Evan Longoria

Rewind to a year ago, and the Tampa Bay Rays were thinking Championship; fast forward to today, and just making the playoffs seems a bit far fetched.

The Rays are one of the best teams in baseball at developing young talent and getting as much as they can out of a small payroll. Having won two division titles in three years, including an AL pennant in 2008, the Rays will rely heavily on youth once again to make a run in the 2010-2011 season.

The Tampa Bay Rays took home their second AL East title in the last three years in 2010 by finishing with a 96-66 record. A quick exit in the Divisional Round at the hands of the Texas Rangers would soon follow.

This year's American League East is going to be a very hotly contested division. With all five teams easily capable of putting together .500 or above seasons, the order of finish could be dictated by just a few games.

For the Tampa Bay Rays, the new look of the franchise gives them a new set of advantages and disadvantages over their division rivals. While the other teams within the division spent big bucks this offseason, the Rays were able to cut their payroll from over $70 million to approximately $42 million without sacrificing a tremendous amount of production.

The Rays' journey to becoming a constant playoff-contender took awhile, but came all of sudden when it finally happened.

Contending with the power-house teams of the AL East—the Yankees and Red Sox—is the toughest thing to do for any team to have to do. It's makes it even tougher when you can't spend half the money of the those two teams.

But the Rays haven't used any excuses, rather using lower-risk, high-reward pickups and their minor league system to create a nucleus for a championship-caliber squad.

Pretty simple. If I was betting on the season's final standings, this is where my chips would fall. I'm going to pass on predicting all the playoff stuff, but stick to the regular season, with my award favorites as well.

In the AL East...

Boston: 99-63

New York: 90-72

Baltimore: 83-79

Toronto: 77- 85

Tampa Bay: 70-92

With spring training just starting up, optimism about the upcoming season is at its highest. There is not a better time to make predictions about the upcoming season, which should be a great one.

The American League MVP award is awarded annually to the player who is considered most valuable to his team throughout the year. Recent recipients of the award include Josh Hamilton and Joe Mauer.

In anticipation for the 2011 season, I have decided to rank the five American League preseason MVP favorites.

1. Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays

2. David Wright, New York Mets

3. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

4. Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals

5. Kevin Youkilis, Boston Red Sox

6. Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers

7. Jose Bautista*, Toronto Blue Jays

8. Pedro Alvarez, Pittsburgh Pirates

9. Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco Giants

10. Casey McGehee, Milwaukee Brewers

11. Martin Prado*, Atlanta Braves

12. Michael Young, Texas Rangers

David Wright will set the tone for third basemen during the 2011 Fantasy Baseball season, but he'll have some competition for the top spot from Alex Rodriguez, Evan Longoria and Ryan Zimmerman.

The biggest story to watch is Jose Bautista. Can he repeat his Major League leading 54 home runs from 2010?

If he shows that last year wasn't a fluke, he'll vault into the ranks of the other "elite" third basemen.

Although they won 96 games and the AL East in 2010, the Tampa Bay Rays have lost a number of players through their firesale this offseason.

Collectively, the AL East was as busy a division as there was in baseball this offseason.

After focusing on pitching and defense the Winter before and then failing to make the playoffs in 2010, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein took a different approach this offseason.

At the Winter Meetings, Epstein seized an opportunity to add a pair of marquee hitters in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. The moves have the Red Sox poised to return to the playoffs in 2011.