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I always love reading this every year. The comments on some of these are hilarious. I highlighted in red some of my favorite ones that will make you laugh. Enjoy! 
Baseball's ultimate free-agent tracker - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
1. Albert Pujols, 1B: The best player of his generation seeks a contract to match. While he won’t exceed Alex Rodriguez’s overall deal, he might best it in average annual value. The big question: Will St. Louis go that high?
2. Prince Fielder, 1B: For all the questions about how his body will age, it has done so remarkably well through his first six seasons. Hitters as accomplished as Fielder simply don’t hit free agency at 27, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him pass Mark Teixeira’s eight-year, $180 million deal – or even crack $200 million.
3. Yu Darvish, SP: The Japanese import’s stuff is better than Daisuke Matsuzaka’s, his work ethic is way better and his marketability – a Japanese-Iranian star – is off the charts. If he gets posted, the frenzy will be similar to Daisuke-mania – only warranted.
4. Jose Reyes, SS: Was well on his way to Carl Crawford money before injuries hit and dragged along the same concerns that have plagued his career. Still could get a nine-figure deal because of positional scarcity as well as overall explosiveness.
5. C.J. Wilson, SP: Barry Zito got $126 million. John Lackey and A.J. Burnett each got $82.5 million. Darren Dreifort got $55 million a decade ago. So when Wilson gets filthy rich after a mediocre postseason, the answer is one simple word: precedent.
6. Carlos Beltran, OF: Comeback year stalled once he got to San Francisco, and his dynamism is as shot as his knees, but the bat still plays, and he’ll forever be a smart enough ballplayer to adjust to his age.
7. Roy Oswalt, SP: Even if his stuff has gotten more hittable, Oswalt on a three-year deal is significantly more palatable – and cost-effective – than committing four years to Edwin Jackson(notes).
8. Jimmy Rollins, SS: His glove and speed remain plus assets, he rarely strikes out and he’s enough of an emotional force in the clubhouse that a team with a leadership vacuum could value him accordingly. He wants four years. Three with a team option seems fair.
9. Grady Sizemore, OF: Nobody else will have him this high, which is fine. He’s 29, will be a year off microfracture surgery and primed to come back. Whether it’s a one-year, make-good deal or a multiyear, under-market package, the team that strikes on Sizemore – and moves him to left field – will be happy it did.
10. Aramis Ramirez, 3B: Looks and plays a lot older than 33. His defense is terrible and his baserunning even worse. But third base is a suckhole of talent, and Ramirez is the only player on this list a contender would take comfort in starting daily.
11. David Ortiz, 1B: The best DH since Edgar Martinez looks for love in a market that in recent years has told DHs they’re essentially worthless. Papi wants multiple years. Despite the numbers to warrant such a deal, he may not get them.
12. Mark Buehrle, SP: With St. Louis’ rotation more or less set for next season, Buehrle’s return to Chicago is practically a foregone conclusion.
13. Hiroki Kuroda, SP: On one hand, he’ll be 37 opening day. On the other, he’s a 200-inning horse who can generate gaudy groundball rates and walks few. The perfect two-year gap-plugger for a team in need of a top-notch No. 3 starter.
14. Jonathan Papelbon, RP: The velocity is there. The strikeout rate is phenomenal. The walk rate plummeted last year. As long as he doesn’t go to a place where fly balls really fly, he’ll continue to be among the five best closers in the game.
15. Ryan Madson, RP: One of the game’s most devastating changeups makes him the ideal sort of pitcher: a groundball-inducing, strikeout-throwing machine. That he showcased the ability to pitch in the ninth inning only increases his value.
16. Michael Cuddyer, 1B/OF: The older he gets, the more contact he makes. And for a 33-year-old-to-be bat-only guy (whose time spent at second base does make him an injury-replacement possibility) that’s a pretty good position to be entering free agency.
17. Edwin Jackson, SP: Yes, he’s an inning-eating horse. Yes, he’s got great raw stuff, from the mid-90s fastball to the 89-mph slider. Perhaps the team that awards him four or five years gets great return. And yet something about this – whether the pitch-count abuse or just how many teams have willingly dumped him – screams red flag.
