AL East

Fox Sports is reporting that the Toronto Blue Jays have sent Vernon Wells and his $17 million per year contract to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for infielder Mike Napoli; pending a physical. The Angels acquire cash with the 32-year-old Wells who has waived his no-trade clause after having his most productive season since 2006 with 31 home runs and 88 RBIs.

By Todd Farino, www.thecloserreport.com

What does the future hold for arguably the greatest closer of all time? 

By the end of the the next season, Mariano Rivera  will be the ripe old age of 42.  For the first time in his career, Rivera started to show his age. 

SAN FRANCISCO– Moving from the spacious outfield of the Oakland Coliseum to the hitter-friendly confines of Rogers Centre, all signs point to Rajai Davis becoming one of the top value picks in this year’s MLB Fantasy Draft. Although Davis may not be your prototypical leadoff man for the Toronto Blue Jays (an OBS of .320), he gives the team a speed threat that the fans of Toronto have not seen since the likes of Shannon Stewart nearly a decade ago.

At first glance, it would appear as if the Toronto Blue Jays have had a quiet offseason.

There were no big contracts, no major deals, no guys named Greinke or Ramirez. 

In fact, they seemed to lose more players than they acquired: Scott Downs, Brian Tallet, Kevin Gregg, All-Star catcher John Buck and first baseman Lyle Overbay have all signed elsewhere. 

Oh, and they traded Shaun Marcum, their Opening Day starter, for prospect Brett Lawrie.

Late Thursday afternoon, after nearly an entire offseason of position-player inactivity, Yankee GM Brian Cashman inked the former Braves superstar to a one-year, $2 million contract, with another $1.2 million in additional performance-based incentives. After bolstering their bullpen with top-shelf relief arms, the Yankees' acquisition of Andruw Jones fills the hole left by the late (not so) great Marcus Thames.

The fifth spot of the rotation is usually the most volatile one, and teams can go through any number of pitchers in the last spot over the course of a season.

Ineffective, injury-prone or young pitchers usually find themselves bringing up the rear of the rotation, and short spouts of poor performance will get a pitcher pulled out of the rotation quicker than its more established members.

Are you in the market for a 27th round draft pick with a good baseball eye and a propensity to hit home runs?  The Yankees decided the answer was yes with the 884th pick of the 2007 MLB amateur draft.

In 2010, the Yankees were adamantly clear that it was repeat or bust.
 
The reigning 2009 champion New York Yankees lost in the ALCS, eventually passing the World Series crown to the San Francisco Giants.
 
Most teams would be elated if that was how their last two seasons had panned out, but up in the Bronx expectations run high.
 
Reading the 2011 roaster is not going to provide much comfort, as the Bombers have more holes to fill this season compared to the last two combined.
 

Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

In signing relief pitcher Rafael Soriano, the New York Yankees took a big step in shoring up their bullpen before heading south to Florida for spring training.

The team had already made a number of signings including pitcher Pedro Feliciano, pitcher Mark Prior and catcher Russell Martin.

The Yankees also retained two major free agents in agreeing to terms on multi-year deals with closer Mariano Rivera and shortstop Derek Jeter.