Jacoby Ellsbury

MLB fans have seen a slew of free-agent acquisitions this offseason, but there are still a handful of potential trades that could happen before spring training starts.

MLB trade rumors are about as common as Mark Sanchez turnovers, but the following five players and their rumored deals have some weight to them.

The Philadelphia Phillies still need an outfielder. The Boston Red Sox could still use another starting pitcher. 

The Red Sox have taken flak this offseason because of their lack of major moves. Apparently, it hasn't been for a lack of trying.

In the past week the Pittsburgh Pirates have extended outfielder Andrew McCutchen and the San Diego Padres have extended outfielder Cameron Maybin.

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.

In his first two years in the Major Leagues, Boston Red Sox OF Jacoby Ellsbury hasn’t been a guy who has flashed much power. In 2008 and 2009, Ellsbury hit a combined 17 home runs and had an ISO (isolated power) of .114 each season.

It's time for the Red Sox to prepare to trade Jacoby Ellsbury before the trading deadline.  In fact, unless his hitting improves dramatically, I think he should definitely be traded.

The "Texas Red Sox Massacre" of this past weekend was not the opening series that Red Sox fans had dreamed about since December. Buchholz surrendered almost half as many home runs as he did all of last season, Lester made it clear that he knows which month this is and Lackey's ERA is now sitting just north of 22. The bullpen wasn't much better, as every reliever pitched and only Reyes, Albers, and Jenks failed to surrender a run. Still, serious concerns at this point are unnecessary- the team is bound to win at least a game before the season is out.

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.

After batting .301 with 70 steals in 2009, Jacoby Ellsbury made a strong case for being selected as a top 20 player at this time last season.

Terry Francona has been given a Ferrari and is expected to drive it into the winner's circle. But to maximize the potential, he will need to take good care of it throughout the rigors of a 162-game schedule.

It would be hard to really screw up this lineup, as stacked as it is, but there are some changes that need to be made to make sure the team runs like a well-oiled machine. He's got the pieces, now its time to put them in the right places.