Miguel Cabrera

With Opening Day only a few hours away, the crack of the bat is soon to be heard. The eyes of the sports world will shift from the dreariness of winter sports, to the excitement of baseball and the thrill of the approaching summer months. 

Last season was a memorable one for Major League Baseball. There were numerous perfect games (and near perfect games), including a perfect gem in the playoffs by Roy Halladay; Ken Griffey Jr's retirement; the surge and disappointment of Stephen Strasburg; and the resurgence of the Cincinnati Reds and the San Francisco Giants.

Without question, first base is the deepest position for everyday players, and you should expect the top seven or eight first basemen to be drafted in the first two rounds of your 12-team league.

Some players on our list played 10-19 games at first base in 2010, which means the player may or may not qualify as a first baseman in your league. For example, Yahoo! leagues require a player to appear in at least ten games at that position in the previous year. Whereas for ESPN leagues, the requirement is 20-plus games.

To say Miguel Cabrera's reputation has taken a little bit of a hit would be an understatement.  Thanks to his well-publicized and well-documented alcohol binge ending in a DUI arrest, Cabrera went from icon to moron in a matter of weeks.

The criticisms are mostly deserved, a little piled on, but very distracting as cringe worthy details continue to emerge.

Unfortunately for Cabrera, modern media has turned the magnifying glass that was on pro athletes' personal lives into a full-blown NASA Hubble Telescope.

One of the most interesting races in baseball should be the AL Central Division.  The Midwestern division isn't the sexiest in baseball, but it's highly underrated. 

ESPN will give more coverage to one Red Sox/Yankees series than they will to the combined seasons of the five teams in the division, but the fans of those teams know it's shaping up to be a great race in 2011.

Even with Miguel Cabrera, don't be surprised when the Detroit Tigers are in last place in the AL Central division after the first month of the schedule. 

The MLB schedule makers have done no favors for a team that has been abysmal on the road the last two years, and the team has one major and a few minor issues to deal with.

Carmelo Anthony has been one of the most talked-about figures in sports in 2011. The saga that led to his eventual departure from Denver was incredible. As was the New York Knicks' pursuit of him and the package they surrendered to the Nuggets in the resultant 13-piece, three-team trade.

So, could the story repeat itself in the upcoming baseball season? Here, we take a quick look at five candidates for the role of Anthony—players who could give up on their team, demand a trade, or both, before the July 31st trading deadline.

Just a little more than one month before the start of the 2011 MLB Season, the two top hitters in the game have dominated the news leading up to spring training.  Albert Pujols for his contract situation with the St. Louis Cardinals and Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers for his recent well-publicized DUI arrest.

Alcohol is a problem that affects not only the richest of athletes and businessmen, but also the middle- and lower-class workers who need a "relief" from their everyday stress.

Most know of the consequences and repercussions of taking a sip, but does that stop most individuals?

Most of the time, no.

Miguel Cabrera: We don’t know the whole story and we may never know the whole story. 

The two parts that trouble me most about this story are, “Do you know who I am?” and, “You don’t know anything about my problems.” 

No, Miguel, I don’t know anything about your problems. But I really don’t care any more about your problems than you care about mine. 

It's impossible to judge Miguel Cabrera. During a news conference yesterday, last season's runner-up for the AL MVP award expressed regret and was apologetic for his actions that led to an arrest for suspicion of drunken driving and resisting arrest without violence nine days ago.

Cabrera, 27, will undergo treatment set up by doctors administrated by management and its players union.