Adrian Gonzalez

The Boston Red Sox have the best offense in baseball and it's not close. 

They hold the top spot in runs scored, average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. 

With the best offense in baseball, you'd expect the Red Sox to have a player in the MVP conversation, but not three.

Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers leads the way in our group of award winner from the first half of the 2011 Major League Baseball Season.

Baseball has suddenly become dominated by pitching as there are only seven players in the entire league with at least 20 home runs.  

They say good starting pitching is contagious. After starting the year with a record of 2-5 and a cumulative ERA of 7.24 in the first 10 games, the members of the rotation have gone 6-2, with an extraordinary ERA of 1.65, in the last 10 games.

Their performance has been even more extraordinary over the last eight games, compiling a mark of 6-1, with a 1.01 ERA.

A few weeks tardy, but here are my thoughts and analysis on the season that lies ahead. Thus far in the young season, there have been some big surprises. The Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals are a combined 23-11, while the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets trail their respective divisions. Okay, the Mets' early woes aren't much of a shock.

I wrote the article below a few months back as part of my application to Bleacher Report. I predicted that Troy Tulowitzki and Adrian Gonzalez would win their league's respective MVP awards. The Boston Red Sox have gotten off to a horrid start, but it's still April.

Are my points still valid? What new factors support or contest my AL MVP prediction? You be the judge.

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Daisuke Matsuzaka hasn't won a game for the Boston Red Sox in a long time.

In his first start of the 2011 season, the Red Sox were defeated Wednesday night by the Cleveland Indians, 8-4. Matsuzaka pitched five innings, giving up six hits and three earned runs.

His last winning start was on September 2, 2010, against the Baltimore Orioles.

Although the Red Sox began the 2011 season with an embarrassing three-game sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers, the Sox still have plenty of time to validate the media’s enormous expectations and secure a playoff spot.

However, in order to emerge victorious from a competitive American League East, the Sox must step back from the spotlight and focus on winning each individual game.

Well, now that most of our NCAA brackets resemble the Libyan Air Force, we can move onto something that can provide some much needed optimism: fantasy baseball. What would the start of the season be without a rankings list?

Without question, first base is the deepest position for everyday players, and you should expect the top seven or eight first basemen to be drafted in the first two rounds of your 12-team league.

Some players on our list played 10-19 games at first base in 2010, which means the player may or may not qualify as a first baseman in your league. For example, Yahoo! leagues require a player to appear in at least ten games at that position in the previous year. Whereas for ESPN leagues, the requirement is 20-plus games.

In our newest installment of the Draft Day Debate, we look at two of the top first basemen, Joey Votto and Adrian Gonzalez. 

Votto is coming off an MVP year while Gonzalez seems set for his best year yet as he enters the Red Sox offensive powerhouse. While undoubtedly fantasy owners will choose Albert Pujols first off the board and first for 1B, who will be the better pick as the second 1B to go? You decide...