NL East

Since his debut in 2000, Jimmy Rollins has been the driving force for the Philadelphia Phillies both on and off the field. He's the rare type of ball player that doesn't come along all too often. He has been a vocal leader off the field, and has the talent on the field to back that up.

In the 2010 season, the first basemen of the Philadelphia Phillies, Ryan Howard, spent a great deal of time on the disabled list.  When doing the math by analyzing the innings played, it shows that Howard played in about seventeen fewer games in 2010 than he did in 2009. 

On Monday night, the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association held their 107th annual awards banquet in Cherry Hill, NJ.  The PSWA honors athletes in every sport around the Philadelphia area. 

Everybody knows about Hanley Ramirez: 2009 batting champ, five-tool stud and perennial first rounder.

Everybody should know about Josh Johnson: Cy Young contender, career ERA of 3.10, a ton of potential.

But what else, if anything, do the Marlins have to offer fantasy owners?

In spite of the organization's everlasting dedication to penny pinching, the Marlins have a handful of players that are sure to impact this year's fantasy season.

Boy, I can't wait for this season to get started.

This offseason has been filled with a negative feel, whether it be the fact that the Mets have no money to spend, the signing of "mediocre" free agents, Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo's presence on the team, and now the hoopla surrounding the Wilpons' money scheme.

This report will be a slideshow ranking each NL East team's best pitcher-hitter combination, so there will be a total of five selections here. The pitcher can be a starter or a reliever, and the hitter can play any position.

Begin Slideshow

Jimmy Rollins hasn't been the same player since his 2007 NL MVP year.  He's struggled to stay on the field.  Before 2008, Rollins played in 154 plus games in each of his first seven seasons.  He's missed the 154 game plateau in two of the last three years.  He played in 137 games in 2008, 155 in 2009, and 88 last season.   

The great thing for the Phillies is that this is Rollins' contract year; money is motivation.  Rollins is 32, so this could be his final opportunity to get a multi-year offer. 

One of the things I absolutely love about being a Philadelphia sports fan is all the nit-picking we do. It’s highly irritating and annoying to outsiders looking in, but for us, it’s almost  another sport in in of itself. We just love analyzing something until it doesn’t even make sense to us.

It’s just what we do.

There has been no lack of chatter about the Philadelphia Phillies' rotation this offseason. After adding Cliff Lee to a staff that already included Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, the anticipation for Opening Day in the city of Philadelphia became all that more unbearable. While that certainly is true—the Phillies have the league's best rotation—we must read between the lines as well.

New York Mets' general manager Sandy Alderson conducted an interview today to address various topics, most important of all being recent financial struggles.

Alderson claims this offseason was all part of the plan. It was, and always had been, to skim the market for low risk, low money players to test out on the roster.