You’ll forgive its earliness, I know, because you’re probably a lot like me. Sure, the NBA is entertaining, and the flurry of deadline deals and marquee players changing hands makes it all the more so. But with more than a month and a half between now and the playoffs it’s hard to get too excited about the Association just yet. And even with March just around the corner, it doesn’t yet seem like the annual madness is ready to set in.

If you’re like me, you’re thinking it’s time for baseball. So, with the Cardinal season already underway and Major League spring training taking place, maybe a preview of the 2008 MLB season isn’t completely uncalled for.

So who emerges to take the 2008 title? Obviously, it’s too soon to venture any sort of an educated opinion, which is why readers should be glad that my opinion is entirely uneducated. So not only will I pick a winner for you, I’ll pick all the playoff teams (probably with an astounding degree of inaccuracy) months in advance.

In the American League, the story is simply one of the haves and have-nots. On the one hand, there are the squads everyone knows will be in contention all season long — the defending champion Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in the East, the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians in the Central, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the West.

It’s obvious that the East has to come down to either the Yankees or Red Sox. The two biggest financial juggernauts of baseball also boast perhaps its most talented rosters, blending promising youth like Joba Chamberlain and Clay Buchholz with reliable veteran difference-makers like Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez.

Ultimately, look for the Red Sox’s slightly better rotation to make the difference in the end, but depending on how Chamberlain and Phil Hughes develop, that could change soon. Whichever team doesn’t win the division should have a nice Wild Card prize waiting for it at the end of the season.

In the AL Central and West, it’s much easier to call. Detroit’s offseason acquisition of one of the best hitters in baseball in Miguel Cabrera should vault them into the playoffs, while I see Anaheim running away with the West and the best record in the AL.

On the National League side, things get a lot more interesting. To be sure, there are plenty of teams that are out of it from the start (our local San Francisco Giants come, sadly, to mind), but there are few true front-runners for the NL crown. In the East, the experts say you should take the Mets, and it’s hard to argue with them there. But as I’ve intimated earlier, I’m no expert, so I’m taking the Phillies. Look for Cole Hamels to take a big leap forward and become one of the best starters in baseball.

Aside from that, I just can’t see an offensive core made up of Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and, yes, even Pat “The Bat” Burrell, being denied from postseason play. It’s splitting hairs, I grant you, but I think I’d rather have that group than the Mets’ amazing lineup featuring David Wright, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran. New York will make the playoffs, but they will have to be content to do it as a Wild Card in both leagues.

In the Central, it’s another two-team race with the Cubs versus the Brewers. There’s a lot of offense on both sides of this battle, but the Cubs, at least, have one truly dominant pitcher on their staff in Carlos Zambrano. I see that making the difference down the stretch. Cincinnati could sneak into the race if youngsters like Homer Bailey and Jay Bruce develop quickly, but it’s probably ‘wait ‘til next year’ for the Reds, whose fans can take heart that next year truly could be spectacular for a team with some very good players now and more on the way.

The West is probably the most unpredictable division in baseball, with only the Giants dead in the waters of McCovey Cove before the season starts. Yet even they have the kind of rotation that would be the envy of many contending teams.

Yes, pitching is the story of the west, from the newly arrived Dan Haren, to old standbys like Jake Peavy and Brandon Webb, to youngsters like Chad Billingsley, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. The West has more guys with either pasts or possible futures as staff ace pitchers than any other division. In the end, I think the Arizona Diamondbacks take the division, thanks to a young offense with a year under its belt that should keep getting better and the aforementioned killer duo of Webb and Haren.

So who takes it all? Well, you’ll have to wait until October to know for sure. But if you want to know where the dumb money (i.e. me) is going, then be my guest.

Detroit over Arizona in six games. Thanks to a perfect game by Justin Verlander . . . . and five homers in game six from Miguel Cabrera . . . .and any other extreme improbabilities you can conjure up to get yourselves excited. Because ladies and gentlemen, baseball’s back.

And not a moment too soon.