Cliff Lee

New Year's resolutions for all 30 MLB teams are difficult to craft.

With the big time free agents starting to find homes and the trade market heating up, next years teams are starting to take shape.

Technically, every team's 2011 New Year's resolution is to win the World Series in October.

But if you play in Pittsburgh or Kansas City, that probably doesn't seem too likely.

Now for the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and a few other club it's too easy to say their resolution is to win the title. So we'll try to add a little more suspense to it than that.

As everyone has heard, Cliff Lee returned to Philadelphia.  The Phillies have added another star player to their already great team. 

When news broke, Mets fans' stomachs turned.  As if Mets fans haven't had it hard enough, the pain just keeps coming.  The Phillies have won the NL East Division four years in a row, and it seems like that trend will continue.

The offseason which some hoped would build upon last year's isn't exactly going so well. Shaun Marcum was shipped off to Milwaukee, John Buck bounced to Florida, and Scott Downs got the money he was looking for in LA. Kevin Gregg isn't likely to come back either. 

Overbay is now a Pittsburgh Pirate. Good luck trying to get five million dollars worth of value from him... 

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.

In short, no.

Cliff Lee is a stud. A rock solid ace who makes batters look foolish and guarantees his team that they have a chance to win every single time out. Missing out on a guy like that is never good.

There's something strangely fitting that former Tribe starter Bartolo Colon is rumored to be a potential free-agent target for the Indians during the 2010-2011 hot stove season. 

No, I'm not talking about Colon now "fitting" into his old Tribe jersey now that he's allegedly lost 50 pounds, I'm talking about how he could fit on this team as a relevant starter.  Seriously, I know you all are chuckling.

After Cliff Lee signed a five-year, $120 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies late Monday night, Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels immediately responded to his decision: “Let’s give the guy some

Now that the winner of the Cliff Lee sweepstakes has been decided, the attention can turn to the rest of the free agent market. Carl Pavano is now the best free agent starting pitcher on the open market, and with Lee making a surprise move in returning to Philadelphia, teams have been left scrambling.

Shocker alert: With pitcher Cliff Lee signing with the Philadelphia Phillies, Vegas now considers the Phils the heavy betting favorites to win the 2011 World Series. Online betting giant Sportsbook.com currently has them listed at +160 to win it all.

A pitching rotation as hellacious as the one the Philadelphia Phillies are currently possessing rarely happens in baseball. Many of us are still wondering how the negotiating process went down. And why Cliff Lee didn't announce his decision on a one-hour special.

Everything about this negotiation suggested that Lee and Braunecker were playing perfectly in terms of maximizing the money. Now it appears money was never really a factor.