Boston

Ranking Major League Managers can be a tricky business. Managing can be, like standing on a razor edge; one wrong move and you'll get cut. 

It seems that no matter, what the city, or team, managers are always on the hot seat.  Security in this job, is never guaranteed, so it comes as no surprise that, entering the 2011 season we have twelve teams sporting new managers. 

The then Tampa Bay Devil Rays were building something special in the outfield.

The Boston Red Sox and their fans have had a pretty rough go of it lately.

Not only did the squad fail to qualify for the postseason in 2010, but the franchise also lost Adrian Beltre and Victor Martinez over the winter.

Beantown's had to watch a different team hoist the World Series trophy for three consecutive years, a run that includes a crown for their revolting rivals to the south, the New York Yankees.

Now it's down two key contributors from an underachieving '10 roster.

Of course, you could point to the bigger picture.

It is the best day of the Hot Stove season—the day you slog out to the mailbox, brush the snow off the top, open the front door and discover a highly-anticipated package from Baseball America.

It is the day BA’s annual “Prospect Handbook” arrives at your home.

First base is a funny position.  

Often, the first baseman is the team's best hitter, but one of its worst fielders.  Many first baseman are both indispensable (to the batting order) and replaceable (in the field).  

It was a curious week for the Boston Red Sox, even if the biggest news to trickle out of Fenway Park was an announcement regarding bullpen walls.

Down south, a division rival appeared content to reassemble the Sox, circa 2004—Tampa's offer to Mark Bellhorn has yet to be confirmed, by the way—while in New York, the general manager publicly panned the team's most significant offseason maneuver.

Does any other MLB fan find it weird when a team goes out and buys former superstars, seemingly anticipating that putting them back together will magically bring back the spark from seven years before?

It's happening again this year, and it's certainly not the first time that two World Series champions have played on entirely different teams together. It's just weird to have it happen in the AL East and for it to not be the Yankees doing the purchasing.

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein has once again kept his record intact—he has never gone to an arbitration hearing with one of his players during his tenure as general manager of the Red Sox.

This afternoon, the Red Sox avoided arbitration with their center fielder and closer, coming to terms with Jacoby Ellsbury and Jonathan Papelbon on one-year deals that will keep the parties out of pending arbitration hearings.

It's hard not to be giddy with anticipation right now if you're a Boston Red Sox fan. 

Coming off a frustrating season in which the team finished 7 games back in the AL East and had to watch the playoffs on their flat-screen TVs just like the rest of us, the Red Sox went out and acquired Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, two of the most coveted players in the game, both in the early part of their prime. 

When the Boston Red Sox completed a trade with the San Diego Padres for 1B Adrian Gonzalez in early December, the move was met with much fanfare.

As sports fans gradually transition from football mode into baseball mode, the excitement surrounding the A-Gone acquisition is sure to skyrocket heading into spring training. 

While the Padres surprised the baseball world by competing for a playoff spot in 2010, they remain a small market team sitting far from the Northeast media machine.