Best Slideshows - League

As the playoffs wrap up, a World Series champ is crowned, and several players are given the MVP and Cy Young awards for their efforts, other players are looking to next year.

These are players that may or may not be sure of where they're playing, and are looking forward to see just how much money they will be making over the next few years. Likewise, any teams that have deep pockets and any holes in their lineup will be looking through what's out there and will try and make their team the best that it can be heading into 2011.

In honor of one of the best pitching matchups in NLCS history between the Phillies and Giants starting Saturday night, here are 10 matchups that had the same amount of hype that Halladay-Lincecum, Oswalt-Cain and Hamels-Sanchez provide.

In the past 20 years, many matchups have gotten hype. The most memorable hype for a series had to have been in 2001 when the Diamondbacks and Braves battled it out with five future Hall of Famers,

This list focuses only on individual game pitching matchups.

Although they are two very different pitchers, the Giants' Tim Lincecum and the Phillies' Roy Halladay are two of baseball's top three or four.

Saturday night in Philadelphia, Lincecum—the NL Cy Young winner each of the previous two seasons—will face Halladay, the front runner for this year's NL Cy Young, who tossed a no-hitter in his last start.

Although postseason baseball was limited to the World Series only until 1969, and the World Series and LCS until 1995, there have been dozens of classic pitching matchups in baseball history.

At the time of year when all the talk is of MVP hitters and Cy Young pitchers, many important players are often not even considered. Although MVP does include the term valuable, that award is usually given to the player who has produced the most offense, and the Cy Young to the pitcher with the lowest Earned Run Average.

The 2010 MLB Playoffs are only just underway—each NLDS series is only one game old—and we've got both drama and storylines. Rarely has the first six games of a baseball playoff season been so eventful.

As we head into this weekend's games, here's a look at the storylines that have begun to develop. Some teams are doing the opposite of what we expected, while Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees are doing exactly what we expected.

Let's have a look.

Say what you want about the problems with MLB's current playoff system. You can bemoan the addition of the Wild Card, or whine about how home field advantage for the World Series is determined by the All-Star Game, or complain that a best-of-five series is a poor way to determine which of two good teams is superior.

But when the first round kicks off on Wednesday, don't pretend that you won't be watching.

With the 2010 regular season coming to a close and the playoff picture starting to become a little clearer every day, there are some teams that will focus on free agency and which players they are going to bring back or which players they could possibly land this offseason.

One of those players that will hit the free agent market is third baseman Adrian Beltre, who seemed to reinvent himself this season as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

As the regular season wraps up, many teams and their fans are looking to October and, they hope, a World Series win. For other teams and their fans, they are looking to the offseason, hoping to make a few trades or free agent acquisitions to bounce them back into contention.

In some situations, these trades end up paying huge dividends, and not always for the party that was looking to get the major piece. At the same time, once in a while there's a great free agent pickup at a bargain that launches a team into the playoffs and a World Series ring.

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. 

The final week of the 2010 regular season has arrived and the Rangers and Twins have already popped the champagne.

The Rangers success can be attributed to finally having solid starting pitching. Nolan Ryan really does make whatever he touches turn into gold.

The Phillies have clinched at least a Wild Card position, while the Yanks and Rays are battling for the AL East crown. The loser gets the Wild Card.

Thinking back to April most experts wouldn't expect the upstart Reds to be one game away from clinching their first playoff birth since 1995.