Billy Wagner retired after the 2010 season, and what a shame.  He arguably had one of the finest years of his career and now he wrapped up to spend more time with his family.  God bless you, Billy. 

Now the Atlanta Braves must move on and they have to find a new closer.  While the Braves have a fine bullpen and a few good candidates for the job, Craig Kimbrel seems to be the favorite.  And the young flamethrower should be. 

The Houston Astros decided about halfway through last season that it was time to enter that period that no fan wants to hear, and that is rebuilding. The Astros decided to trade away the only remaining players from that 2005 team that made the World Series.

Yes—a month or so until pitchers and catchers report, folks.  But recognition is in order based on the 2010 regular season:

*The STAY AT FIRST Award: No doubt—goes to Torii Hunter of the L.A. Angels. Hunter tried to steal 21 times this year and was thrown out on 12 occasions—a SB success rate of just 43 percent. Just a reminder, Torii: You're NOT 25 anymore.

Late Thursday afternoon, after nearly an entire offseason of position-player inactivity, Yankee GM Brian Cashman inked the former Braves superstar to a one-year, $2 million contract, with another $1.2 million in additional performance-based incentives. After bolstering their bullpen with top-shelf relief arms, the Yankees' acquisition of Andruw Jones fills the hole left by the late (not so) great Marcus Thames.

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.

The hot stove is starting to cool, as we are less than a month from pitchers and catchers reporting. So, let’s stoke that fire a bit with more prospect talk. This series on prospects will cover a wide range of players as well as positions. We’ll cover sleepers and even some of the more obvious stars of the future.

The Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2011 inducted two very different, yet (in my mind) two very deserving players. Roberto Alomar was perhaps the premier all-around player of our time, and Bert Blyleven was a strikeout machine who could at least keep his team in games, even if they didn't get the win.

While the Class of 2012 will likely be empty, there are many active players who seem like sure things when their time comes. Albert Pujols, Roy Halladay, and Joe Mauer are examples of players who will probably have no trouble.

Shortstops are rarely known for their offensive prowess.

Instead, they are generally known for their defense. They play a position that sees more scorchers than any other and a team benefits greatly from having a sure-handed player there. 

This is a list for the men who played the position the best, who sat in there and took countless bad hops to the chest just to record an out. 

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Are you in the market for a 27th round draft pick with a good baseball eye and a propensity to hit home runs?  The Yankees decided the answer was yes with the 884th pick of the 2007 MLB amateur draft.

We have less than a month until pitchers and catchers start to report, and as a result, players and teams are wrapping up any remaining contracts on both ends. Many players were signed yesterday in hopes of the team avoiding arbitration, yet there are some notable players that will be stating their case for a big contract.