CC Sabathia

All major league teams are now full bore in camp and the countdown until March 31st can't get here quick enough. With teams going through their full workouts and games starting last weekend, who are the "old timers" that came into camp maybe a little more fit than last year? Bleacher report will look at these aging stars and see if they can regain or increase their numbers from last year.

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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.

Major League Baseball is in the air. All 30 teams have flocked to a warm weather site with the same goal in mind: Win a ring.

Whether it's veterans of the league imparting as much knowledge as they can on the young guns, or legends from the past returning to the place that they loved, spring training is a beneficial and necessary time for baseball players.

The St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright will have Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and will miss the entire 2011 season. 

While this puts a major damper on the Cardinals playoff hopes, last year's Major League Baseball playoff participants are faced with questions of their own.

Whether it's the New York Yankees or the World Champion San Francisco Giants, each of these teams will have to address major concerns if they hope to play deep into October for consecutive seasons. 

The New York Yankees are never short of drama, and at the start of spring training, ace CC Sabathia became the latest headline.

After finishing the 2008 season without making the playoffs, the Yankees went on an offseason spending spree. The team’s biggest purchase was ace Sabathia, who inked a monster contract worth $152 million to keep him in pinstripes for seven seasons.

Perhaps the greatest statistical achievement for a Major League pitcher to accomplish is that of the Triple Crown of pitching.

In the history of Major League Baseball, only 35 times has a pitcher led his respective league in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

In the American League, 10 pitchers have combined for 15 Triple Crown seasons. In the National League, it has been done 20 times by 15 pitchers.

Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, Lefty Gomez, Roger Clemens, Christy Matthewson, Grover Alexander and Sandy Colfax are the only pitchers to accomplish the feat more than once.

Ahhh I can smell the clay already.

Pitchers and catchers have reported to camp, there is less than a week before the first Spring Training game and speculation about who will finish the 2011 season where in the AL East is already brewing.

The AL East has always been one of the toughest, if not THE toughest, divisions in baseball.

This year will be no different.

In fact, I expect it to be more competitive this season than it has been in a while.

In 2007, the Cleveland Indians were one game away from their first world series in 10 years and most likely, the Tribe would have won the World Series against a Rockies team that eventually got swept by the Red Sox. However, after the unfortunate ending to a great season, expectations were high for the Tribe in 2008. But after injuries to key players, some bad luck and less then spectacular starting pitching, the season took a turn for the worst and the Indians were forced to clean house.

Before anybody gets excited here, this is just a hypothetical situation. 

It's a situation created in order to prove a point, and to create an awareness of the value of top prospects.

But are they really worth the insanely high price tag placed upon them?

That's what I hope to accomplish with this article. 

By the time you are done reading this, I want you to question the train of thought of general managers around the game when they deem a minor league kid untouchable. 

After a 2010 free agent market that, aside from Cliff Lee, really was not all that impressive, the 2011 free agent market is starting to look incredible.

Albert Pujols talks with the St. Louis Cardinals are not going well, and the odds of him signing a contract before the noon deadline tomorrow is virtually nil. It has become known as well that CC Sabathia has an opt out clause in his contract, and can become a free agent after this season and look for more money elsewhere.