Derek Jeter

Recent comments from New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman have fans screaming for his head. In just three short days, Cashman has become public enemy No. 1 in New York after his comments on two New York radio shows. 

Most feel that being the general manager of the biggest wallet in baseball is one of the easiest jobs you could get.

With a tad under two weeks before Superbowl XLV and a lack of sports news to report, ESPN finds some time to get their new w-brand some readers.

With football season coming to a close, many sports fans now turn their attention to the sunny beacon of hope that is spring training.

Even at this early stage of the season, it is always fun to pick who will win the major awards and which teams will be playing in October, but the following goes one further, not only picking those things, but also making some more player-specific predictions for all 30 teams.

So here are my 50 bold predictions for the 2011 season, because when you predict 50 things, you're bound to be correct on at least a few of them, right?

A lot has gone on in New York Yankee Universe since losing to the Texas Rangers in the 2010 ALCS and handing the title of "reigning champions" over to the San Francisco Giants.
 
So, how are the 2011 New York Yankees looking heading into the season? Let’s take a look.

Baseball purists and new-age sabermetricians have argued about the existence of "clutch" hitting ever since statistical evaluation became possible. But whether you believe in the advanced metrics or not, you can't deny that certain players have a penchant for coming through when it matters the most.

Here are the 10 last hitters than an opposing pitcher wants to see in the bottom of the ninth inning with the winning run on base.

Begin Slideshow

Despite the fact that pitchers and catchers report in less than a month, there is still plenty developing and remaining to be decided for a number of teams across Major League Baseball.

Players are still out there looking for jobs, and general managers are still trying to fill in holes via a key free agent signing or trade. 

This week saw some big names catching on with new teams, so now is as good a time as ever to take a step back and try to rank some offseason winners and losers based on the moves they did or didn't make during the Hot Stove season.

Is it just me, or are there any other people scratching their heads over the Yankees' personnel decisions this offseason?

This is the time of the year that the Pinstripes are supposed to re-tool for another run at another World Series crown, isn't it?

So far the Yanks have failed to sign a top-tier free agent outside of Rafael Soriano who will be paid $10 million to pitch the eighth inning in front of Mariano Rivera.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have Alex Rodriguez and Lou Gehrig on the same team? I often have and wondered if there was a way to make it happen.  

With this idea in place, I decided to compose a 25-man roster complete with batting order and pitching rotation.

The twist on this is some of the convenient adaptations I have made to the team.

Also, I tried not to choose players who had their prime and best years outside Yankee pinstripes. 

As we fast approach the start of another baseball season, let's return to a familiar question: Who's better, the Yankees or the Red Sox? 

The Red Sox made more upgrades to their roster during the offseason, but the Yankees were the better team last year.  So where does that leave us?  Let's take a look, position by position.

Begin Slideshow

As we near Spring Training, it's about time to start making predictions and forming projections for each team. While there are still many free agents on the market, a sufficient amount have been signed in order to rank each team's offense. 

In ranking the league's best offenses, there are many aspects being taken into consideration.

The ability to get on base is essential. You can only have so many Mark Reynolds or Adam Dunn's on your team before you start to lose efficiency.