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Duke Snider is and forever will be among the greatest baseball players in MLB history, but as the Duke’s journey in life comes to an end, 15 other spectacular ball players are given the right to be named MLB’s greatest living players.

These players showcase exactly what it means to be a role model and do things the right way, not to mention being able to excel in one of the hardest games in sports.

As we remember the legacy that Duke Snider left behind on the game of baseball, we take a look at 15 men who have also left their mark and are among the greatest living players in MLB history.

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After news broke that Adam Wainwright will miss the entire 2011 MLB season, the Cardinals have a serious decision to make whether or not they want to exercise his option for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Originally, that option was extended due to Wainwright’s stellar 2010 performance when the “Cards” saw their No. 2 starter end the season second in the National League Cy Young voting.

Even though Wainwright’s option is currently guaranteed, it could also be declined if he ends the 2011 season on the disabled list.

This is become an all-too-real reality for St. Louis and Adam Wainwright.

If the Cardinals decide to decline Wainwright his option for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, here are 10 teams that may be willing to take a chance on Wainwright coming off a whole year missed due to Tommy John surgery.

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The possibility that the St. Louis Cardinals trade Albert Pujols before season’s end is a very real option for the Cards.

Instead of the Cardinals watching Pujols walk and get nothing in return, trading him before the 2011 trade deadline would help the Cardinals reload with new talent as they figuring out how to handle life after Pujols.

There will be many teams who will put it all on the line for a chance to trade for the best active player in the MLB, but it’s going to take a lot to pry Pujols out of St. Louis.

A deal will need to involve several players from the major league team, while also including valuable talent from the minors.

This is a list of the 10 players the Cardinals can receive from an Albert Pujols trade and while there will need to be many other players involved to get a deal done, these 10 players should be the center piece each teams offer.

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News this morning in the baseball world is about Detroit Tigers All-Star first baseman Miguel Cabrera getting arrested on DUI charges late last night in Fort Pierce, Fla.

After a night of partying, Cabrera was supposedly headed home totally wasted when his car was acting up and he pulled over to the side of the road.

A St. Lucie County Sheriff Department officer spotted Cabrera’s car on the side of the road with smoke coming from the engine and pulled up beside him to help the stranded motorist.

Upon making contact with Cabrera, the police officer asked who he was.

This is when it gets great.

Instead of identifying himself, the obviously drunk Cabrera is quoted as saying, “I’m going to (expletive) kill him.”

Not something you want to say while a cop is at your window. And definitely not something you want to say when there was NO ONE else accompanying Cabrera in his 2005 Land Rover.

In true maniac fashion, Cabrera then began to rummage through his back seat until he pulled out a bottle of what the officer said was scotch. It’s now known that Miguel actually pulled out a bottle of pretty expensive James Buchanan aged scotch.

Classy.

Cabrera remained in his vehicle until the cop asked him to get out while calling for backup.

While out of his car, the officer reported that Cabrera also “kept running out in the road with his hands up.”

Immediately the officer handcuffed Cabrera seeing him as a threat and a safety hazard, and while doing so, Cabrera had the audacity to exclaim to the cop, “Do you know who I am? You don’t know anything about my problems.”

What a guy, huh? He first is completely annihilated, then drives while wasted, then pulls the “do you know who I am?” card as if the officer will just give him a slap him on the wrist because he’s an athlete.

Up against a cop car while being incarcerated, Cabrera continued to act up and when an officer asked him to enter the back of his cop car, Cabrera said, “(Expletive) you.”

He then pushed off the cop’s vehicle into another deputy who then “delivered a 3-4 knee spike” into Cabrera’s left thigh.

This is where it gets odd and confusing all in one.

I don’t know too much cop lingo, but what exactly is a “3-4 knee spike”?

A quick Google search brought up this. I doubt any cop had a shoe like this handy and then hit Cabrera in the thigh with one.

Miguel Cabrera’s crazy night ended with a trip to the St. Lucie County Jail where he was charged with DUI and an additional two counts of misdemeanor resisting arrest without violence.

Cabrera had his head straight enough to refuse to take a breathalyzer test, but ESPN reports that his BAC was as high as .24.

The officer’s who all reported that Cabrera’s attitude was belligerent, cocky and combative admitted Cabrera into jail early this morning, but was then released at about 7:40 a.m. on a $1,350 bond.

Tigers GM David Dombrowski will have a busy day ahead of him while he tries to sort this all out and also address his team and the media, so expect further updates as the day goes on.

To see the Treasure Coast Daily News report where all the quotes were taken from, click here.

To see the ESPN report, click here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

A position not generally known for gaudy numbers or broken records, second base continually represents finesse and footwork that only a few skilled athletes can master.

When going through the history of the MLB, we see many second basemen who have made their careers being the solid defender the position needs, but we also see cases where a team’s best player mans the 2B position.

We’re here to take a look at my opinion of who is the best second basemen to ever man the spot for each MLB team.

Of course, there are going to be some difference of opinion, and I welcome all comments.

So sit back, relax, and take a look at who was the best of the best for your respective team.

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In what’s quickly becoming an offseason of highly intellectual signings, the New York Mets have struck again inking Chris Young to a one-year deal, pending a physical.

Young, a graduate of Princeton, is probable to hold down the back-end of the rotation behind Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, R.A. Dickey and newcomer Chris Capuano. Giving Dillon Gee the opportunity to begin the year as a starter in Triple-A Buffalo or serve as a safety net in the bullpen with an occasional spot-start.

With ace Johan Santana out until at least July recovering from shoulder surgery, the Mets aim is to bring in as many low-risk/high-reward starters as possible, and Young is the epitome of this philosophy.