18. Hisashi Iwakuma, SP: After Oakland’s proposed deal underwhelmed him last offseason, the 30-year-old right-hander returns from Japan as a free agent, happy to sign wherever he pleases.
19. Carlos Pena, 1B: A three-true-outcomes king, with his walk, strikeout and home run rates all well above average. Don’t let the .225 batting average last season fool you; Pena put up an excellent season.
20. Heath Bell, RP: Precipitous drop in strikeout rate could portend something bad. San Diego plans to offer him arbitration, and Bell could well accept and return for $10 million.
21. Javier Vazquez, SP: The threat of retirement wouldn’t seem so silly had Vazquez not posted the third-best ERA in baseball after June 16. Only Clayton Kershaw and Cliff Lee were better than Vazquez’s 1.92.
22. Francisco Rodriguez, RP: Mellowed-out K-Rod provided the same results as angry K-Rod: hysterical innings from which he somehow managed to escape. How he gets through them still defies logic.
23. Josh Willingham, OF: Even in the hitters’ hell that is O.co Coliseum, Willingham managed to pop 15 home runs and slug .523. He’ll be a nice find as a six-hole hitter for a contender.
24. Jason Kubel, OF: A bum foot limited him most of the season and left him with a second-half OPS more than 100 points lower than his first half. If he heals, Kubel is solid left-handed power option.
25. Paul Maholm, SP: The good: high groundball rate, age (29) and left-handedness. The bad: ended the season on the DL with a shoulder strain. If Maholm is healthy, he should field multiyear offers.
26. David DeJesus, OF: Lost season in Oakland after a career year in Kansas City. Excellent corner outfielder, smart baserunner and ideal No. 2 hitter if any of his previous on-base mojo returns.
27. Kelly Johnson, 2B: Turned season around after trade to Toronto and hopes to recapture some of that amid a crowded mid-tier second-base market. Hits home runs.
28. Jonathan Broxton, RP: Non-reconstructive elbow surgery should leave him ready for the beginning of the season, and if his stuff returns along with him, a risk-taking team will have the steal of the offseason.
29. Coco Crisp, CF: Pure center fielders aren’t easy to find. Ones with game-changing speed – Crisp led the AL in steals with 49 – are even tougher. The problem: He still can’t get on base, and it severely mitigates his value.
30. Tsuyoshi Wada, SP: The most successful Japanese left-handers in the major leagues have been Hideki Okajima, Hisanori Takahashi, and Kaz Ishii. Wada, a free agent, would like to change that.
31. Erik Bedard, SP: Started 24 games. Or, as the rest of us call it, progress.
32. Joel Pineiro, SP: While a shoulder injury impinged on his velocity, his sinker lost only an inch of movement. As long as his arm returns in good shape – and with the shoulder, that’s always a question – he could be an excellent buy-low option.
33. Aaron Hill, 2B: Turns 30 in March, and after back-to-back brutal seasons, needs a good one to salvage his career.
34. Johnny Damon, DH/OF: Just keeps hitting. Two more decent years and he’ll become the first member of the 3,000-hit club not to make the Hall of Fame.
35. Kerry Wood, RP: His reinvention as a late-inning reliever is one of the nicer stories in baseball. No more talking about what could’ve been. What he is now is pretty darn good.
36. Francisco Cordero, RP: Likely to suffer financially because of the surfeit of relief pitching as well as his declining strikeout rate. Still, his closing experience will intrigue someone.
37. Jim Thome, DH: Remains a dangerous 300-at-bat asset as well as the most unfailingly positive clubhouse presence in the game. And, at 41, continues to look for that first championship.
38. Rich Harden, SP: Still puts up a monster strikeout rate and palatable walk rate. Allowed a disproportionately high number of home runs last year, which should even out this year if his right arm agrees to postpone its inevitable falling off.
39. Casey Kotchman, 1B: Has always been a great contact hitter. Last year, the balls just happened to fall. Regression seems inevitable, though an OPS over .800 in the AL East will get him a job somewhere.
