Rankings/List

Now that the winter meetings have concluded, many players have changed hands, while many have signed with their original teams. Some have been a long time coming, like Adrian Gonzalez being traded to the Red Sox, while others seemed to come out of nowhere.

Ranking the top 100 baseball players of all time is no easy task. It's hard to juggle players from the dead-ball era, the middle 20th century and modern times.

Even more complicated is how to rank players at different positions. Where do you place the game's dominant closers? How about starting pitchers? No matter how lights-out they may be, they still sat on the bench for most of their teams' games.

More and more moves continue to happen around the majors, and despite the winter meetings coming to an end, there are still a couple of players in need of either a contract or a new home.

I'd like to take a look at 10 players who are currently still holding their "for rent" signs, and give you the latest news regarding them.

All news is current as of Monday, 7 a.m.

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Baseball lost many this year, some big names and some not-so-big.  Here is a farewell to some of the stars of the American Pastime who left us this year.

Starting with the biggest name of all...

George Steinbrenner: 07/04/1930 to 07/13/2010

Also known as "The Boss."

It's the middle of December, and as a blizzard hits the Midwest United States, the baseball hot stove is just heating up.

In the past couple of weeks, the Red Sox have signed Carl Crawford and traded for Adrian Gonzalez. The race to sign Cliff Lee has sped up, and several lesser free agents have fallen into place.

But what if your team still needs pitching help? Don't worry. Even if you don't get Lee, there are still several starting pitchers and relievers worth bringing on board for 2011.

The five teams in the National League East, the Phillies, Braves,  Marlins, Mets and Nationals, have all had busy off-seasons trying to improve their clubs. Some have been more successful than others. And some, like the Phillies and Mets, are moving very slowly through the free agent and trade possibilities.

Here is a countdown of the top 10 moves so far within the division and a breakdown of potential future moves for each team.

With so many high profile faces coming to the Boston Red Sox, it seems only fitting that some big time nicknames be assigned. We need to find ones befitting the size of the contracts, power of the bats, and overall exceptional play expected from these guys.

In the dawn of baseball's "spend trend" many MLB teams have overpaid for players.  Whether it's through an extension or a free-agent signing, mistakes are made every winter.  Every year, many are left asking: "How in the hell did he get that type of deal?"  To say the least, they're often right nine times out of 10.  

After Carl Crawford's surprise signing by the Boston Red Sox, MLB's free agent pool is slowly starting to dwindle down.

Cliff Lee is still out there for the New York Yankees' or Texas Rangers' taking, but there aren't a whole lot of other marquee names left.

As for free agent relievers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim—not to be confused with all of the other Los Angeles residing in MLB—scooped up Scott Downs, the Philadelphia Phillies re-signed Jose Contreras, Joaquin Benoit went to the Detriot Tigers, and the Bronx Bombers kept Mariano Rivera.

Curt Flood was one of the most influential baseball players of all time, and he did it off of the field. 

In 1969, Flood challenged baseball's reserve clause and refused to play after being traded and took his case to the Supreme Court, thus changing baseball's free agency game forever.

Here are a few MLB players who changed baseball's free agency in some way or another.

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