Evan Longoria

Tier 1: Evan Longoria
To me, there is one first round third baseman and that is Longoria.  In 2010 he showed that he could bring the total package to the table, adding stolen bases (15) and a near .300 average (.294) to an already impressive package.  While the power faded a little bit, at 25-years old it is not hard to imagine him returning to the 30 HR level.   Throw in 100/100 potential and what is there not to like?

The biggest off-season talk so far in the AL East has clearly been about the Red Sox big moves. Around the division, beyond Boston, the Yankees have made little improvement from last year, losing out on Cliff Lee, and signing Rafael Soriano, all while waiting on Andy Pettitte.

As of recent, the Yankees have been most active, in signing veteran pitchers Mark Prior, Bartolo Colon, and Freddy Garcia, all to minor league deals. According to sources, Pettitte has a $12M offer waiting for him, if he decides to return for another year.

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.

As good as he is, Evan Longoria is not single-handedly winning your fantasy baseball league for you. Why? Because most of the owners in your leagues are getting fairly off-setting numbers out of their first round picks.

However, the players discussed here could win you that championship, because while everyone is getting minimal value from their late-round picks, you could be getting early-round numbers.

The Tampa Bay Rays roster has been picked apart this offseason, with a lot of players being signed by their American League East rivals. The Rays tried to get back at the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees by signing a pair of their former players, Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon. These veterans will be welcomed into Tampa Bay to add experience and talent to a team who has the talent but not much experience.

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.

We all know that third base has quickly become one of the shallowest positions in baseball.  Outside of the top four options, there is a ton of risk involved. 

Yes, there are players with tremendous upside, but there are significant red flags hanging over them.  Let’s take a look at how I currently have the top 15 ranked (as well as top 12 for those in AL or NL-only formats, which can be found at the bottom of this post):

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.

We should all be so lucky to make the league minimum. Before we go feeling sorry for the (relatively) underpaid workhorses of baseball, it helps to remember how much $400,000 is. That said, there are some players that represent the antithesis of the bloated big league albatross.