After undergoing a shoulder surgery of his own in 2009, Young has only managed 36 starts in the past three seasons, three of those coming this past September when he limited the opposition to two runs on nine hits in 14 innings with the San Diego Padres.

“C.Y. proved at the end of the season how valuable a pitcher he can be when he is healthy,” Padres skipper Bud Black told the San Diego Union-Tribune at the conclusion of last season.

And it’s that value that the Mets hope Young can bring to a team with more than enough questions marks heading into the 2011 season.

History has shown how pitchers a few years removed from surgery can make it back to the big leagues with a splash.

The Mets and their fans should remain hopeful that Chris Young will revert back to his 2005-2007 days before surgery, in which he started 30 or more games per season, achieved a 7.4/9 inning hit ratio and K’d 468 batters in that three year span.

Using the vast dimensions of Citi Field to their advantage, Mets execs are able to lure pitchers with previous arm issues to come play for them and prove they have recovered, and this seems to be the case here.

Not to mention Young’s signing reunited him with his former bosses in the Padres system, GM Sandy Alderson and Paul DePodesta, overall creating a great situation for the Mets and the Flushing Faithful.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

“We’re looking for starting pitching, we’re looking for left-handed relief and fourth and fifth outfielder possibilities—I’d say in that order of priority,” said New York Mets GM Sandy Alderson in an interview with ESPN’s Adam Rubin.

Mets fans already know about the need to acquire another arm to compete in the starting rotation, especially with our ace Johan Santana gone until at least the All-Star break.

After signing Chris Capuano last week, Alderson has stated this will not hinder the team from acquiring another reliable arm and word around the MLB rumor mill is the Mets have their eyes set on former Blue Jay and Brewer Dave Bush.

The right-handed Bush could very well be what the Mets need: A low risk/high reward pitcher who could actually live up to the hype.

In 184 starts at the major league level, Bush is 56-68 with a 4.66 ERA in 1,104 innings. He is a guy who pitches for contact and doesn’t walk a lot of batters, which could prove beneficial for him at in Citi Field.

Bush is the most recent pitcher on the Mets radar, behind Chris Young and Jeff Francis, but he may have the most going for him of the men on this list.

Drafted by the Blue Jays in 2002, Bush is already familiar with Mets Special Assistant J.P. Ricciardi, who is vital in the team’s decision making and has a lot of pull with Sandy Alderson.

Despite a drop of about two mph off his fastball in 2010, Bush was second on the Brewers staff with 18 quality starts and ultimately won eight of those games.

He throws a four- and two-seamer, curve and change-up and has command that is unbeatable. In the NL, where guys with two-seamers at 91 to 92 mph could potentially win 15 games, Bush’s production in 2011 could see him wining upward of 10 games with a low-3 ERA and close to eight strikeouts per nine innings.

If Alderson and Ricciardi can sign Bush to a deal less than Chris Capuano’s 1.5 million base salary, Dave Bush could have a breakthrough year and secure himself as a fixture in the New York Mets rotation.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

“Every year players come out of nowhere to become success stories. Look no further than R.A. Dickey. He signed a minor-league deal last January, became a fixture in the starting rotation in May, and finished the season with 11 victories and a 2.84 ERA. I believe some of our offseason acquisitions can be this year’s version of R.A.”

New York Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson stated this in an e-mail to fans earlier today, and he could very well be projecting the future.

With not much for Mets fans to look forward to this upcoming season, there is always a chance that a proven or unproven player can surprise fans enough to keep their butts in Citi Field.

R.A. Dickey was our success story in 2010, and now we take a look at eight players who could surprise us this season.

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In a year where we saw ‘Prevention and Recovery,’ hirings and firings, and even some crazy top 10 plays, our New York Mets couldn’t put together a winning ball club and now our eyes are set on the promising future.

With a new regime in place that stands for almost everything opposite from the last boss, we take one last look at 2010 with the knowledge that our team will improve in 2011 and years to come. 

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After the New York Mets non-tendered Sean Green earlier this month, it was only a matter of time before a team gobbled him up for the potential ‘relief’ he could offer.

The time has come, and that team is the Milwaukee Brewers, who are looking to reload this off season to have a productive 2011.

This is fine and dandy to us Mets fans because honestly, Sean Green wasn’t all he was hyped up to be. After acquiring Green in the trade that also sent underperforming reliever J.J. Putz to the Mets, Green only appeared in 11 games in 2010, managing eight walks in 9.1 innings of work.

That’s not to say he was a total wash as a Met, striking out 54 batters in 69.2 innings in 2009, but with his strained rib muscles moving north to Milwaukee for $875,000 this year, it’s easy to agree that the Mets made an easy addition by subtraction transaction.

With an already unstable bullpen heading into the 2011 season, the Mets should have used every reliable resource available, but Green was far from reliable, and once again the Mets are on the lookout for bullpen arms.

One name said to top GM Sandy Alderson’s list of relievers is lefty Joe Beimel.

Beimel is the Mets’ primary target to replace the holes left by Pedro Feliciano and Hisanori Takahashi and has been admired in the organization as the lefty-specialist the Mets need in the left-handed bat-heavy NL East.

Of course, with the Mets’ financial woes this off-season, Beimel will have to come cheap. Both Feliciano and lefty Randy Choate signed deals this off-season that has them making $1 million+ over two years, and Beimel is probably looking for right around the same amount.

One could gather, as free agency continues and spring training draws nearer, that Beimel will settle for a deal somewhere around one million for one year. A pretty respectable deal for a one and done type pitcher, but that’s just my thought.

With the likes of relief pitchers J.C. Romero, Hideki Okajima, Will Ohman, Ron Mahay, Dennys Reyes, and Mark Hendrickson remaining on the open market, the Mets still have ample opportunity to bolster their bullpen for 2011. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com