In the tradition of, well, just about every baseball writer in America, it's time to make a few predictions. Trying to forecast the outcome of a minor league team is much harder than doing so for a major league team, I believe, because there is so much inherent fluidity.

For instance, there will be two changes to the roster before tonight's game. Those will be the first many, many transactions this year. Players will go up, down, hit the disabled list or leave the organization entirely.

That said, here are the Minor Matters predictions for your 2010 Thunder:

BATTING LEADERS
HR: Brandon Laird (15)
RBIs: Austin Romine (78)
AVG: Damon Sublett (.305)
BB: Dan Brewer (75)
SB: Austin Krum (20)
PITCHING LEADERS
W: D.J. Mitchell (12)
ERA: Christian Garcia (2.11)
SO: Garcia (160)
SV: Pat Venditte (15)
IP: Garcia (142)

-- Josh Schmidt will be out of Trenton by the end of April. He will be replaced by Venditte.

-- Ryan Pope will continue last season's momentum and will earn a promotion to Scranton by June. He will be replaced by Andrew Brackman.

-- Garcia will stay healthy all season and will earn a September call-up to the Bronx.

-- There will be 10 games postponed by rain. One will feature a two-hour delay.

-- The largest crowd of the year will be for Jesus Montero bobblehead night.

-- A guess at tonight's lineup:

CF - Austin Krum
RF - Dan Brewer
C - Austin Romine
3B- Brandon Laird
2B - David Adams
LF - Damon Sublett
1B - Kevin Smith
DH - Edwar Gonzalez
SS - Luis Nunez

-- Lastly, the Thunder will go 82-60 and finish the second in the division to Portland, which will win 90 games.