Preview/Prediction

Who are the best players in the league? It’s a debate that will persist for as long as there is professional baseball.

But it’s one thing to argue it during the season—predicting who the best players will be is a horse of an entirely different color that eats oranges instead of apples.

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. 

There is little doubt when someone says that Andrew McCutchen is among the best outfielders in baseball, is there? The question is, at 24 years old, exactly how do we compare him to the rest of the field? Do we rank him based on what he has shown in the past or what we think the future holds (and realize that he could fulfill his potential as soon as 2011)?

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.

In preparation of the 2011 MLB Fantasy Baseball season, The Fantasy Fix team will preview a team's pitching rotation each day. Jesse Mendelson's third preview of the AL East features David Price and the Tampa Bay Rays.

Now this will be interesting. 

I hope you all enjoyed my picks for the top 10 draft slots in the 2011 MLB Draft, which can be found here.

And if you're still finding yourself slightly less-than-adequately informed about the top talent heading into draft season, feel free to check out my primer on the top talent available here.

The Minnesota Twins won the American League Central last season despite injuries to some of their biggest stars.

Joe Nathan, an All-Star closer, was lost after a significant tear in the ulnar collateral ligament forced him into Tommy John surgery last March.

From 2004-2009, Nathan was one of the most dominating closers in all of baseball. Nathan's 246 saves over six seasons are the most in the majors during that span.

With Spring Training rapidly approaching, the 2011 Los Angeles Dodgers' roster is nearly finalized. First-year manager, Don Mattingly, hopes to improve the team from the 2010 edition that was two games under .500.

C.C. Sabathia, Phil Hughes and A.J. Burnett are the only current locks in what looks to be a very shaky rotation for the Yankees in 2011.

Assuming that Andy Pettitte retires, the Yankees could be in for a long season in the Bronx.

Albert Pujols has given the St. Louis Cardinals a deadline of the end of Spring Training to extend his contract. 

Pujols has said he will definitely veto any trade during the season, so there goes that.

It seems he wants to keep his mind on baseball, not contracts, during the season, hoping to avoid missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

The baseball nation is already speculating on what could happen if he leaves during free agency, as countless teams will certainly want the Dominican slugger hitting in their lineup.