40. LaTroy Hawkins, RP: While it remains mystifying how someone can throw as hard as Hawkins and strike out so few batters, he returned after a lost 2010 to look as good as he has in nearly a decade. Getting groundballs on 62 percent of hitters certainly helped.
41. Jason Marquis, SP: Gobbles innings like Pac-Man does ghosts. And while he’s no better than a No. 4 starter, there can be significant value in that.
42. Hideki Matsui, DH/OF: First half: .209/.290/.327. Second half: .295/.353/.425. And that was in Oakland. Could turn into a Thome or Jason Giambi type with a lesser workload.
43. Bartolo Colon, SP: Batters against him in the second half: .298/.338/.498. Looks like the expiration date on injecting your own stem cells is approximately three months.
44. Mark Ellis, 2B: Rough season notwithstanding, Ellis still has plus range and can hold his own with the bat.
45. Jamey Carroll, UT: Peaking in his late 30s, Carroll brings on-base viability as well as positional flexibility that may score him a two-year deal.
46. Bruce Chen, SP: Jamie Moyer 2.0.
47. Ryan Ludwick, OF: He’s almost certainly never going to be Ludwick ’08 again. At the same time, he could prove a bargain for 400 plate appearances.
48. Takashi Saito, RP: Seven scoreless innings in the postseason. A 2.03 ERA in the regular season. All at 41. If he doesn’t retire, he’ll be a valuable contributor somewhere.
49. Matt Capps, RP: His 34 strikeouts in 65 2/3 innings were unsightly. Ditto his 10 home runs.
50. Chris Capuano, SP: From sidelined for two seasons to a touch-and-go comeback to nearly 200 innings with the Mets, Capuano has earned a rotation spot somewhere, especially with his 3.2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
51. Darren Oliver, RP: It’s never good when the best left-handed reliever available starts getting social security in spring training.
52. Ryan Doumit, C/OF: Pure upside play. He can be an excellent and versatile option if he’s healthy, which he hasn’t been for most of his career.
53. Chad Qualls, RP: Went to Petco paradise, posted a favorable ERA, will get paid for it despite just 43 strikeouts in 74 1/3 innings. Every reliever looking to resurrect his career should offer to play for the minimum in San Diego.
54. Brad Lidge, RP: His fastball velocity is down seven mph from its peak. Threw his slider on nearly three-quarters of his pitches last year. Could reinvent himself as an offspeed, groundball specialist as long as he can command his breaking ball.
55. Joe Nathan, RP: A rough April ceded to a decent rest of the season in his return from Tommy John surgery. Like Lidge, betting on the person as much as what’s left of the arm.
56. Andruw Jones, OF/DH: Too damn fat. Though it doesn’t matter as much now that his job is to fill in for corner outfielders and hit home runs, both of which he does rather well.
57. Wilson Betemit, 3B: His bat – which carries his awful defense – fell apart after a trade to Detroit. Nonetheless, he’s only 30, a switch hitter and a proven producer in back-to-back seasons.
58. Matt Murton, OF: Two straight monster seasons in Japan should earn him another big league shot after a touch-and-go career here. He may be nothing more than a AAAA player. Worth a flier to find out, no?
59. Derrek Lee, 1B: As the Pirates tanked, Lee surged to the tune of .337/.398/.584. Small sample size? Yep. Indicator that he’s not done at 36? No question.
60. Ramon Hernandez, C: One of the best free agent catchers available, which says all you need to know about free agent catchers this offseason.
61. Jeff Francis, SP: Nursed himself back into 183-inning shape last season, and while many of them were underwhelming, Francis is young, left-handed and possesses excellent control. A viable No. 5.
62. Aaron Harang, SP: The Chad Qualls corollary: To rescue thyself, go to San Diego. Will be interesting to see if the market is for Harang’s 3.64 ERA or 98 ERA+, the latter being far more in line with the scouting reports than the former.
63. Freddy Garcia, SP: Another case of the results not matching the reports. To have done it in New York was even more impressive. Scouts expect a return from orbit.
