Opinion

As the New Year rings in, the St. Louis Cardinals have a lot to look forward to.

They are stocked up on talent at almost every position, are coming off a trip to the World Series and are poised to contend against the National League Central, all with a lower payroll.

Yeah, times are pretty good. But every team has room for improvement and the Cardinals are no exception.

Here are some New Years' resolutions for the birds from St. Louis.

The heavy lifting of the MLB offseason is done, with just a few marquee names still available on the free-agent market.

While the trading block can always shake things up, most of the groundwork for the 2014 season has been laid. It's certainly been a busy one, with Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reporting the league is on pace to spend more than $2 billion this winter.

The top names like Robinson Cano, Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Shin-Soo Choo and Brian McCann have been signed. The biggest trade we're likely to see this offseason—Prince Fielder for Ian Kinsler—has been completed, too.

So what's left?

Hanley Ramirez has a new cut, and it's what's known in the fashion business as "a whole thing."

The Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop recently traded in his curls, opting for a straight, James Brown-esque flow he's taken to flaunting on Instagram.

The 2013 MLB season wrapped up nearly two months ago, and now that we've had some time to digest everything that happened in what was another exciting year, it's time to take a look back.

Every team inevitably has a handful of players who turn out to be pleasant surprises each year, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, a few players who wind up being huge disappointments.

So here is a look at all 30 MLB teams' biggest surprises and biggest disappointments of 2013 as we close in on the final week of the year.

The MLB hot stove has cooled off considerably in recent weeks. Many of the top free agents have come off the board, which has allowed those left on the market to await offers from teams desperate to fill a hole, with trades being the alternative option.

The Cleveland Indians have been rather inactive over the 2013-14 offseason.

There's an old saying that says don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see. That might not be any more true than when it comes to the art of MLB "rumor mongering." In this business, negotiations and posturing often play out in the media, and it's up to us, the readers, to make sense of it.

You can't always discern which reports are legit and which are likely to look silly in a matter of days or weeks, but if you are mindful of a team's needs, its budget and its recent history, it goes a long way toward figuring out what makes sense and what doesn't.

The San Francisco Giants have been very active since their 2013 season ended with a 76-86 record. After winning their second world championship in three years, this past season was a disappointment. 

Injuries and performances that were below the Giants' expectations doomed them to a third-place finish in the NL West. With the Los Angeles Dodgers now very willing and able to spend through the roof, it was incumbent upon Giants general manager Brian Sabean to bolster the roster.

With a roster that is basically settled and returning all of the key pieces from the team that won the 2013 NL West, the Los Angeles Dodgers are in good shape. The recently re-signed Juan Uribe will slot in at third base, which was the only remaining hole on the depth chart.