AL East

The New York Yankees has agreed to a one-year, minor league contract with starting pitcher Freddy Garcia, according to ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.

Just after a few days of expressing interest in pitching for the Yankees, Garcia gets what he wants and Brian Cashman has made his best move this offseason by signing Garcia.

Keith Law of ESPN recently put out his yearly organization ratings based purely on Minor League talent alone. Law rated the Jays' system as the fourth best in all of baseball. With those rankings also came his top 100 prospects list for all of baseball as well as each team's top ten prospects.

The Red Sox have one of the most solid rotations in baseball, both in terms of on-field quality and stability.  They have six major league-ready starters and, barring injury, not many of their prospects will see a start. 

Jon Lester is one of my favorite pitchers in baseball.  I’ve loved him since 2008, when I stupidly refused to trade Shawn Marcum for him, and made sure I drafted him in 2009 and 2010.  

I mean, what’s not to like? 

Since the hiring of manager Buck Showalter in late July, the Orioles had an incredible end to the season. Finishing at 34-23 under Showalter, the Orioles had a better last two months than the Yankees, who finished a mediocre 29-30 in the same time frame.

Showalter made an immediate impact for a team that was thought to be lost. Can last year's late success translate into a possible postseason run in 2011? 

With January winding down and February approaching, it’s time to get into fantasy baseball mode.

As we go through February and head towards March and everyone’s fantasy draft, we will start pumping out more fantasy articles in preparation.

Today, we will take a look at five guys who had their fantasy value drop and in some cases, plummet because events that happened in this offseason.

Here are the top-five fantasy losers from this offseason and guys you might want to stay away from on draft day.

Nick Markakis averaged 99 runs, 20.3 HRs, 100 RBI and 11.3 SBs while hitting .299 from 2007-2009. He didn’t excel in any one category, outside of the 112 RBI in 2007, but he was a solid contributor across the board.

Then last year happened.

The only area in which Markakis looked like himself was his batting average of .297. He scored just 79 runs; he hit just 12 HRs.

It's almost February and that means pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training in just a few weeks; it also means that the free agent signings are coming to an end. It's rapidly becoming time for coaching staffs to be extending training camp invites to a group of players - a few of which may be lucky enough to land the last few rosters spots on a team. 

Is anybody else convinced that Jorge Posada is so not on board with this full-time DH thing?

Po's been the Yankees' resident lovable curmudgeon for 15 years. He's not exactly the personality type that embraces change. And nothing good can come from change when you're a 39 year old catcher.

On paper, the Boston Red Sox have the best and most complete team in the American League. To back up such a declaration, however, many of their prime talents must bounce back from a slew of injuries.

Last season, the team was held back as baseball’s version of the Portland Trail Blazers, a power built to seriously contend yet decimated by broken bones, surgeries and sickness.

As Spring Training nears closer, baseball fever is beginning to run rampant. With only one week left in the NFL season, it's only a matter of time before people start looking south to Florida for hints at what's to come in the new season.

Over the next couple of months, I'll be breaking down a division each week before making my final predictions for how the season is going to turn out.

First up, the loaded AL East.

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