Kuzul

Every season, the MLB Winter Meetings give rise to dozens of fascinating rumors about blockbuster trades or surprising free-agent signings. Some come to fruition, but the majority of them leave us wondering who on earth ever thought such a thing would actually happen.

Trade rumors sometimes spring fully formed from the heads of sportswriters. At other times, teams make cursory inquiries on players they have no real intention of acquiring, and writers misunderstand.

One way or another, though, we always hear a fair number of crazy rumors during the week-long swap meet. Read on for the 10 most outrageous rumored moves of the Winter Meetings.

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Ranking the top 100 baseball players of all-time is no easy task. It’s hard to juggle players from the dead-ball era, the middle 20th century and modern times.

Even more complicated is how to rank players at different positions. Where do you place the game’s dominant closers? How about starting pitchers? No matter how lights-out they may be, they still sat on the bench for most of their teams’ games.

Then, of course, comes the prickly situation of cheating, whether proven, admitted or alleged. Should ballplayers be penalized for the use of performance-enhancing drugs? Corked bats? How about the spitball?

It all adds up to a lively debate that we encourage you to join as Bleacher Report presents The Top 100 Baseball Players of All Time.

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Free agency is a fickle beast in that money doesn’t always constitute the quality level of any given player. More often than not, teams fork over hefty coin simply based on a player’s prior experience and what the agent “sells” the buying team into thinking.

Take, for example, starting pitcher Cliff Lee. His track record over the past two years arguably suggests he is worth over $100 million—arguably! But what about all those players who are better buys than Lee. Isn’t that where the true value rests?

It may be a trite question to ask but I thought it a great topic to discuss, so let’s take a look at who I have come up with. I will take a look at pitchers as well as some position players to widen the gamut.

So sit back and enjoy and please be sure to leave your nominee below in the comment section.

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Trades are a funny thing.

They are a part of every sport, and the one common characteristic that can describe their nature is their inherent volatility. Trades can be a savior to teams, bringing them to the pinnacle of success. Or they can be the perpetual oppressor, blamed by fans for years of struggle and hardship. Sometimes, the same trade can be viewed either way, depending on the point of view of the fan.

No sport has such a voluminous history of transactions as America’s pastime, so it’s no surprise that deciding which were the absolute worst was no small task.

Think I have anything out of place or that I haven’t included a trade that deserved to be on here? Let me know.

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Cliff Lee is a free agent, and that means the team that flashes the most cash will have the advantage in the arms race.

Lee most likely enjoys Texas, unfortunately, us fans don’t really get a lot of the Rangers during the typical MLB season.

As a casual observer of the game, I choose to take a glance at the 10 places in which Lee would look best. Of course, we are taking into account exposure, market and fan base.

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The 2010 MLB season provided a few teams that finished well above expectations..

Who would have guessed that the San Diego Padres would be on pace to make the playoffs all the way up to the last game of the season?

Who would have guessed that the Cincinnati Reds, a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in 15 years, would hold off the mighty St. Louis Cardinals for supremacy in the N.L Central?

And of course, there is the Rangers and Giants. Who would have thought that two average teams in ’09 would defeat the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees?

This is good news for teams around the league. A young scrappy team with a veteran manager could thrive in 2011. Or how about a team with a bunch of talented young pitching? Picking up a few free agents could be what gets a team over the hump.

Here are 10 teams that could break through in 2011.

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The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Veteran’s Committee will vote on Dec. 5 to select any players, executives or other baseball personnel who have contributed sufficiently to the game since 1973 to merit induction. As it happens, 1973 was the year George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees. Though Steinbrenner died in July, his son Hal remains chairman of the Yankees today.

Steinbrenner thus seems well-situated to become the 13th person in history elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame principally as an owner. His Yankee teams won seven World Series titles and Steinbrenner notably did whatever he could (and often more) to push for ever greater success.

Yet, many note also that Steinbrenner’s transgressions begin to balance out his positive contributions. Twice, he was forced out of MLB altogether, only to find his way back in. Steinbrenner is one of the most polarizing figures of the last 50 years in Major League Baseball, but as far as owners go, few have ever had such an impact or been so visible.

Here are the top 25 owners in MLB history, ranked according to a proprietary system explained in detail on the next slide.

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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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Every year after following all of the off-season trades, baseball fans and managers are always on the lookout for specific individuals who will wind up being impact players.

They could be prospects, rookies or even a player who has been seemingly on the slide the last couple of years, all thanks to some new digs and a new approach in mechanics.

I’d like to take a look at some players who I feel could make an impact in 2011. As always, if there is a player who you think should be mentioned, leave a comment below, and perhaps why you feel they could be an impact player in 2011.

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Carl Pavano is a fascinating example of the relationship between expectations and performance.

The 12-year major league veteran has pitched for 5 teams and earned over $47 million throughout the course of his career. There have been seasons in which he looked poised to become an ace (like in 2004 when he went 18-8 with a 3.00 ERA and made his first All-Star team with the Florida Marlins), and there have been seasons in which he looked like he might have to retire from baseball (like in 2008 when he only managed to pitch 34.1 innings with a 5.77 ERA while with the New York Yankees).

It’s like watching Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Is he an ace, or is he garbage?

The answer, it seems, is that Pavano’s performance largely depends upon which team he is pitching for. Take a look at his career ERA at his last three extended stops (ignoring the 125 innings he threw for Cleveland in 2009).

Florida (2002-2004): 3.64, 485.0 innings

New York (2005-2008): 5.00, 145.2 innings

Minnesota (2009-2010): 3.97, 294.2 innings

That seems like a rather unusual career path. Even in his five years as a young, up-and-coming pitcher for the Montreal Expos, Pavano’s ERA was still a respectable 4.83 over 452.2 innings. Why would a player who seemed on the cusp of stardom suddenly forget how to pitch once he got to New York?

The truth is that some players simply can’t handle the limelight and constant media attention that comes with playing in a big market city like New York, Boston, Chicago, or Los Angeles. There’s an intense amount of pressure to live up to expectations, which in Pavano’s case included a four-year, $38 million contract. Yankees’ fans expected Pavano to pitch like an ace and he crumbled, suffering countless injuries and setbacks (including missing the entire 2006 season) and managing only a meager nine wins in his four seasons in pinstripes.

Yet, once Pavano relocated to the small market haven of Minnesota, he reestablished himself as a major league pitcher. Now he’s a free agent again and on the look out for the last multi-year contract of his career.

Big market clubs better beware, though. Pavano doesn’t pitch so well when he’s sweating under the heat of all the cameras and lights focused on him.

What other players struggle to perform underneath the spotlight? Here’s a list of the top 10 riskiest free agents for big market teams.

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