AL Central

The Boston Red Sox have been one of the most active teams in the Hot Stove Season of 2010-11, with the signing of free agent Carl Crawford and the trade for Adrian Gonzalez. Crawford will give the team a new legitimate base stealing threat and a bookend left fielder who can cover a lot of ground, while Gonzalez provides a much needed lefty power bat and is a gold glove fielder at first. 

It was a tale of two halves last season for Chicago's Gordon Beckham.

Billy Butler recently signed a contract extension worth at least $30 million with the Kansas City Royals.

Butler could be with Kansas City for at least the next four years, one more if the Royals pick up the $12.5 million option for the fifth year.

Apparently, he thinks the Royals will become contenders within that time frame.

The goal for every fantasy manager is to find the proverbial diamond in the rough, a player who provides early round production despite being taken in the latter part of the draft. These players are not easy to find due to the unpredictable nature of the sport, however it is important to use some late round picks on possible breakout players to help fortify your lineup. 

The Twins have a minor league system loaded with good young players. In part one of this series I highlighted players ranked six through ten in the Twins' farm system.

6. Alex Wimmers: RHP

7. Adrian Salcedo: RHP

8, Liam Hendriks: RHP

9. Carlos Gutierrez: RHP

10. Max Kepler: OF

Who makes the cut as the top five players in the Twins' farm system?

With all of the attention put on the search for a third baseman, the Cleveland Indians might have just as much of a problem at second base this year.

Maybe the hole that is second base is being forgotten because some of the candidates for the third base job (Jayson Nix, Luis Valbuena) are originally second basemen. This compounds the problem, though. Nix and Valbuena probably should not be starters at either position.

With the off season of baseball, there is a lot of time for introspection, fact-finding and fooling around.

I chose the latter of these three and decided to delve into some of the more obscure MLB stats. Baseball is heavily centered around stats and so, without further ado, here they are:

Ounces of Coke per Nostril (OCN)

The Kansas City Royals made news this offseason when they announced that the team would be willing to deal All-Star closer Joakim Soria for the right price.

Many began to think that the club was going to deal the talented 26-year-old Soria, especially after it was reported that Soria himself said that he would be willing to go to a team like the New York Yankees.

Now, after most of the MLB offseason dust has settled, Soria is still a Royal. Here are some reasons KC will not trade him and he is here to stay in Kansas City.

Fantasy owners continue to wait for Billy Butler to develop power.  After hitting 21 HR in 2009 (along with 51 doubles) there was hope that he had turned the corner.  There was hope that he was on the precipice of becoming one of the elite first baseman in the game.

Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.  In fact, it wasn’t even close.  The 2010 season, while solid in many ways, fell well short of expectations:

The Twins haven't won a World Series since the 1991 team beat the Bobby Cox led Braves. Ever since then it has been quite a rocky road for the team in the Twin Cities. In the playoffs, they have gone 6-21 since 2002 and 0-9 since 2004. Their most hated postseason opponents are clearly the New York Yankees, who have eliminated them the last two times the Twins have made the playoffs (2009 and 2010).