64. Kosuke Fukudome, OF: As miserable as he can look – his swings and misses are worse than Bieber on loop – he does have a career .361 on-base percentage.
65. Frank Francisco, RP: Throws hard. Sometimes knows where it’s going. Often doesn’t. Succeeds anyway. Just keep him away from folding chairs.
66. Cody Ross, OF: Solid fourth outfielder worth 400 or so plate appearances.
67. Clint Barmes, UT: Defensive metrics love him at shortstop. Scouts see a utilityman with a little pop in his bat.
68. Vladimir Guerrero, DH/OF: Twenty years from now, when he’s in a wheelchair, he’ll still be able to hit the damn ball.
69. Juan Rivera, OF: On the verge of signing a one-year, $4 million deal with the Dodgers that includes a team option for 2013.
70. Raul Ibanez, OF: Hit like crazy at Citizens Bank bandbox. Stunk on the road. Crushed right-handers. Couldn’t touch lefties. In other words, give him a tiny park, platoon him and keep him away from the field, and it’s an excellent signing.
71. J.D. Drew, OF: Likely to retire, which will give Red Sox fans one final, cathartic day of complaining how J.D. Drew is the worst thing in the history of things.
72. Ronny Cedeno, SS: Hasn’t figured out how to hit and may never, but his glove should keep him employed, if not starting, for a while.
73. Alex Gonzalez, SS: Outlasted the other Alex Gonzalez. Now trying to outlast his .291 lifetime on-base percentage, which is a significantly more difficult fight.
74. Rafael Furcal, SS: It’s a sheer delight to watch him throw. Other than that, there’s only a drop or two left in the tank.
75. Jerry Hairston Jr., UT: Plays everywhere and at a solid defensive level, posts a respectable on-base percentage and is beloved in the clubhouse. He’ll have his pick of teams.
76. Juan Pierre, OF: At 34, could see backup duty for the first time in his career. No longer a potent stolen-base threat (caught stealing a major league-leading 17 times this year) and still a defensive liability.
77. Livan Hernandez, SP: Proof that you can be old, fat and tied to a Puerto Rican drug lord and still be eminently employable as a professional athlete. This is America, man.
78. Kevin Millwood, SP: He spent the majority of 2011 at Triple-A and walked only eight in 54 1/3 innings with Colorado, which should get him a guarantee somewhere, even if his fastball rarely breaks 90 mph.
79. Joel Zumaya, RP: The guy threw 104 mph. So what if his arm is made of cotton candy? It’s a far more worthwhile million-dollar gamble than most of the places free-agent money goes.
80. Mike Gonzalez, RP: The second-best left-handed reliever on the market is Mike Gonzalez. That is all.
81. Kevin Kouzmanoff, 3B: Came up as a slugging, mediocre-glove third baseman. Will survive as a great-glove, mediocre-bat third baseman.
82. Ramon Santiago, UT: Cobbles together solid seasons with good glovework at all the infield positions and a bat that is fine in limited use.
83. Endy Chavez, OF: Excellent defensive replacement at all three outfield positions, serviceable bat and good wheels. Need a fourth outfielder on the cheap? He’s your guy.
84. Nick Punto, UT: Set a career high with a .388 on-base percentage in 166 plate appearances. If he’s even within 40 points of that next season, he’s a good addition.
85. Dontrelle Willis, SP/RP: How does .100/.169/.200 sound? Those are Willis’ splits in 60 tries against left-handed hitters last year. Give up on the starting dream, convert him to a lefty specialist, thank me later.
86. Rod Barajas, C: Lots of power and decent-enough receiving ability make him stand out in this catching crop drier than a Barolo.
87. Jon Rauch, RP: Struggled in Toronto, particularly in the second half when opponents hit .317/.349/.617 off him as he hit the DL with appendicitis and torn cartilage in his knee.
88. Yuniesky Betancourt, SS: And we’re not even halfway through the list.
89. Willie Bloomquist, UT: Still doesn’t have a season with an OPS+ over 86.
90. Octavio Dotel, RP: The Brewers should sign him specifically so Ryan Braun doesn’t have to face him.
91. Dan Wheeler, RP: One of the many relievers whose reinvention via the cut fastball could add years of life onto his career.
