Adam Lind

Sitting at a cool 9-11 record, the Toronto Blue Jays have started out fairly well this season, despite a very difficult schedule, injuries, and lastly, an infusion of young talent into a relatively unsettled lineup.

With that young lineup and changeover on the Jays roster, there is bound to be some bumpy parts of the road right?

The city of Toronto, from a sports perspective, has been swimming through quicksand for a long time.

General mangers of the city's major sports teams have tried to put together teams that will contend or at least make a playoff appearance. Evidently, they’ve been coming up short.

It was a fantastic start to the season for the Toronto Blue Jays, and it could have been even better. The Jays started off their season with a three game series against the Minnesota Twins. The Twins won the American League Central last year and had the third most wins in the AL after the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees. 

The Twins are known for both their strong pitching and their consistent defensive play, but the Jays put both of those to the test with an offensive barrage in the first two games.

The Blue Jays home opener started big with Jose Bautista receiving his silver slugger award from last season. Then, the pre-game activities were even bigger as Roberto Alomar and Pat Gilleck were on hand to see their Hall of Fame banners unveiled in the rafters before they teamed up to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the season.

When the top RBI guys are off the board, there are still value picks that can help you in that category.

Average Draft Positions are from Mock Draft Central.


Catcher

Kurt Suzuki, Oakland A’s: Suzuki had 71 RBI last year and 88 in 2009. Both years he had the fourth RBI among catchers.

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 Toronto Blue Jays have been going in the right direction ever since Alex Anthopolous took over as General Manager.  Alex Anthopolous has put great emphasis on developing young talent and has invested time and money into ensuring that the future is bright.  At the same time, AA has managed to put a fantastic product on the field that has remained competitive even in the toughest division in baseball.  

There’s word going around baseball that the Blue Jays may be on the verge of another trade. Now if you’re yelling at the computer screen, asking “Why?” just calm down. There is an obvious abundance of DH/1B types on the roster. After the Vernon Wells trade the Jays now have four, yes four, players who can comfortably fit at DH.

The key to a successful fantasy baseball draft is maximizing the return value on each of your picks. At the start of each draft, everybody will have an equal value's worth of picks; therefore, unless you target players who could potentially exceed the value of the pick they were drafted with, you will finish your draft in the middle of the pack. One of the best types of player to target when attempting to maximize value is the player who disappointed the previous year. Logically, his value will be its lowest following a poor season; hence the appeal to targeting these players.

Manny Ramirez is without a doubt one of the most powerful and productive hitters to ever play the game of baseball.  Manny has a career average of .313 and has hit 555 home runs in his colorful career.  Manny is a 12-time All-Star and has won the Hank Aaron award twice.  He has won two World Series rings with the Boston Red Sox (2004,2007) and was the World Series MVP in 2004.