Let's be serious for just a little while.

Albert Pujols is (whether you believe it or not) the face of the Cardinals' respective franchise, and that's just how things are.  And if a new contract is not offered to St. Louis' sporting savior, Pujols will not be involved in contract negotiations through Spring Training, nor the regular season.

This is a problem.

As much as you'd love to disagree with the fact that Pujols is the most important asset the Cardinals currently attain, the fact of the matter is that it is true.

Led by manager Bruce Bochy, the Giants will enter the 2011 season as the defending World Series champions for the first time since their days in New York, and they hope to find a way to repeat.

With an exception of the acquisition of shortstop Miguel Tejada and the departures of shortstop Edgar Renteria and second baseman Juan Uribe, the 2011 Giants will have a very similar feel to the squad that won it all in 2010.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be publishing a series of articles on the Red Sox farm system, profiling a dozen or so top-tier prospects that have high potentials and will likely help the club as the next wave of homegrown talent. You can read part one on Ryan Kalish here.

For what it's worth, the Philadelphia Phillies made their fair share of noise this off-season. Even when lurking in the shadows, the Phillies would eventually come out on top, signing free agent left handed starter and prize of the 2011 off-season, Cliff Lee. Soon after the five year, $125 million deal became official, realizing that the Phillies had very little resources remaining was not exactly rocket science.

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.

When evaluating Ian Kinsler, it’s important to understand how good he is, and how disappointing he’s been.

I love when MLB analysts, bloggers and fans release their picks for a team's projected lineup heading into the season.

In many cases, educated baseball fans arrive somewhere in the "ballpark" (no pun intended) of what the Opening Day lineup will look like.

Since Terry Collins has given everyone a preview of at least two-thirds of the order, there really is no guessing game associated with what the lineup will be this year.

As of now, the batting order should resemble the following:

1. Jose Reyes, SS

We have already covered a bunch of fantasy player projections for the upcoming 2011 season, and now I want to talk about one guy who I am a big fan of—Jordan Zimmermann.

(Yes, that’s TWO N’s at the end of his last name. Get it right, guys!)

A little while back, we did an an examination on one of the Yankees' oldest enemies, the Red Sox.

Now we're going to look in depth on one of the newest Yankees rival, the Tampa "Don't call them Devil" Rays.

The Rays got hit hard this offseason—Carl Crawford left for the rival Red Sox, Rafael Soriano left for the rival Yankees.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Jhoulys Chacin, but judging by his 241st-ranked ADP in drafts this week on Mock Draft Central, I’m guessing you probably haven’t.

Chacin, Colorado’s young stud in the making, is only getting drafted in 48 percent of early mock drafts, quite possibly making him the deepest sleeper Baseball Professor has named yet.

With pitchers and catchers reporting Monday and the full team beginning spring training shortly after, the only major change for the Philadelphia Phillies in the starting position players will be the absence of Jayson Werth. 

There has been a lot of debate over who will replace Werth in the outfield and in the lineup.  There has been talk about platooning right field with either Ben Francisco and Dominic Brown or Francisco and Ross Gload.