92. Arthur Rhodes, RP: If he adds any years of life onto his career, could become the first desiccated corpse to pitch in the major leagues.
93. Reed Johnson, OF: On one hand, his .309/.348/.467 showing represented a career renaissance. On the other, he struck out 63 times and walked five. Those are not typos.
94. Rick Ankiel, OF: He’s got a tremendous arm. Maybe he could be a pitcher?
95. Laynce Nix, OF: Getting to the part of the list where we begin to wonder what the Y in Laynce stands for. Yes? Yahtzee? Ypsilanti? Yahoo!?
96. Jorge Posada, DH/C: It’s going to be really weird to see him in a different uniform.
97. Mike MacDougal, RP: Finished last season with a 2.05 ERA. Full name is Robert Meiklejohn MacDougal. Not sure which is a less-known fact, nor which is cooler.
98. Luis Ayala, RP: Joined MacDougal for best under-the-radar ERA season. Ended up at 2.09 with the Yankees.
99. Aaron Cook, SP: Disastrous back-to-back seasons for a sinkerballer who has lost a couple inches of movement over the last few years as a broken leg and broken finger sidelined him.
100. Wily Mo Pena, OF: Still room on the bandwagon. #wilymo4derby
Baseball's ultimate free-agent tracker - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
1. Albert Pujols, 1B: The best player of his generation seeks a contract to match. While he won’t exceed Alex Rodriguez’s overall deal, he might best it in average annual value. The big question: Will St. Louis go that high?
2. Prince Fielder, 1B: For all the questions about how his body will age, it has done so remarkably well through his first six seasons. Hitters as accomplished as Fielder simply don’t hit free agency at 27, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him pass Mark Teixeira’s eight-year, $180 million deal – or even crack $200 million.
3. Yu Darvish, SP: The Japanese import’s stuff is better than Daisuke Matsuzaka’s, his work ethic is way better and his marketability – a Japanese-Iranian star – is off the charts. If he gets posted, the frenzy will be similar to Daisuke-mania – only warranted.
4. Jose Reyes, SS: Was well on his way to Carl Crawford money before injuries hit and dragged along the same concerns that have plagued his career. Still could get a nine-figure deal because of positional scarcity as well as overall explosiveness.
5. C.J. Wilson, SP: Barry Zito got $126 million. John Lackey and A.J. Burnett each got $82.5 million. Darren Dreifort got $55 million a decade ago. So when Wilson gets filthy rich after a mediocre postseason, the answer is one simple word: precedent.
6. Carlos Beltran, OF: Comeback year stalled once he got to San Francisco, and his dynamism is as shot as his knees, but the bat still plays, and he’ll forever be a smart enough ballplayer to adjust to his age.
7. Roy Oswalt, SP: Even if his stuff has gotten more hittable, Oswalt on a three-year deal is significantly more palatable – and cost-effective – than committing four years to Edwin Jackson(notes).
8. Jimmy Rollins, SS: His glove and speed remain plus assets, he rarely strikes out and he’s enough of an emotional force in the clubhouse that a team with a leadership vacuum could value him accordingly. He wants four years. Three with a team option seems fair.
9. Grady Sizemore, OF: Nobody else will have him this high, which is fine. He’s 29, will be a year off microfracture surgery and primed to come back. Whether it’s a one-year, make-good deal or a multiyear, under-market package, the team that strikes on Sizemore – and moves him to left field – will be happy it did.
10. Aramis Ramirez, 3B: Looks and plays a lot older than 33. His defense is terrible and his baserunning even worse. But third base is a suckhole of talent, and Ramirez is the only player on this list a contender would take comfort in starting daily.
11. David Ortiz, 1B: The best DH since Edgar Martinez looks for love in a market that in recent years has told DHs they’re essentially worthless. Papi wants multiple years. Despite the numbers to warrant such a deal, he may not get them.
