that this is going to change at the age of 38, they must be crazy.

Ichiro is a slap-single hitter and shouldn’t try to change his style this late in the game. Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge shouldn’t be tinkering with the team to fit his plan; he should be adjusting his plan to fit this team.

So, when the Mariners open against Oakland in Japan, let’s just hope we see Ichiro getting the first at bat. I’m sure the fans out there will want to see that too.

Isn’t it the only way to justify our feelings of regret about losing out on him? If he turns out to be a bust, then we can all say: “It’s great that we didn’t waste our money on that guy.” If he turns out to be the real deal, a perennial all-star like Ichiro, then we’ll all be moaning: “He could have been the one to put us over the top!”

So, if you don’t want those feelings of regret and ‘oh, what could have been,’ the only thing you really can do is cheer against the Darvish and the Rangers if/when he signs on.

Also, let’s remember that Darvish is hardly a sure thing, especially considering the money that’s being thrown around.

Consider the most recent Japanese pitcher to come through the posting process: Daisuke Matsuzaka. After the Red Sox poured more than $100 million into him between the posting bid and his six-year contract, Dice-K has failed to live up to expectations. Sure, there have been flashes of brilliance, but hardly $100-million worth. And now Darvish will be feeling even more pressure.

And also, nobody should blame Rogers for not coming up with a bigger bid. Anteing up more than $50 million just to negotiate with a player is pretty loony. Now the Rangers still have to sign him to a deal in the $12-million per season range. That’s quite a bit for a guy that hasn’t thrown a pitch in Major League Baseball.

Realistically, the Jays are still more than one player away from the World Series. There are still some holes in the lineup and in the pitching staff, but at least now we know that the ownership is willing to throw some weight around for players that they think that can make a difference.

The Jays may have lost out this time, but down the road, Toronto’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in the open market.

Follow me on Twitter @danbilicki