Kuzul

After Carl Crawford’s surprise signing by the Boston Red Sox, MLB’s free agent pool is slowly starting to dwindle down.

Cliff Lee is still out there for the New York Yankees’ or Texas Rangers’ taking, but there aren’t a whole lot of other marquee names left.

As for free agent relievers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim—not to be confused with all of the other Los Angeles residing in MLB—scooped up Scott Downs, the Philadelphia Phillies re-signed Jose Contreras, Joaquin Benoit went to the Detriot Tigers, and the Bronx Bombers kept Mariano Rivera.

Still there’s a solid group of relievers left for any teams trying to shore up their bullpens this offseason.

Here’s a list of the top 15 specialty relievers still available.

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With Billy Wagner keen on retiring after the 2010 season, Frank Wren knew he would find himself this off-season once again shopping for bullpen arms.

Even with stellar rookie seasons by Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel out of the bullpen, Atlanta will seek at least one veteran arm to help out in late innings, as well as mentor the talented yet young relief corp.

Since the 2007 off-season, when the Braves traded for Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano, Atlanta has been known around Major League Baseball for having outstanding bullpens. With Kimbrel and Venters coming off their rookie seasons in 2010, who will Frank Wren nab this off-season to help them out?

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Every offseason the free-agent class is headlined by a small group of big-name players. In 2008, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira were the big names. Last year, it was probably John Lackey. In 2010, Cliff Lee is undoubtedly the biggest fish in a very, very small pond.

The problem is, players of this ilk command huge salaries and usually end up on big-market teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets. The most interesting part of free agency is to be found when one looks past the big names at bargain players—those whom people had forgotten about.

Even when looking at the underrated players on the market, this year’s free-agent class is still poor.

Not to kill the suspense but, no, Cliff Lee will not be appearing on this list.

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Last year, the Boston Red Sox had a number of barriers en route to their third-place finish in the American League East behind the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees.

Despite all of the injuries to their regular positional players (Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis, etc.), the bullpen was and still remains a focal point for this offseason for a number of reasons.

Jonathan Papelbon and Daniel Bard were the only two members of the bullpen who had ERAs less than four, and had it not been for the seasons of Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, it should be viewed by many experts and fans that the rest of the Red Sox pitching staff all had issues throughout the season despite its 4.20 ERA, which was ninth best in the American League last year.

Additionally, the Red Sox bullpen had 22 blown saves last year, which was the fourth worst in the major leagues last year. Why did the Sox have a jump in blown saves last year? The Red Sox were second worst in batters faced in the American League last year only to the Kansas City Royals, as they faced a whopping 38.68 batters per game.

Fortunately, there are some very good options in free agency that can aid in shoring up their second set-up option and their middle relief corp.

Here is a look at some of the leading options that the Red Sox may approach as candidates during the offseason:

Jon Rauch (Age 32)

Rauch entered last year as the primary setup man for the Minnesota Twins before Joe Nathan went to the DL due to a torn elbow ligament. Once Rauch settled in as the closer, he did pretty well prior to the Twins trading for Matt Capps from the Washington Nationals. Rauch led the Twins with 21 saves against four blown saves and had a .268 BAA. Rauch earned $2.9 million last year and is comparable money to JJ Putz. In terms of value, Rauch is one of few closers in the free-agent market that will not cost a first-round draft pick as well.

Jesse Crain (29)

Before Joe Nathan, Jon Rauch and Matt Capps went to the Twin Cities, it was widely regarded that Crain was the Twins’ closer of the future. Entering last year, Crain had a number of disappointing campaigns (2007, 2009) but really turned it on with the Twins deploying a heavy dose of their bullpen.

Crain was second on the team among his bullpen mates with a stalwart 1.176 WHIP and his seven hits per nine innings led the team. He earned $2 million last year and could provide good value to the Red Sox.

Matt Guerrier (32)

Guerrier was no slouch last year as well for the Twins bullpen. Over the last two years, Guerrier has held opponents to batting averages of .207 and .219 and WHIP of .97 and 1.10 respectively. More of a control and finesse pitcher than Crain, Guerrier has been a workhorse as he has totaled 70 innings or more for the last four seasons. Guerrier earned $3.15 million last year.