12. Mark Buehrle, SP: With St. Louis’ rotation more or less set for next season, Buehrle’s return to Chicago is practically a foregone conclusion.
13. Hiroki Kuroda, SP: On one hand, he’ll be 37 opening day. On the other, he’s a 200-inning horse who can generate gaudy groundball rates and walks few. The perfect two-year gap-plugger for a team in need of a top-notch No. 3 starter.
14. Jonathan Papelbon, RP: The velocity is there. The strikeout rate is phenomenal. The walk rate plummeted last year. As long as he doesn’t go to a place where fly balls really fly, he’ll continue to be among the five best closers in the game.
15. Ryan Madson, RP: One of the game’s most devastating changeups makes him the ideal sort of pitcher: a groundball-inducing, strikeout-throwing machine. That he showcased the ability to pitch in the ninth inning only increases his value.
16. Michael Cuddyer, 1B/OF: The older he gets, the more contact he makes. And for a 33-year-old-to-be bat-only guy (whose time spent at second base does make him an injury-replacement possibility) that’s a pretty good position to be entering free agency.
17. Edwin Jackson, SP: Yes, he’s an inning-eating horse. Yes, he’s got great raw stuff, from the mid-90s fastball to the 89-mph slider. Perhaps the team that awards him four or five years gets great return. And yet something about this – whether the pitch-count abuse or just how many teams have willingly dumped him – screams red flag.
18. Hisashi Iwakuma, SP: After Oakland’s proposed deal underwhelmed him last offseason, the 30-year-old right-hander returns from Japan as a free agent, happy to sign wherever he pleases.
19. Carlos Pena, 1B: A three-true-outcomes king, with his walk, strikeout and home run rates all well above average. Don’t let the .225 batting average last season fool you; Pena put up an excellent season.
20. Heath Bell, RP: Precipitous drop in strikeout rate could portend something bad. San Diego plans to offer him arbitration, and Bell could well accept and return for $10 million.
21. Javier Vazquez, SP: The threat of retirement wouldn’t seem so silly had Vazquez not posted the third-best ERA in baseball after June 16. Only Clayton Kershaw and Cliff Lee were better than Vazquez’s 1.92.
22. Francisco Rodriguez, RP: Mellowed-out K-Rod provided the same results as angry K-Rod: hysterical innings from which he somehow managed to escape. How he gets through them still defies logic.
23. Josh Willingham, OF: Even in the hitters’ hell that is O.co Coliseum, Willingham managed to pop 15 home runs and slug .523. He’ll be a nice find as a six-hole hitter for a contender.
24. Jason Kubel, OF: A bum foot limited him most of the season and left him with a second-half OPS more than 100 points lower than his first half. If he heals, Kubel is solid left-handed power option.
25. Paul Maholm, SP: The good: high groundball rate, age (29) and left-handedness. The bad: ended the season on the DL with a shoulder strain. If Maholm is healthy, he should field multiyear offers.
26. David DeJesus, OF: Lost season in Oakland after a career year in Kansas City. Excellent corner outfielder, smart baserunner and ideal No. 2 hitter if any of his previous on-base mojo returns.
27. Kelly Johnson, 2B: Turned season around after trade to Toronto and hopes to recapture some of that amid a crowded mid-tier second-base market. Hits home runs.
28. Jonathan Broxton, RP: Non-reconstructive elbow surgery should leave him ready for the beginning of the season, and if his stuff returns along with him, a risk-taking team will have the steal of the offseason.
29. Coco Crisp, CF: Pure center fielders aren’t easy to find. Ones with game-changing speed – Crisp led the AL in steals with 49 – are even tougher. The problem: He still can’t get on base, and it severely mitigates his value.
30. Tsuyoshi Wada, SP: The most successful Japanese left-handers in the major leagues have been Hideki Okajima, Hisanori Takahashi, and Kaz Ishii. Wada, a free agent, would like to change that.
31. Erik Bedard, SP: Started 24 games. Or, as the rest of us call it, progress.
32. Joel Pineiro, SP: While a shoulder injury impinged on his velocity, his sinker lost only an inch of movement. As long as his arm returns in good shape – and with the shoulder, that’s always a question – he could be an excellent buy-low option.
