MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
Let me put this simply: you want no part of being No. 1 in the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings. It just brings discord, losing and possibly suspensions to your baseball team. Such was the case with the white-hot Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, who now have to deal with a 50 game-ban of their star slugger. Who's doomed this week? Let's just say that no one would be too shocked if they weren't there again next Wednesday.
FanHouse breaks down the who's who and the what's what of the baseball world each week with our MLB Power Rankings.
Spring Training is always a time of year when false hopes or false assumptions are built based on performance. It might Jeff Francoeur lacing the ball, for instance. Or Yovani Gallardo stinking the joint up. But it is also a time of year when season-altering injuries are revealed. For instance, Alex Rodriguez will miss the first 10 weeks of the season because of surgery. Chipper Jones is dealing with an oblique injury. Oh, and this Manny Ramirez guy signed with the Dodgers. So even though it might seem premature to react in a knee-jerk fashion, it's not.
Hence, we have our second installment of preseason MLB Power Rankings, just to keep your jones going for America's pastime.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.
Meet the ... Team who just can't buy a break. They can't get any big names to sign with them (Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett), they are getting majorly outspent by the two big boys in the division, and the Rays skyrocketed past them last season due to an impressive franchise turnaround. I've seen people tout these guys as the "2009 version of the Rays." My reply? You have got to be kidding me. There's not near enough here for a run at .500, much less the World Series.
That's right, MLB Power Rankings. You do know that that means, right? It means we're only a few short weeks/months (depends on you how you want to look at it, you pessimistic jerk) from starting the 2009 baseball season. Spring is nearly here, everyone has a bounce in their step and there's not an illegal, injectable steroid in sight!
So without further ado, let's get down to business and rank every single Major League Baseball team right freaking now. Because baseball can't wait any longer to get going.
The Orioles have had themselves quite the busy offseason. They've made about 23 trades with the Cubs (OK, so it was only two), and they've also managed to theoretically trade Brian Roberts about ten times. Perhaps more important than any move they've made to bring players in, though, they also managed to sign Nick Markakis to a contract extension a few weeks ago.
Now they've gone and made another addition to the team, as they've signed free agent Ty Wiggington to a two-year deal pending a physical.
You know, getting traded once can probably be quite the ordeal for a baseball player. If you've been in a city for a while, you've more than likely bought yourself a home, and maybe you're married with kids so packing up all your stuff and moving across the country can't be easy. Both Aaron Heilman and Garrett Olson have gone through this type of thing recently, as Heilman was sent from New York to Seattle in the J.J. Putz deal, and Olson left Baltimore for Chicago in a trade for Felix Pie only ten days ago.
Well hopefully neither player put down a security deposit on an apartment in either of their new cities because they've both been traded again. This time, for each other.
Among numerous others, the Cubs have long had a question lingering over their roster: What to do with Felix Pie? The young center fielder's offensive game has yet to impress at the pro level, Lou Piniella has no patience for developing hitters, and Jim Hendry spent all offseason signing and curating outfielders. What to do, then, with him?
The Jake Peavy sweepstakes just got a ton more interesting. The inclusion of the World Champs always spices things up, you know. That's right, the Philadelphia Phillies are now involved in talks with the Cubs ... and the Padres ... and the Orioles. The scene is now set for a blockbuster deal which would see upwards of seven or eight players switching addresses. Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribunereports his findings from a meeting with Padres GM Kevin Towers.
Towers told reporters on Monday that the Cubs were the only team he is continuing to talk to about Peavy and that making a Peavy trade was his full focus at the winter meetings. He then went out and proved it by working to facilitate a potentially four-team trade that would send Mark DeRosa to Philadelphia and Felix Pie to Baltimore and bring back pitchers Garrett Olson, J.A. Happ (the Northwestern product) and Sean Marshall for the Padres.
The key for that deal to work is for the Phillies or Orioles to take Jason Marquis, with the Cubs agreeing to eat some of his salary.
I believe this would be a great deal for both the Cubs and Phillies.
From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.
Jake Peavy is the type of pitcher who can change the complexion of an entire franchise. He won the Cy Young award in 2007 as a 26-year-old with the San Diego Padres after compiling an obscene stat line. He went 19-6 with a 2.54 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and struck out 240 batters in only 223 1/3 innings. He suffered through an injury-riddled 2008 campaign, but still managed to put up an ERA nearly one entire run better than the league average.
Obviously, when Padres general manager Kevin Towers decided to start over with his team by moving his hottest commodity for prospects, Peavy was the guy. Towers has supposedly been in trade talks ever since, though the specific teams and the number of whom are interested seems to fluctuate on a daily basis. This is the Hot Stove league at its very best and worst at the same time. It can be exciting or annoying, depending upon your point of view.
The two main suitors for Peavy seem to be the Cubs and Braves. Let's take a look at where we've been and the chances of a deal moving forward.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
This past season the Cubs treated their fans to the best season of their lifetime ... only to rip their hearts out of their chests with a pathetic playoff showing, getting swept by the Dodgers without so much as a whimper of life.
The task in front of Jim Hendry is to evaluate if anything needs to be done to a team that was the class of the NL in the regular season with 97 wins. Do you just assume the team hit a rough patch when it mattered, or is the team only built for the regular season?
It's a tough task, for certain, but the fact of the matter is that the window of opportunity with the Derrek Lee/Alfonso Soriano/Aramis Ramirez offensive nucleus is limited. It's not totally closed yet, but it is closing. In order to capitalize on the excitement they started to develop in Wrigleyville the past two seasons, it would behoove Hendry to push all his chips to the center of the table. Making a trade like he did yesterday shows me that's what he fully intends to do. What good is a prospect who won't be ready for another two years to a team that wants to win it all in 2009?
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
The Orioles have had themselves quite the busy offseason. They've made about 23 trades with the Cubs (OK, so it was only two), and they've also managed to theoretically trade 
You know, getting traded once can probably be quite the ordeal for a baseball player. If you've been in a city for a while, you've more than likely bought yourself a home, and maybe you're married with kids so packing up all your stuff and moving across the country can't be easy. Both 
Among numerous others, the Cubs have long had a question lingering over their roster: What to do with 
The 
