The Atlanta Braves have a great tradition of drafting and developing players. No other team has had the international pressence or pre-draft scouting success that the Braves have had since the late 1980's

Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, Andruw Jones, Javy Lopez, David Justice, Steve Avery, and Rafael Furcal are some names that the Braves have developed from the past.

Harry Leroy Halladay III (or simply Roy) will always have a special place in the hearts of Toronto Blue Jays fans. Despite being born and raised in Denver and bearing a nickname derived from a gunfighter of the western United States (Doc Holliday), Roy Halladay has become synonymous with baseball in Canada's largest city.

First base is stacked with sluggers, there's no arguing that. But not all sluggers are created equal. From Barton to Youkilis, there's quite a difference in the caliber of play one gathers from the position. By my admittedly fuzzy research, there are at the very least 4 tiers of players at the position.

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After finishing their first year in Washington with a .500 record, fans and players alike hoped the Nationals would have a breakout season in 2006.

The key was to get off to a fast start.

It didn’t happen.

Third baseman Hank Blalock has signed a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays worth $925,000, plus an extra $400,000 in incentives, reports Jon Heyman .

Blalock's contract is worth approximately $6 million less than what he was earning with the Texas Rangers last season. 

I try not to get too carried away with spring training stats. Usually at least one veteran will slump heavily only to perform as expected in the regular season, and at least one minor leaguer will get hot only to be assigned to a farm club where he fails to impress.

But that doesn't mean I ignore spring stats—I'm a stats geek at heart.

Today—as usual—I checked up on the Tigers box score to see who's hot and who's not down in Lakeland.

While the Reds have made plenty of bad trades over the years, historically they haven't gotten torched for signing the wrong free agents. But that doesn't mean there isn't five worthy candidates. Most of these players were around in the 2000s—which is also the time frame of nine straight losing seasons.

The following players have sucked money out of the Reds wallets like a vacuum while giving the team next to nothing on the field. High robbery indeed.

Javier Vazquez struck out 239 batters in 2010, second in the National League. Vazquez actually struck out more batters than the number of grounders he forced, 237.

Javier was the definition of a big-time strikeout pitcher last year, and this takes a lot of pressure off a defense.

The man replacing him in the rotation this year, Tim Hudson, is a notorious ground ball pitcher. Hudson has had four seasons in which he forced 400 or more ground balls, and his season high for strikeouts with the Braves is 141.

The NL West is the home of the National League's defending two-time Cy Young Award winner. The division lost one of its marquee aces with the departure of Jake Peavy, but the NL West is still loaded with young pitchers. The NL West possesses aces which are the top of the game despite being in a division that captures little media attention in comparison to the rest of the league.

That being said, the National League West in recent years has been decided by strong pitching down the stretch and that will unlikely change in 2010.

How do you truly measure defense in Major League Baseball?

Some of the greatest defensive players to play the game have taken home numerous Rawlings Gold Gloves. Ozzie Smith didn’t get the nickname “The Wizard” because it was cool, his glove was simply magical.

Omar Vizquel will one day get into the Hall of Fame and it will not be largely due to his offense. Ivan Rodriguez is arguably one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game, thanks to the 13 Gold Gloves stashed away on his mantle.