AL East

The Baltimore Orioles will play the New York Yankees 17 times this season. 

If the Orioles are to continue their strong early-season play and finish the year with a winning record, they will need their young pitchers to keep the Yankees' strong lineup in check. 

Yes, Manny Ramirez announced his retirement over the weekend.

But Wednesday, another slugger officially announced his career was over—Carlos Delgado.

MLB.com reported that Delgado announced his retirement at a news conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Eleven games into 2011, the Boston Red Sox are 2-9.

They've dug themselves a nice little hole to work out of, huh?

Amid the many things that are going wrong for the Red Sox, there are some things that are going right. 

David Ortiz is having his best spring in years. Adrian Gonzalez has settled in nicely. Josh Beckett and Jon Lester are both coming off superb eight-inning efforts.

The powerhouse that is the American League East division is known for big bats and the big budgets of the Yankees and Red Sox, but this year, a new crop of talented pitchers have entered the big leagues and look to make some serious noise.

All of the rotations in the division, except the Red Sox, feature one promising rookie and then there is a solid, young lefty sitting in the Rays pen.

Here are the best arms of the future that have crept their way into the big leagues in the early goings of 2011.

The plate has been brushed off, the hot dogs have been made and the 2011 MLB season is underway.

While there's a bunch of joy and hoopla that surrounds the opening week, there are some disappointed fan bases out there after their teams and/or favorite players got off to a rocky start.

There's no question we are all glad to see baseball back in action, but what are the 10 biggest storylines that have made us cringe so far?

Daisuke Matsuzaka’s outing last night against the Tampa Bay Rays, as well as his tenure with the Boston Red Sox, can be summed up in one word: baffling.

Coming into the 2011 MLB season, most fans had noticed only some of the significant differences in the Tampa Bay Rays Roster.

Key players Carl Crawford, Matt Garza, Rafael Soriano, Carlos Pena and Jason Bartlett had departed for other organizations via trades and free agency.

Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon had signed for bargain deals for one season, Ramirez for $2.0 million and Damon for $5.25 million. Both veterans were hoping to make an impact.

Sam Fuld is a Durham, N.H. native and alumnus of Exeter Academy. On Monday night he made his first career visit to Fenway Park as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays.

I took a look at starting pitchers available in at least half of Yahoo! fantasy baseball leagues. Most guys in that range are either hurt or unproven, but there are some viable options in case the back end of your rotation is still shaky. Here are five guys I would consider.

Begin Slideshow

Theo Epstein is the general manager of the Boston Red Sox.  He is also a practitioner of sabermetrics. 

At least that’s what we’re lead to believe.

After all, Bill James has been a senior advisor for the Red Sox since 2002.

You see, in the Church of Sabermetrics, Bill James is the deity. Many of his followers believe that he was begotten, not made, and that he will reign eternal in the halls of Strat-O-Matic Valhalla.