AL East

Entering his final year of salary arbitration, Jonathan Papelbon will likely cash in on a big pay day following the 2011 season. 

However, with a declining skill set and Daniel Bard as the closer of the future, there is next to no chance he signs a long term deal with the Boston Red Sox.

Papelbon is due to make roughly $11 million for the coming season.

The presence of Bard and the acquisition of Bobby Jenks makes the possibility that Papelbon does not finish the year with the Red Sox all the more likely.

The Baltimore Orioles have been busy this offseason. Since the winter began, the O's have been making under-the-radar moves, quietly upgrading several areas of the club.

They finished revamping their infield with the signing of first baseman Derek Lee on New Year's Eve, and on Tuesday, solidified their bullpen even further after agreeing to terms with free agent right-hander Kevin Gregg.

For the second consecutive week the Blue Jays signed a former closer with the intent of rebuilding their bullpen for 2011. The newest addition to the bullpen corps is Chad Cordero who was last seen throwing a whole nine and two-thirds innings out of the Mariners' bullpen last season. Previous to that he, more or less, completely missed all of 2008 and 2009 after an injury to his right shoulder. The deal is a minor league contract with an invite to spring training, making it about as low-risk a move as your going to find.

In order to be the World Series contenders that many people expect them to be this season, the Red Sox will need all five of their starters to pitch up to their potential. 

Last season, Red Sox starting pitching was inconsistent, at best. Despite the rash of injuries, poor starting pitching—more than anything else—was the reason for the Sox' disappointing season.

Blockbuster trades at the major league level often tend to shake things up at the minor league level, and the Boston Red Sox trade for Adrian Gonzalez last November was no exception. The Red Sox were forced to ship three of their top prospects off to San Diego to seal the deal: RHP Casey Kelly, 1B Anthony Rizzo and OF Reymond Fuentes. That trio were ranked, respectively, as the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 6 prospects in the Red Sox organization by Baseball America just prior to their being traded.

COURTESY OF YANKEES 'N MORE

The holidays, and 2010 along with them, are over.
 
We head into the second day of the first work week of 2011, and Brian Cashman, well, he continues to do what he's done all winter...NOTHING.
 
Well, that's not exactly true. Cashman did manage to wake up long enough to sign a lefty specialist, who has never pitched a day in the American League before.

Being of Generation Y—loosely defined as the segment of the population who saw Jenny McCarthy's botox-ravaged face on New Year's Eve and wondered where the last 15 years went—I've become quite Internet savvy.

That means I can filter out much of what doesn't interest me and gravitate toward content that sits on my Mount Rushmore of Internet usage: Fantasy sports/real sports/attractive women/Wikipedia. There's nothing I need on a computer screen that doesn't fit one of those four categories.

The Designated Hitter—home of the offensively talented and the defensively challenged players. By not having to play the field many players have been able to prolong, or even make, a career through offensive contributions alone. 

The MLB has benefited greatly off of imported talent.  A recent wave of Japanese and South American players have taken the game by storm.  

Today, about 27% of MLB consists of foreign-born players.  Great talents like Hideki Matsui and Ichiro were established already in Japan.  They still were able to make an even bigger name for themselves here in the States.  Many others from South American countries as well have "made it big" in America.  Collectively, these foreign-born plays add another dimension to the game.  

On January 5, Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame class for 2011 will be announced on a live MLB Network simulcast at MLB.com. Among the distinguished list of candidates are two former New York Yankee first basemen who will always occupy a special place in the hearts of Bronx Bomber fans.