Rankings/List

With steroid testing now implemented all around Major League Baseball and an era known best as "The Steroid Era" coming to a close it's just about time we got to ranking the players who juiced during the in the era.

The long running debate among baseball fans is just who has the best, most committed, smartest, (add superlative here) fan base. The fans of all 30 teams vary in commitment, knowledge, participation and attendance, but only one fan base can sit atop the list. Behind that fan base are 29 other groups who all jockey to separate themselves from the pack.

So let the debate, the hate and the trash talking commence with the power ranking of all 30 MLB fan bases.

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Home runs have been ingrained in baseball. We watch balls fly out of yards at high rates and multiple times per game. The balls have been made tighter, the fences built closer, and the bats lighters. All have combined for home runs to be an important part of a club's success. What also plays a factor is one's park. We saw how Yankee Stadium launched balls out into the seats at an eye-popping rate in 2009. That goes us thinking about which parks are the easiest and the hardest to hit a ball out of.

First base is stacked with sluggers, there's no arguing that. But not all sluggers are created equal. From Barton to Youkilis, there's quite a difference in the caliber of play one gathers from the position. By my admittedly fuzzy research, there are at the very least 4 tiers of players at the position.

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The NL West is the home of the National League's defending two-time Cy Young Award winner. The division lost one of its marquee aces with the departure of Jake Peavy, but the NL West is still loaded with young pitchers. The NL West possesses aces which are the top of the game despite being in a division that captures little media attention in comparison to the rest of the league.

That being said, the National League West in recent years has been decided by strong pitching down the stretch and that will unlikely change in 2010.

This is not a Top 10 list of home run hitters in Cincinnati history, nor is it a list of the RBI leaders.

I chose five categories to sort through to obtain the best power hitters in Reds history.

The categories used are based on 162 game season averages. To qualify, a player had to be with the Reds for a minimum of five years.

I selected HR, RBI, total bases, slugging pct., and OPS. Only numbers accrued while with the Reds are used.

Let's take a look at them now.

Unlike football or basketball, baseball’s annual player draft is not designed to change the team that year.

They hold the draft in the middle of the season (June) instead of during the off-season because the teams do not expect any player they draft to have an immediate impact. In fact teams usually have to wait years before they see what type of players their draft picks turn out to be.

Previously, I touched on ten National League rookies to keep an eye on. Let's shift our attention over to the American League.

Last year Andrew Bailey took the closer role in Oakland. Bailey finished the season with 27 saves and a 6-3 record, earning him AL Rookie of the Year honors.

The White Sox called on Gordan Beckham to take over at third base. Beckham answered by establishing himself as a consistent hitter with sneaky power and speed.

Matt Weiters stepped in as Baltimore's everyday catcher in June.

The Arizona Diamondbacks entered their first full decade as a team with the fifth highest payroll in the league. In 2001, just their fourth year in existence, they won one of the most emotional world series in the history of the game.

But after ten years of entertaining baseball fans everywhere, the D'Backs could not be a more different franchise from the one that came back and beat the Yankees in seven games.

From the fifth highest payroll in 2000 to the twentieth in 2009. From Jerry Colangelo to Ken Kendrick. From Joe Garagiola to Josh Byrnes. From Bob Brenly to A.J. Hinch.

Brandon Erbe has come a long way.

Five years ago the scrawny 17-year old was struggling to keep his head above water (not to mention his ERA under 4.00) over three different levels.

Five years later, Erbe found himself spending the last two weeks of February in Major League camp, a spring training invitee.

And it's no fluke. Erbe has gotten very smart, very quick.