Best Slideshows - League

MLB Free Agency is still on the minds of everyone in baseball as the Hot Stove continues to simmer.

The biggest names have already been signed to mega deals, which has left clubs around baseball looking for what's left.

But December and January are usually when the biggest free-agent bargains can be found for relatively cheap. Already there have been some great deals on some solid players so far.

New Year's resolutions for all 30 MLB teams are difficult to craft.

With the big time free agents starting to find homes and the trade market heating up, next years teams are starting to take shape.

Technically, every team's 2011 New Year's resolution is to win the World Series in October.

But if you play in Pittsburgh or Kansas City, that probably doesn't seem too likely.

Now for the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and a few other club it's too easy to say their resolution is to win the title. So we'll try to add a little more suspense to it than that.

Every season, the MLB Winter Meetings give rise to dozens of fascinating rumors about blockbuster trades or surprising free-agent signings. Some come to fruition, but the majority of them leave us wondering who on earth ever thought such a thing would actually happen.

Trade rumors sometimes spring fully formed from the heads of sportswriters. At other times, teams make cursory inquiries on players they have no real intention of acquiring, and writers misunderstand.

The Cliff Lee contract will eventually impact almost everyone in the league in some way, but for Philadelphia Phillies' right-handed pitcher Joe Blanton, that time is now. Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro acknowledges he will eventually need to make a trade to move some money and make room in the team budget for Lee.

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.

Cliff Lee is a free agent, and that means the team that flashes the most cash will have the advantage in the arms race.

Lee most likely enjoys Texas, unfortunately, us fans don't really get a lot of the Rangers during the typical MLB season.

As a casual observer of the game, I choose to take a glance at the 10 places in which Lee would look best. Of course, we are taking into account exposure, market and fan base.

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The 2010 MLB season provided a few teams that finished well above expectations..

Who would have guessed that the San Diego Padres would be on pace to make the playoffs all the way up to the last game of the season?

Who would have guessed that the Cincinnati Reds, a team that hadn't made the playoffs in 15 years, would hold off the mighty St. Louis Cardinals for supremacy in the N.L Central?

And of course, there is the Rangers and Giants. Who would have thought that two average teams in '09 would defeat the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees?

The 2010 World Series is upon us. In the next week or two we have the chance to see baseball history, to see two teams competing at the highest level for the crowning achievement in all of baseball. Along the way, perhaps we'll share in a collective moment that will last a lifetime.

As we prepare to watch the Texas Rangers face off against the San Francisco Giants in this year's Fall Classic, let's have a look back at some of the greatest moments in World Series history.

Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee will kick off the 2010 World Series at AT&T Park on Wednesday night—the matchup everyone wanted and expected to see was officially greenlit when San Francisco Giants' manager Bruce Bochy announced the Freak would get Game 1.

Cliff Lee, cooling his heels since his October 18th start in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, was tabbed as the Texas Rangers' go-to guy the minute his mates eliminated the New York Yankees in Game 6 of the ALCS.

Making it to the World Series is the goal of every player and team. But not all World Series participants are created equal.

Whether it be a team peaking at just the right time, or simply a down year in the league, there have been plenty of teams in the fall classic that seemingly shouldn't have made it.

So, in light of the underdog Rangers and Giants making the World Series, let's take a look at the worst teams of all time to have played in the World Series.