33. Aaron Hill, 2B: Turns 30 in March, and after back-to-back brutal seasons, needs a good one to salvage his career.
34. Johnny Damon, DH/OF: Just keeps hitting. Two more decent years and he’ll become the first member of the 3,000-hit club not to make the Hall of Fame.
35. Kerry Wood, RP: His reinvention as a late-inning reliever is one of the nicer stories in baseball. No more talking about what could’ve been. What he is now is pretty darn good.
36. Francisco Cordero, RP: Likely to suffer financially because of the surfeit of relief pitching as well as his declining strikeout rate. Still, his closing experience will intrigue someone.
37. Jim Thome, DH: Remains a dangerous 300-at-bat asset as well as the most unfailingly positive clubhouse presence in the game. And, at 41, continues to look for that first championship.
38. Rich Harden, SP: Still puts up a monster strikeout rate and palatable walk rate. Allowed a disproportionately high number of home runs last year, which should even out this year if his right arm agrees to postpone its inevitable falling off.
39. Casey Kotchman, 1B: Has always been a great contact hitter. Last year, the balls just happened to fall. Regression seems inevitable, though an OPS over .800 in the AL East will get him a job somewhere.
40. LaTroy Hawkins, RP: While it remains mystifying how someone can throw as hard as Hawkins and strike out so few batters, he returned after a lost 2010 to look as good as he has in nearly a decade. Getting groundballs on 62 percent of hitters certainly helped.
41. Jason Marquis, SP: Gobbles innings like Pac-Man does ghosts. And while he’s no better than a No. 4 starter, there can be significant value in that.
42. Hideki Matsui, DH/OF: First half: .209/.290/.327. Second half: .295/.353/.425. And that was in Oakland. Could turn into a Thome or Jason Giambi type with a lesser workload.
43. Bartolo Colon, SP: Batters against him in the second half: .298/.338/.498. Looks like the expiration date on injecting your own stem cells is approximately three months.
44. Mark Ellis, 2B: Rough season notwithstanding, Ellis still has plus range and can hold his own with the bat.
45. Jamey Carroll, UT: Peaking in his late 30s, Carroll brings on-base viability as well as positional flexibility that may score him a two-year deal.
46. Bruce Chen, SP: Jamie Moyer 2.0.
47. Ryan Ludwick, OF: He’s almost certainly never going to be Ludwick ’08 again. At the same time, he could prove a bargain for 400 plate appearances.
48. Takashi Saito, RP: Seven scoreless innings in the postseason. A 2.03 ERA in the regular season. All at 41. If he doesn’t retire, he’ll be a valuable contributor somewhere.
49. Matt Capps, RP: His 34 strikeouts in 65 2/3 innings were unsightly. Ditto his 10 home runs.
50. Chris Capuano, SP: From sidelined for two seasons to a touch-and-go comeback to nearly 200 innings with the Mets, Capuano has earned a rotation spot somewhere, especially with his 3.2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
51. Darren Oliver, RP: It’s never good when the best left-handed reliever available starts getting social security in spring training.
52. Ryan Doumit, C/OF: Pure upside play. He can be an excellent and versatile option if he’s healthy, which he hasn’t been for most of his career.
53. Chad Qualls, RP: Went to Petco paradise, posted a favorable ERA, will get paid for it despite just 43 strikeouts in 74 1/3 innings. Every reliever looking to resurrect his career should offer to play for the minimum in San Diego.
54. Brad Lidge, RP: His fastball velocity is down seven mph from its peak. Threw his slider on nearly three-quarters of his pitches last year. Could reinvent himself as an offspeed, groundball specialist as long as he can command his breaking ball.
55. Joe Nathan, RP: A rough April ceded to a decent rest of the season in his return from Tommy John surgery. Like Lidge, betting on the person as much as what’s left of the arm.
56. Andruw Jones, OF/DH: Too damn fat. Though it doesn’t matter as much now that his job is to fill in for corner outfielders and hit home runs, both of which he does rather well.