JJ Putz (33)

After enduring two injury-plagued campaigns in 2008 and 2009, Putz was a mainstay in the White Sox bullpen last year. He went 54 innings and held opponents to a .204 BA while striking out 65 batters. Putz earned $3 million last year and with Sergio Santos and Matt Thornton on the rise, Putz may not be returning to the South Side.

Grant Balfour (34)

While all eyes will be on closer Rafael Soriano this offseason and if he re-signs with Tampa Bay, along with his other teammates (Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena), Balfour is a target worth keeping an eye on. Balfour earned $2.05 million last year as he held opponents to a .206 batting average and held a 1.08 WHIP en route to a 2.28 ERA.

If the Red Sox can get any of their left-handed assets out of the bullpen to improve on their 2010 campaigns, these are some of the American League middle relievers that are within Boston’s budget and can replace what Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez were suppose to bring to the table over the last couple of years.

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When the Atlanta Braves 2010 came to a close a couple weeks back at the hands of the eventual National League Champion San Francisco Giants, there was a lot of mourning at the Britt (that’s me) household.

I was resigned to filling out college applications and (gasp) putting school over baseball for a couple of weeks as I bitterly refused to watch the LCS’s for the thought of what might of been had Chipper Jones, Martin Prado, Billy Wagner and Kris Medlen been good-to-go for the first round of the playoffs.

What’s that?

I sound like a bitter fan of a team that dons blue caps with red “C”s.

Well…I guess I shouldn’t digress.

But, now that the World Series has begun and the “Least Annoying Team Left in the Playoffs” Award-winning Texas Rangers have a chance to knock off the team that broke my heart in the opening week-or-so of October, I’m feeling up to digging back into the sport that consumes my nights from about 7-10 during the summer.

As one looks at the Atlanta Braves’ roster, one notices that there are only a couple major (as there have been for the past couple of offseasons) holes to be filled.

One of which is the lack of some “grizzled old veteran” in the bullpen.

With the swagger of Billy Wagner headed for retirement greener Virginia pastures and Takashi “can’t-pitch-back-to-back-nights” Saito getting his (contract-mandated, mind you) release papers in the past couple of days, the average age of the bullpen lost a few months.

I’m not saying that the Braves have to go out and sign some Arthur Rhodes-looking 40-some-year-old just for the heck of it—don’t get that impression, at all.

I’m just saying that with the lack of experience down in the ‘pen (the most experienced guy that’s going to be relied upon next season is Peter Moylan, who has all of three FULL seasonsin the bigs), someone like Joe Beimel or Grant Balfour (both free-agents-to-be) could be helpful to the under-30 quartet of O’Flaherty, Venters, Dunn and Kimbrel that will be shutting the door in late-inning situations in 2010.

Oh, and that leads to this prediction: Kyle Farnsworth won’t be back.

The other major thing that needs help is the rotation.

Wait…this isn’t the 2008-09 offseason (isn’t it nice not to have to think about, though, isn’t it…hey, you have to find positives when you’re watching Jeff Francoeur riding the pine in the World Series before any of the other Baby Braves).

Short of dumping Kenshin Kawakami, that was a total and complete (poorly executed, I might add) joke.

But really, that only other major red flag being thrown up on the Braves’ current roster is in the outfield.

We can all celebrate now that Melky Cabrera had been given his pink slip…but (once Rick Ankiel’s option is declined) with Jason Heyward, Nate McLouth and Matt Diaz looking like the options right now, there needs to be some work.

Options range from Jayson Werth to Colby Rasmus (if he is made available, he’s a perfect fit) to Wilkin Ramirez (you know, that last-second deadline acquisition who didn’t do too badly with Gwinnett after coming over).

I’m only touching on that here to tease a slideshow coming up (I know, a real d-bag move).

The one thing that is for sure is this: the Braves weren’t that bad of a team running on three legs down the stretch.

One piece thrown in the mix here and there makes this team a pretty big threat in the National League in 2011.

After all, Hanson, Hudson, and a rejuvenated Lowe (no Jurrjens, think: trade-bait) are all penciled into manager Fredi Gonzalez’s rotation next season and there’s going to be an even slightly more matured Jason Heyward somewhere in the lineup.

All I can say right now that’s a for sure: Spring Training can’t get here fast enough.

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