By Alvert Hernandez –

It’s April, which means baseball is back! After a hectic offseason with big names like 1B Albert Pujols signing with the Los Angeles Angels and SS Jose Reyes signing with the newly-named Miami Marlins, the NJCU campus community is already talking about the World Series. In a survey asking 50 people on who will win it all, a landslide of 56 percent picked the New York Yankees. The New York Mets came in second with 14 percent.

The New York Yankees have been the more productive New York team this offseason. They signed SP Andy Pettite, bringing him out of retirement and to join CL Mariano Rivera and RP Joba Chamberlain in a bullpen that has been considered “good but not great” by many baseball analysts in the past.

With the plethora of young talent, the Yankees have acquired SP Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners. They have put themselves in a good position to compete in the American League East. Coming off a season in which they were in 1st place of their division with a 97-65 record, they now seem to be making that push for their 28th championship.

However, the same cannot be said for the New York Mets. They’re coming off a 77-85 season, looking for serious improvement and trying to make the playoffs for the first time since 2006. They lost Reyes this offseason and haven’t pursued any big name players.

The Mets have meagerly made a push for a bunch of average players and hope that it can be enough to make a push behind their star 3B David Wright. Unfortunately, the New York Mets organization is under great scrutiny off the field as well, being a victim of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

This doesn’t help their chances in establishing themselves as a threat in the National League East.

The one team that has made the biggest moves in the offseason has been the Los Angeles Angels (which only received 4 percent of the votes). They acquired the biggest free agent on the market, Pujols from the St. Louis Cardinals, along with SP C.J. Wilson from the Texas Rangers.

Both players had monster seasons for their respective teams last year. Pujols and Wilson now join forces in Los Angeles, who are crowned as the favorite to win their American League West division and a World Series contender.

But according to the NJCU campus community, the New York Yankees are destined to take it this year. Let’s see what the 2012 season has in store for all the baseball fans on campus. See you all in October!