Carl Crawford

When talking about hyped up outfielders this offseason, Carl Crawford and Carlos Gonzalez come to mind.

It’s hard for an eight-year veteran like Crawford to be hyped up, but his move to the loaded Boston Red Sox lineup did just that.

If there's one time of the sports year that everyone watches like a hawk, it's MLB free agency.  From November until late January (sometimes longer), fans lose sleep over which teams top free agent players will sign with.

Some of these decisions pay great dividends, like C.C. Sabathia when he signed with the New York Yankees.  Other times, players regret locking themselves into long-term deals, like when Adrian Beltre signed with the Mariners.

For some fans, the American League East is a treacherous place. When baseball’s biggest super powers all swing their bats in the same division, it’s hard to gain any ground when you’re the little guy. 

Yes, I’m talking to you Baltimore.

But, thanks to our overactive sports imaginations and a little something called fantasy baseball, we can build our own big league monopoly, so let’s mine the AL East and construct a divisional behemoth that will strike fear into the hearts of fake teams everywhere.

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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When Carl Crawford signed an enormous contract with division rival Boston, the Tampa Bay Rays lost one of it's all-time greatest players. In it's short history, full of consistent losing and doubt (with shades of joy and little success), 'CC' was a nine year force, the Rays true all-star and, so it seemed, the franchise player. Crawford, in the end, will have spent a majority or large chunk of his career with Tampa when all is said and done.

Yesterday, the Baseball Professor released an analysis on category scarcity over at FanGraphs.com. He broke down each of the five primary offensive categories in fantasy baseball (average, homers, runs batted in, stolen bases and runs scored) by position and on the basis of the players who achieved MLB-average (or better) in each category.

After their offseason fire sale, the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays lost a lot of key players from their multiple playoff teams. In order to recover, they will need new players to step up to a more prominent role.

These power rankings take into consideration how much the loss hurts the Rays and if they have a viable replacement. 

The key losses to the Rays roster are mostly in their bullpen. The reason being that they do not have many proven players to fill in. In other areas they have players that have at least a year or more experience in the majors. 

The 2010 season for the Boston Red Sox was riddled with injuries and inconsistency. The club struggled to an 89-73 record and a third place finish in the competitive American League East. 

The Sox front office looked to revamp their rosters, and create a buzz around Boston, with an offseason spending spree. With the additions of Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford the Red Sox will enter 2011 with the highest payroll in all of Major League Baseball.

Boston Red Sox: 13 Bold Predictions For The 2011 Season

You'd be hard pressed to find a team who did more to significantly alter their look this offseason than the Boston Red Sox. In fact, I'll go on record right here: the Red Sox had the best and most momentous offseason of any team in baseball.

But that being said, there are a number of questions to be answered. Where do the new guys fit in? How will the rest of the squad be impacted? Who's due for a good year in 2011?

Hopefully, I'll shed some light on the state of all things Red Sox.

Like many people, I was about to hand Tampa Bay fifth in the American League East this upcoming season.

Albeit reluctantly, we all know the losses they've endured: Matt Garza in the starting rotation, Rafael Soriano and Joakim Benoit in the bullpen, Carl Crawford in the outfield and Jason Bartlett and Carlos Pena in the infield.