With the Rays’ signing of Felipe Lopez to a minor league deal, all the supplemental draft picks have been decided and the final draft order for the 2011 Rule 4 draft has been set. Especially given how tremendously strong the 2011 draft is supposed to be – Keith Law says that there could be as many as 20 top-100 caliber prospects in this class and that it looks, at least right now, like the best class since he joined the baseball industry. Using the draft order from our own Mike Axisa at River Avenue Blues, here are the teams that can really invigorate their systems with either high quality picks, a large quantity of picks, or both.

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Simply looking at Andy LaRoche’s player page, it’s easy to see why the Pittsburgh Pirates non-tendered the third baseman this season. For the second time in three seasons, the younger A. LaRoche was significantly below replacement. In both of those seasons, LaRoche posted a 50 or lower wRC+, a completely useless performances at the plate. Although LaRoche certainly wasn’t bad with the leather, an average-fielding third baseman with no bat gives a team no reason to retain him. For that reason, it’s also no surprise that the best LaRoche could manage was a minor league contract, which he received from the Oakland Athletics last Monday.

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The last time the Houston Astros made the playoffs, they reached the World Series. That season was 2005, and their appearance in the fall classic was over almost before it started, as the Chicago White Sox swept the Astros behind one of the most dominant starting rotation performances in recent playoff memory. Since then, the Astros haven’t reached the playoffs, finishing under .500 three times. With what seems as one last grasp to maintain the memory of their mid-decade glory, the Astros signed the remaining holdover from the 2005 World Series squad, starter Wandy Rodriguez, to a three year, $34 million contract on Tuesday.

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If the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals have one weakness, it would probably be the non-Albert Pujols part of their infield. David Freese appears to be a talented player at third base, but he only has 87 career MLB games and his ankle injury has him questionable for the start of Spring Training. There are legitimate questions about whether or not Ryan Theriot can play average defense at shortstop, and we already know that Skip Schumacher is little short of an unmitigated disaster at second. The Cardinals addressed all three of those positions in one fell swoop over the weekend, signing former Twins super-utility infielder Nick Punto to a one year, $750,000 contract.

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After sitting out the entire 2010 season without a contract offer, Joe Crede’s baseball career looked to be finished. Despite Scott Boras’s best efforts and solid performance in both 2008 and 2009, teams just weren’t willing to risk anything on a player with such chronic injury problems as Crede. But for Crede, patience has proven a virtue. On Wednesday, the Rockies handed Crede a minor league contract, giving the 32-year-old a chance to work his way back into the league.

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After the Cubs shuffled him between the bullpen and the rotation for four seasons, Sean Marshall finally found his home in the bullpen. In 80 relief appearances, Mashall allowed only 25 runs, striking out nearly 11 batters per nine innings en route to a 2.28 FIP and 2.2 WAR. The Cubs see Marshall as their setup man of the future behind closer Carlos Marmol. To that effect they handed Marshall, eligible for arbitration the first time this season, a two year contract worth $4.7 million ($1.6 million in 2011 and $3.1 million in 2012).

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Sandy Alderson appears to have found his fourth outfielder. On Friday, the Mets agreed to a minor league contract with Willie Harris, who played his last two season with the Washington Nationals. Although Harris struggled mightily in 2010, he should be a solid backup to Jason Bay, Carlos Beltran, and Angel Pagan next season.

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Trevor Hoffman decided to call it a career yesterday, exiting the game as the all-time career saves leader with 601. Hoffman’s career was no doubt one of the best reliever careers of all time, as Hoffman appeared in over 1,000 games and compiled a career ERA of 2.87. But Lee Smith, the last career saves leader to hit the Hall of Fame ballots, is still waiting for a call to Cooperstown that likely will not come at this point. When it comes to evaluating career performance and particularly when it comes to the Hall, relievers are an odd bunch. Let’s examine Hoffman’s spot among relievers and among the best players in Major League history.

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No, it’s not the newest cop buddymovie set in southern Ohio. Instead, the combination of newly-inked Fred Lewis and current Red Jonny Gomes could be the solution to one of the few holes remaining on the Cincinnati Reds roster: left field. Although it remains to be seen if that’s the way that Dusty Baker will use this pair, a platoon of Fred Lewis and Jonny Gomes should be productive in 2011.

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As I stated in my piece on Craig Kimbrel earlier this week, I’m a big fan of high-strikeout pitchers. Much like Kimbrel, Kenley Jansen, John Axford, and Chris Sale burst onto the Major League scene as strikeout wizards last season.

Kenley Jansen struck out 41 and walked 15 in 25 relief innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. He posted a 1.82 FIP, but that was largely based on the fact that he didn’t allow a single home run. High walk rates and high strikeout rates are nothing new for Jansen. In his three minor league stints, he struck out at least 14 per nine innings, and in two of them he walked at least five hitters per nine innings. The question isn’t so much if he can continue to strike batters out as much as if he can weather the inevitable home runs he will allow, particularly if his 34% ground ball rate continues.

John Axford led all NL rookies in saves last year as he took over for the corpse of Trevor Hoffman. He struck out 76 batters in 58 innings at the Major League level, which doesn’t put him at Carlos Marmol levels but does rank 11th among all pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched. Strikeouts were never a problem for Axford in either the Yankees system or with the Brewers; in every stint in which he wasn’t used as a starter, Axford struck out at least 10 batters per nine innings. Whereas with Jansen the issues were with the home run, Axford will have to avoid the walk to remain successful in 2011: he walked at least 5 batters per nine innings in all but one stint (only 4 appearances) in the minor leagues.

Chris Sale has all of 32.1 professional innings to his name, with 23.1 of them coming at the MLB level with the Chicago White Sox last season. Sale struck out 32 batters in those 23.1 innings to go along with 19 in his 10.1 minor league innings. Sale posted a 2.74 FIP, but unlike the other pitchers on this list he has so little experience that he’s still a big mystery. Further, the possibility remains that Sale will move from the bullpen to the starting rotation, which will probably put a damper on those big strikeout numbers.

What do you think? Click here to enter your projections for Kenley Jansen, John Axford, and Chris Sale.