Kuzul

We’re almost ready to turn the calendar to February, and every baseball fan knows that February means pitchers and catchers, which means it’s almost March, which means spring training games, which means it’s almost April, which means the season is starting.

Really, it’s like, gonna be here tomorrow.

OK, maybe it’s still further away than that, but we can still pass the time with all the latest in the world of free agency, trades and contract talk.  There are still some last-minute holes to fill on a number of rosters, and there will be some glaring holes by the end of the year if things don’t change quickly.

Keep it tuned here for what’s happening across baseball on this Tuesday.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Hot Stove is heating up once again, as a flurry of new activity has stoked the dying embers and re-ignited the flame.

We’ve got major trades to report, some more free agent signing rounding out team rosters, and we’ll even throw in a few rumors to marinate on this Friday night.

Bleacher Report sends you into the weekend right, and satisfies your baseball cravings with all the latest news and buzz.  Here are 12 of the biggest recent stories across baseball.  Dig in!

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We’re still in January, but most MLB team’s rosters are taking shape for 2011.

Almost all of the major free agents have been signed, and we can start to look forward to Spring Training and the regular season beyond, anticipating the action on the field finally taking center stage again.

But we still have a few weeks of Hot Stove action left to get through and there are still plenty of juicy rumors to address.  Here is a look at some of the latest.

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You can almost smell it, can’t you?

The warm breezes of spring air gently blowing across green grass.  The intoxicating aroma of dirt mixed with chalk.  You’re starting to hear the distant sounds of wood cracks and leather pops.

It’s sometimes difficult to think of baseball being just around the corner when you’re stuck in the doldrums of a cold, snowy January.  But the college football season is over.  The NFL Playoffs are in full swing and will be a memory before long.  That means that Spring Training will be here before we know it.

Before we get there, though, there are a number of things that still need to be addressed as we look towards the coming season.  Free Agents left to sign.  Trades left to make.  And Hot Stove news to evaluate.

Who’s done enough to hoist that trophy next October?  And who still has to do more?  Get all that information and more, right here, right now, while it’s piping hot.

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We have reached the late afternoon of Major League Baseball’s offseason drama.

The shadows are getting rather long out on the stage, and many of the main characters of this play have long since finished acting out their scenes and have gone back home to rest up for the remainder of the winter.  Even some of the secondary players have reached their destinations.  Brandon Webb, welcome to Texas.  Derrek Lee, Baltimore has a great ballpark.

But there are still some stories to be found unfolding out there under the cold January sun.  There are probably no more $100 million dollar contracts to be signed (at least among current free agents), but if you look a bit closer, you’ll see that the people still out there hawking their wares shouldn’t be unilaterally dismissed as irrelevant.

There are plenty of diamonds in the rough still to be had for the right price.  Let’s check out some of the ripest fruit still on the market.

(Too many metaphors for one page?  Yeah, too many …)

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With Christmas just around the corner, and the Winter GM Meetings already a thing of the past, Major League Baseball’s Hot Stove league is well underway.

Going into this offseason, there was much talk about guys like Cliff Lee, the one true ace available, Jayson Werth, considered the best offensive threat on the market, and Carl Crawford, the superlative all-around threat coming off of arguably his best season.

Now, all of those names are spoken for with nine-figure contracts.  Lee has taken his talents back to Broad Street, Werth won’t get to reunite with Lee as he bolted for the Nationals, and Crawford will be fronting a revamped Red Sox lineup that will also feature Adrian Gonzalez, acquired in a trade with San Diego.

So where does that leave everyone else? 

There is still plenty of talent left out there, and a number of teams looking to fill holes going into 2011.  Well fear not, fearless reader!  In this feature, we count down the top ten remaining free agents, and predict where they might be headed.  So read on to make sense of the free agent landscape as it currently stands.

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