LATimes

That man is smiling because Adrian Beltre is currently the "hottest" item left on the Major League Baseball winter stove now that Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford, Jayson Werth, Victor Martinez and Adam Dunn have found greener pastures.

Or more luxurious estates with more elegantly manicured lawns amidst a community with higher gates.

You say potato, I say potato...

Now that the Winter Meetings are over and Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth have signed mammoth contracts, what's next? What other impact free-agents are still out there? 

It looks more likely this winter that there will be significant player movement via trade. In this economic climate it makes sense for smaller market teams to trade players who are looking at large salary increases in the near future in exchange for younger players that they can control for a significant amount of time.

You can never have too much pitching. Pitching wins championships. Momentum is only as good as your next day's starting pitcher. General managers, broadcasters and baseball columnists tell us as much each and every year, and each and every year these beliefs are reinforced when the biggest Free Agent starter on the market is signed to a massive contract that takes him into his late 30s.

The MLB winter meetings will take place this week in Florida, and the Los Angeles Dodgers have a lot of work to do. Despite a flurry of moves that brought Juan Uribe, Jon Garland and Rod Barajas to LA, the Dodgers have holes to fill in left field and in the bullpen. They also need to address the somewhat unsteady production they got from first baseman James Loney and center fielder Matt Kemp in 2010.

With the Major League Baseball Hot Stove season almost at its boiling point, many fans across Dodgertown can't help but recollect the most notable trades in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise.

Since officially moving to Los Angeles in 1958, many player trades occurred that were instrumental in winning nine National League pennants and five World Series championships. However, along with the deals that were beneficial came the deals that were dreadful, and people wonder what may have transpired if a number of these trades could have been undone.

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 a 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?

One of the main concerns for GM Ned Colletti and the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason is finding a permanent solution for second base. For Dodgers fans, the last few seasons have been confusing in the middle infield, as several journeyman veterans and utility players have stepped in, taking turns manning the right side of the infield.

The upcoming season appears to be heading in the same direction. However, it is also possible with major names on the free agent market, the Dodgers will be able to sign a solid fielder with a productive bat to a multi-year deal.

Sometimes when making an effort to rebuild a team, many general managers make the mistake of choosing the best player available on the market rather than addressing one particular area where the squad is weak.

Instead of paying millions for a superstar, then trying to find out how or where a certain player will mesh with the team, the good general managers will first break down the specific needs of the club and make a checklist, then when considering any new additions, they check to make sure that each prospective player meet the required criteria.

Normally when a new manager is hired in Major League Baseball, his first task is to assemble his own coaching staff, but in the case of Don Mattingly and the Los Angeles Dodgers, things may be a bit more complicated than they look.

For the first time in three years, the Los Angeles Angels will not represent the AL West in the postseason. 

Despite returning six starters on offense, the Angels stumbled to an 80-82 record in 2010 as they ended up in third place in the West behind both the Rangers and A's, marking the team's worst finish since 2003.