Cliff Lee

Most Yankees fans and media for that matter have focused on one name for the Yankees to target during their annual free-agent bonanza. 

The name should be familiar to every baseball fan by now. His name is Cliff Lee and over the past two seasons he has proven himself to be not only a difference-maker, but a clutch postseason performer. 

Almost seven months, 2,430 regular season games, an entire postseason completed and it all almost ended exactly where we were a year ago. Almost.

I recently looked into who will be available in this year’s free agent class. There are many big names, but these names will likely come with expensive price tags. Additionally, many of these big name players are not so young anymore.

Whoever is in charge of making the decisions in Queens (which according to Jeff Wilpon we will find out shortly!), it might be a wise strategy to avoid these big-name free agents and either improve the team via trade or letting the young players develop.

The San Francisco Giants have not won a World Series in over 55 years. Their counterparts, the Texas Rangers, have never won period.

Nonetheless, both of these squads have proven themselves worthy of dancing in the Fall Classic. Texas found their way in a six-game upset (if you can call it that) of the powerhouse Yankees, while San Francisco (thank you Tommy Wiseau) marched into Philadelphia and conquered the Phillies.

Great, is it not?

Last night the season of the beloved Phillies came to an end when the San Francisco Giants defeated the favored Phillies in Game 6 of the NLCS.

Already fans are complaining, "The Phillies should be in the World Series! or The Giants got lucky! This isn't fair!"

My response is that it is fair.

Don't get me wrong, being a huge Phillies fan I'm very disappointed that they lost.

Free agency. It is what consumes GMs, owners, players and fans during baseball’s offseason.

This free agent market looks to rival that of 2008-09, when the New York Yankees went on a shopping spree scooping up CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, AJ Burnett and Nick Swisher.

While I knew that Cliff Lee belonged high on this list, choosing the top 10 players from both rounds of the AL playoffs was a somewhat difficult task.  What follows is one man's opinion that you may or may not agree with.

If you were sleeping last night, you may not have heard that the upstart Texas Rangers defeated the venerated New York Yankees, 6-1 to advance to their first-ever World Series since joining the league as the Washington Senators in 1961.

So, who were the top 10 players, including pitchers, in the AL playoffs? 

By Tyler Ward

The Texas Rangers are moving on to their first World Series. Their opponent, though, we are still waiting to find out if it'll be the Phillies or Giants. But, for now, it's the Rangers' time. They will be appearing in their first World Series, even though they just won their first postseason series earlier this month when they defeated the Tampa Bay Rays.

What do the years 2001, 2003 and 2010 all have in common? They all involve deep playoff runs and subsequent disappointing playoff exits for the New York Yankees.

Following the 2001 and 2003 seasons, the Yankees acquired a dynamic hitter and veteran pitcher in each offseason, Jason Giambi and Mike Mussina after '01 and Alex Rodriguez and Kevin Brown following '03, and now it is very possible 2010 will also share that distinct similarity.

A phenom who struggled with substance abuse; a manager who endured the same problems; a pitcher who was traded for an upgrade; another pitcher that wasn't going to make it in the majors; a veteran whose career was declining.

These are just some of the players that make up the now 2010 AL Champions and have led the Texas Rangers to their first World Series in the team's history.