Manny Ramirez

This offseason, Cliff Lee and Carl Crawford will be headlining this year's free-agent class.  Both players will be demanding major contracts, and both players might end up in New York.

Well, Lee will be in the Bronx, but the verdict is still out on Crawford.

For teams that can ill-afford to get the "Big Fish," they must look at other options—the second-tier players.  Guys that can still contribute, but will be affordable to acquire. 

Jose Bautista, the Blue Jays right fielder, became the 26th player in major league history to hit 50 home runs when he launched a Felix Hernandez pitch into the left field bullpen in the first inning of a 1-0 Toronto win.

It's a special number, no doubt.

As soon as the World Series ends, all eyes will turn to Cliff Lee and the free agent class of 2010 to see where some of the games biggest stars will end up at the start of the 2011 baseball season.

In advance, we take a look now at the top 20 free agents for the coming offseason.

Begin Slideshow

Here is today's Holy Crap discovery. It has to do with the roller coaster season Andre Ethier has had.

But let's not start in 2010. Let's go back to 2008.

Back in 2008, you'll recall, Manny Ramirez made kind of an ass out of himself (which is like saying back in the summer of 2003 Kobe Bryant had some trouble in Colorado), and got himself run out of Boston. The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Manny, he had an unbelievable two months with L.A., and the Dodgers went to the NLCS.

What a difference a year makes.

After two consecutive trips to the NLCS in 2008 and 2009, Dodgers fans had even higher hopes for the 2010 season.

Folks in Dodgertown knew that the divorce between Frank and Jamie McCourt would have some type of effect on the organization, but nobody guessed the 2010 campaign would turn into a struggle on the field.

A funny thing happened to the Chicago White Sox on their way to a disappointing offseason.

They decided to get off the mat and play baseball.

Two weeks ago, it had been 19 days since they had won a series. In that span their record was 5-11. Eight of the 11 losses were by two runs or fewer.

The bullpen was faltering and fighting through injury. Key cogs of the offense were struggling, and it seemed the starting rotation was finally tiring.

Another wacky week of baseball. The ever-annoying Nyjer Morgan decided to slam into the Marlins catcher one too many times.

After being thrown at, Morgan decided to charge the mound and MLB's second brawl of the season occurred.

More violent than Reds vs. Cardinals, Morgan got in a few head shots before getting knocked down by the entire Marlins team.

Aroldis Chapman of the Reds made his major league debut this week. He arrived in a blaze of glory, hitting 103 on the radar gun multiple times.

The 2010 MLB season has not disappointed, as competition is fierce but so is disappointment.

For playoff staples, like the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, things could not have gone any worse. As they say, "When it rains, it pours" and both the above two ball clubs will be noticeably absent. The presence of the Red Sox and Cardinals will be deeply missed, a true heartbreak for all fans of baseball.

So, which American League teams are in contention?

For the past week, the Chicago White Sox made no secret that they wanted Manny Ramirez to be their DH for the remainder of the season.

After some waiver formalities and some back and forth, yesterday they finally made it happen.

The White Sox acquired Ramirez yesterday on a straight waiver claim from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The White Sox will pay the remaining $3.8 million left on Manny’s contract.

It's official.

Manny Ramirez and the nearly $4 million left on his contract are heading to the South Side of Chicago to finish the season out for the White Sox.

Manny, of course, will play his first game for the White Sox against his former team, our Cleveland Indians.

It's unclear whether or not Manny will play tonight or debut tomorrow for the White Sox, but either way, it could prove to be an interesting conglomeration of personalities.