Albert Pujols

Buster Olney from ESPN and Jon Heyman from Sports Illustrated are two sports writers quickly losing ground of credibility with me lately.  I honestly would rather not read someone's jibber-jabber unless they had their little ducks in a row and their sources correctly cited. Instead all we get are the standard unnamed source bologna in place of real writing because they have nothing else to come up with.  We should be sick of it, and we don't deserve it. 

With only a month or so until pitchers and catchers report to training camp, the final free agents are beginning to find homes at last. Jim Thome signed a deal with the Minnesota Twins, and Rafael Soriano has become the most expensive setup man of all time, hopefully.

I don't see why anyone would pay $11 million for a setup man, but nonetheless, his contract has been signed, and it's time to look at the future.

Joey Votto and the Reds have been back and forth about a possible contract negotiation. Has that happened now? Is anyone in the market for Bruce Chen?

The clock is ticking on the St. Louis Cardinals to come to terms on a contract extension with the best player the Cardinals have had since Stan "The Man" Musial retired in 1963.

Albert Pujols has set a firm deadline to agree to an extension by the start of spring training.

Should Pujols not receive an extension by that time, he will become a free agent after the 2011 season.

With most of the top free agents now signed and teams starting to take shape as we approach spring training, I thought I would share my pre-pre-season perspective on the relative strengths, (and weaknesses), of all 30 major league teams.

Albert Pujols has told the St. Louis Cardinals he wants a new contract by the beginning of spring training, or he will sever negotiations and become a free agent in the fall, sources told ESPN the Magazine's Buster Olney.

The Cardinals exercised Pujols' option for next season in October, which will pay him $16 million. Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak refused to comment on the state of the negotiations Saturday.

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.

This is probably not the headline St. Louis Cardinal fans were hoping to see as they head towards the 2011 season. They were hoping to see a headline that read something like this, “Albert Pujols Signs 7-Year Extension.”

That headline still might happen, but if the Cardinals are going to make that happen, they better get a move on it.

At any given time, there are arguably 30-35 active players in the Major Leagues who are deserving of a spot in Cooperstown once they call it a career. Whom among those on an active roster for 2011 are most likely to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame sometime in the future?

The following is a position-by-position list of players who, in my opinion, can start thinking about their acceptance speeches right now.

With a greatly improved starting rotation, the Milwaukee Brewers have become contenders in 2011. But do not mistake that for “division winners.”

In 2010, the Brewers ran out a consistently strong offense, while the pitching kept them in the trenches. This coming season, expect the offense to be more or less the same, but the additions of Shaun Marcum and Zack Grienke may not completely change the Brewers’ recent fortune.

When fans, analysts, and experts alike begin to determine a player's value, defense is often second nature. It doesn't jump off the back of a baseball card like Albert Pujols' home run totals, Ryan Howard's RBI totals, or Jose Reyes' stolen bases. However, defense is a crucial part of the game of baseball. It makes great offensive players elite, and players who lack the offensive wherewithall a positive outlook on their game.

So, how do you go about ranking the best defensive players in baseball?