Rankings/List

There is a general rule in baseball: you can have power or you can have speed. Many players can hit 30 home runs or steal 30 bases but very few break the rule and do both.

Lou Brock had the speed—he was the first to break Billy Hamilton’s stolen base record—but never had the power. Sammy Sosa hit 609 home runs but averaged just 13 steals a season.

Clayton Kershaw is not only quickly becoming the face of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise, but he's also arguably on the fast track to being one of the premiere starters in all of baseball.

Among the larger criticisms of the Dodgers pitching staff is the lack of a true ace, however Kershaw's performance during his first full two years of service indicates that it's only a matter of time before he fills that void.

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.

Although they have always been overshadowed by the Bronx Bombers, the Mets have possessed their fair share of baseball's greatest, especially in recent time. The Mets offense struggled during most of the 1960s until it all of a sudden became clutch in 1969 when they won their first World Series. The offense was better, but still inconsistent during the 1970s. When the Mets won, they were hitting, but during the latter years in which they were a losing team, the hitting was not the same. In the 1980s, the Mets were consistently hitting well, probably their best offensive decade.

Baseball has been around for so many years that players are bound to be forgotten eventually. A new breed of talent always seems to find it's way to the surface and players of yesteryear fall by the wayside.

It takes a special type of talent to remain in baseball discussions for generation after generation, and an even more special talent to end up in the Hall of Fame.

Originally, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York was created to honor the best and most important people in the game’s history. The first class of players—Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb—are some of the biggest names the game has ever seen (how Cy Young was omitted from selection that first year is baffling, given his credentials). 

In the decades that have passed since 1936 there have been many more entrants elected to the sacred hallways of Cooperstown, most deserving the honor.

MLB power rankings have been popping up across the baseball landscape in recent weeks, as the day pitchers and catchers report to their respective spring training camps creeps slowly closer. 

Spring training isn't just about seeing baseball's established stars get ready for the season; it's also about getting to see some of your favorite team's best young talent fighting to prove they're ready for a shot with the big club, rather than stagnating in the minors. 

But with so many minor leaguers and upcoming rookies, how can you know who to follow? 

It seems that everyone, at some point, references the “Good Ol’ Days.” Like how gas was 50 cents a gallon in the good old days, and how a loaf of bread was a nickel.

Of course, no one really ever points out that hourly income was a lot less in those days, too. And that proportionally, we aren’t as far off as what we make it seem in our minds.

In articles such as this, many websites give readers a list of the best overall prospects at a given position, but the intention here is to focus on those prospects who are most likely to provide a significant fantasy impact during the 2011 season; thus, a guy like Red Sox SS prospect Jose Iglesias—who is blocked at the big league level by Marco Scutaro and Jed Lowrie—is not on my list.

I am in the midst of a series examining the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position are being ranked in relation to their peers within the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks in comparison to the other players.

Today, the series continues with a look at the shortstops.

The best player will earn 10 points for his team, with the remaining players being assigned points as follows: 7-5-3-1.