Rankings/List

Over the next two weeks, I’ll examine the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis.

The players at each position will be 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 first basemen.

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The Philadelphia Phillies shocked the entire baseball world when they signed Cliff Lee last month to a $120 million contract. Ever since the fans in Philadelphia have been anxiously awaiting the start of the season. With the addition of Cliff Lee to their already-stellar rotation already consisting of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels, the Phillies will be practically unstoppable and their opposition has the possibility of facing at least two of these four aces every series.

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.

Over the last two years, Adam Wainwright has established himself as one of the best starting pitchers in fantasy baseball.

The San Francisco Giants struck out in developing major league talent for most of the 2000s, but that trend has turned around recently.

Born and bred within the Giants organization, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Buster Posey are emerging as perennial superstars in the major leagues. They have demonstrated leadership and poise during baseball's biggest stage, the World Series.

Many formidable predecessors donned the orange and black on day one of their professional careers. Will "The Thrill" Clark was one of them, along with many others.

For his career he posted a 240-138 record, including 25 complete games and four shutouts. He struck out 2,251 batters in 3,055.1 innings and finishes his career with a .635 winning percentage, which ranked as seventh-best among active pitchers before he made his announcement.

And as a loyal Orioles fan, more than just a part of me is thrilled that Andy Pettitte has finally called it quits. It seems like the O's never had a chance when Pettitte was on the mound, even late into his career.

Will we have another year of the pitcher? Which guy will rule his team and help carry them to the playoffs? 

It's never too early to start thinking of baseball. Football is just about to end so everyone should start gearing up for spring training. In 2010 we saw a dominance of pitchers. There were six no hitters last year, and two of them were perfect games. It should have been seven but someone blew the call. 

When trying to determine the most fundamentally sound team in the league, one could make the rankings based off of any number of fielding or hitting statistics.  How many errors did a team have?  Do they hit-and-run successfully?  How much does a team use sacrifice plays?  What is their stolen base percentage?

This is going to be an interesting season for the St. Louis Cardinals and their first baseman Albert Pujols. The team has a lot of money invested in a lot of players, and they have stretched their budget pretty thin as it is. Pujols is poised to hit free agency after this season, and he is going to get paid A LOT of money by someone.

For some fans, the American League East is a treacherous place. When baseball’s biggest super powers all swing their bats in the same division, it’s hard to gain any ground when you’re the little guy. 

Yes, I’m talking to you Baltimore.

But, thanks to our overactive sports imaginations and a little something called fantasy baseball, we can build our own big league monopoly, so let’s mine the AL East and construct a divisional behemoth that will strike fear into the hearts of fake teams everywhere.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll examine the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East on a position-by-position basis.

The players at each position will be 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, I begin the series with a look at the catchers.

Begin Slideshow