Albert Pujols

Also known as ODOs.

Well, I call them ODOs and some day, you will too. Until then, see if you noticed what I noticed:

Albert Pujols goes 0-for-5

He also grounded into three double plays—cue the overreaction random radio show sports talk guy.

That's right, Pujols is washed up; can't handle the contract-year pressure; forgot how to hit; only tips 10 percent.

Actually, he'll be fine.

Matt Holliday smashed a home run in the bottom of the eighth to put the Cardinals up 3-2, but it wasn't enough to get the win. 

Cameron Maybern hit a two out home run in the top of the ninth to tie up the game and the San Diego Padres added two more in the top of the 11th to ruin the Cardinals season opener at home. 

Well, now that most of our NCAA brackets resemble the Libyan Air Force, we can move onto something that can provide some much needed optimism: fantasy baseball. What would the start of the season be without a rankings list?

The prizes of the 2011 offseason were Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth as far as position players, and Cliff Lee on the pitching side, in what was for the most part a very weak free agent class.

The 2012 class, on the other hand, could be one of the most interesting to come around in years, and you can bet that the Albert Pujols saga will continue on into the season and into next offseason.

Beyond Pujols, however, there are a number of difference makers in this class, and many teams could build for a championship run in 2012 with the guys they sign following this season.

The St. Louis Cardinals seem like they are going to wait for a decision from Albert Pujols about his future with the ball club.

That is not a smart decision for the Cardinals. We've seen this happen before. 

Here are the top five reasons why the Cardinals should end the relationship with King Albert on their terms.

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Without question, first base is the deepest position for everyday players, and you should expect the top seven or eight first basemen to be drafted in the first two rounds of your 12-team league.

Some players on our list played 10-19 games at first base in 2010, which means the player may or may not qualify as a first baseman in your league. For example, Yahoo! leagues require a player to appear in at least ten games at that position in the previous year. Whereas for ESPN leagues, the requirement is 20-plus games.

This is the final installment if a seven-part series predicting the records of each team, and now the playoffs.  The teams that make the postseason in this installment are based off of previous ones.

Now that the 2011 season is closer than ever, and Opening Day is only eight days away, we writers are giving our preseason predictions, and these are mine.  Through careful analysis of records, schedules, transactions, and more I have compiled my postseason picks.

Now, it’s time to break them down.

If you've read some of my other articles, you may know that I'm a big numbers guy; I love sabermetrics and I love breaking down stats to analyze players. 

When I set out to determine the best fastball hitters in baseball, I was immediately confronted with a choice; since players' stats on individual pitches were not counted before 2002, I had to decide whether to build this list based on numbers or reputation.

Being the numbers guy that I am, I decided to go strictly by the numbers (and thus this list is only from 2002 onwards). 

First, let me make this clear: I am not a baseball fan. I have no ax to grind. I have been following Albert Pujol's contract "negotiations" because he wants a ten year, thirty million dollar per year contract.

Right. You can see how this could make even a non-baseball fan curious. 300 million, really?

The market value cannot be driven by complete greed or narcissism.

Opening Day is less than two weeks away, which means everyone and his mother is spouting predictions for the coming MLB season.

With so many talking heads out there, where can you go to find a variety of opinions together in one place?