Manny Ramirez

Jack Curry of the YES Network tweeted recently that the Yankees are having internal discussions about picking up free-agent outfielder Manny Ramirez.

What else is new?

For those of you who know anything about baseball, you know that you can always count on the Yankees to make offers to big ticket players every offseason, whether that be through trades or free agency.

Take Mark Teixeira as a great example.

My buddy Vinnie over at Talking Giants Baseball contacted me and told me he would like me to do a guest blog entry about the Dodgers. He wants me to throw a preview at him. Well...he's not going to like what I'm about to write, because the Dodgers are coming back full force next year for a 100 win season and that NL West title.

MLB free agency is in full swing with a lot of the top free agents already off the board.

Teams that missed out on the best available will be scouring the open market, looking for an extra bat or arm to give their team a boost. While the pickings are fairly slim at this point, there are still a couple of big names out there that could make an impact.

Of the available free agents, which are the best ones available?

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Carl Crawford, Cliff Lee and Jayson Werth have grabbed all the headlines with their lucrative nine-figure contracts, but many of this off-seasons free agents remain unsigned.

For some players like Adrian Beltre and Rafael Soriano, their big day is a foregone conclusion, but others won’t be so lucky. Whether due to age or declining skills, many players may have to wait until Spring Training to sign a contract, that is, if they can find work.

With that in mind, let’s examine 15 players who could have to wait until March before finding a new home for the season.

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... 

Free agency is quite often crucial to a team's short- and long-term success. While many players are drafted and brought through an organization's farm system, more times than not it comes down to the ability of a team to bring in top-end free agents. 

However, the risks involved with signing free agents are apparent in every Major League Baseball season. Year in and year out, players fail to live up to their multi-million dollar contracts.

The 10 biggest laughing stocks of free agency are described as such not necessarily because they aren't (or weren't once) fine players.

Although some of them are far past their prime.

But the main reason why teams would be foolish to sign them is because of the likely very high asking price.

Maybe the aging veterans whose production has dwindled would take a reduced deal, one-year to hang or try to resurrect their career. But that's not likely.

And maybe the free agents who aren't over the hill, aren't seeking contracts far better than they're worth.

Carl Crawford and Cliff Lee are still available in Major League Baseball Free Agency. Some of the major names have already landed with new teams including Jayson Werth and Victor Martinez.

That leads to the question of who are the best remaining free agents. While it is a simpler process to measure these players from a numbers standpoint, who are the best value players remaining. In other words, who provides the most "bang for the buck".

Let's take a look at the 50 most valuable players still available on the market.

Jayson Werth's 7 year/$126 million contract has done many things to the baseball world—shocked it, confused it, angered it, and mocked it.

These types of contracts usually haven't caused players to live up to the ridiculous amount of money that they are paid.

Here's who has and hasn't lived up to the massive cash.

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MLB Free Agency 2011 continues with most of the big names still on the market.

Aside from making a big splash by landing Carl Crawford or Cliff Lee, most Major League clubs will be looking to bolster their depth by adding veteran hitting and pitching.

As usual, there are plenty reliable role players available.

There are also a few players who you might want your favorite teams to ignore for one reason or another.

Here's a look at 10 clubhouse cancers who could stir up trouble with their new clubs.