Pitching has been getting better and better the past few years. Teams are realizing pitching and defense wins games and staffing accordinly. Teams such as the Twins with an incredibly low payroll but with good pitching and defense are able to still compete at a very high level. The White Sox completely changed their style of play and now rely on small ball and "smart ball" as Guillen calls it and it's paying dividends. The Braves, with a MUCH depleted lineup and pitching staff have found terrific young guys that have learned to pitch well. The Nationals, same thing, built on solid pitching without all the strikeout studs of before.
I also see hitting truly coming back. I mean real hitting, not striking out 160 times, hitting 40 HRs, and hitting .260.
This is a great time to be a fan of baseball as I think it's a "back to basics" era we're starting to see.
Look at the All-Star game with so many new faces. It's also a younger game right now and the stars of the past are aging and leaving quickly. It's not leaving a hole, yet producing a new baseball era for us. I think the public will forget about baseball because those major offenders will be riding off into the sunset shortly. I truly believe Bonds did a lot of bad for the game and should walk away. I'd love to see a truly classy guy surpass Babe or Hank... but I don't beleive Bonds deserves it. I'm the first to admit steroids are fine for us, but not for sports figures. It creates an uneven playing field. They DO help. When other players can put on a few lbs of muscle in the off-season and he can put on 20... well... we know what happens. Guys don't train to gain in the regular season, they can't. If they did, they wouldn't be able to play with recovery and such. Guys need to stricly lift and train hard in the offseason, so that 3-4 month window is vital and if some guys have an extra edge, it's just not fair.
Anyway, I've rambled enough.