57. Wilson Betemit, 3B: His bat – which carries his awful defense – fell apart after a trade to Detroit. Nonetheless, he’s only 30, a switch hitter and a proven producer in back-to-back seasons.
58. Matt Murton, OF: Two straight monster seasons in Japan should earn him another big league shot after a touch-and-go career here. He may be nothing more than a AAAA player. Worth a flier to find out, no?
59. Derrek Lee, 1B: As the Pirates tanked, Lee surged to the tune of .337/.398/.584. Small sample size? Yep. Indicator that he’s not done at 36? No question.
60. Ramon Hernandez, C: One of the best free agent catchers available, which says all you need to know about free agent catchers this offseason.
61. Jeff Francis, SP: Nursed himself back into 183-inning shape last season, and while many of them were underwhelming, Francis is young, left-handed and possesses excellent control. A viable No. 5.
62. Aaron Harang, SP: The Chad Qualls corollary: To rescue thyself, go to San Diego. Will be interesting to see if the market is for Harang’s 3.64 ERA or 98 ERA+, the latter being far more in line with the scouting reports than the former.
63. Freddy Garcia, SP: Another case of the results not matching the reports. To have done it in New York was even more impressive. Scouts expect a return from orbit.
64. Kosuke Fukudome, OF: As miserable as he can look – his swings and misses are worse than Bieber on loop – he does have a career .361 on-base percentage.
65. Frank Francisco, RP: Throws hard. Sometimes knows where it’s going. Often doesn’t. Succeeds anyway. Just keep him away from folding chairs.
66. Cody Ross, OF: Solid fourth outfielder worth 400 or so plate appearances.
67. Clint Barmes, UT: Defensive metrics love him at shortstop. Scouts see a utilityman with a little pop in his bat.
68. Vladimir Guerrero, DH/OF: Twenty years from now, when he’s in a wheelchair, he’ll still be able to hit the damn ball.
69. Juan Rivera, OF: On the verge of signing a one-year, $4 million deal with the Dodgers that includes a team option for 2013.
70. Raul Ibanez, OF: Hit like crazy at Citizens Bank bandbox. Stunk on the road. Crushed right-handers. Couldn’t touch lefties. In other words, give him a tiny park, platoon him and keep him away from the field, and it’s an excellent signing.
71. J.D. Drew, OF: Likely to retire, which will give Red Sox fans one final, cathartic day of complaining how J.D. Drew is the worst thing in the history of things.
72. Ronny Cedeno, SS: Hasn’t figured out how to hit and may never, but his glove should keep him employed, if not starting, for a while.
73. Alex Gonzalez, SS: Outlasted the other Alex Gonzalez. Now trying to outlast his .291 lifetime on-base percentage, which is a significantly more difficult fight.
74. Rafael Furcal, SS: It’s a sheer delight to watch him throw. Other than that, there’s only a drop or two left in the tank.
75. Jerry Hairston Jr., UT: Plays everywhere and at a solid defensive level, posts a respectable on-base percentage and is beloved in the clubhouse. He’ll have his pick of teams.
76. Juan Pierre, OF: At 34, could see backup duty for the first time in his career. No longer a potent stolen-base threat (caught stealing a major league-leading 17 times this year) and still a defensive liability.
77. Livan Hernandez, SP: Proof that you can be old, fat and tied to a Puerto Rican drug lord and still be eminently employable as a professional athlete. This is America, man.
78. Kevin Millwood, SP: He spent the majority of 2011 at Triple-A and walked only eight in 54 1/3 innings with Colorado, which should get him a guarantee somewhere, even if his fastball rarely breaks 90 mph.
79. Joel Zumaya, RP: The guy threw 104 mph. So what if his arm is made of cotton candy? It’s a far more worthwhile million-dollar gamble than most of the places free-agent money goes.
80. Mike Gonzalez, RP: The second-best left-handed reliever on the market is Mike Gonzalez. That is all.
81. Kevin Kouzmanoff, 3B: Came up as a slugging, mediocre-glove third baseman. Will survive as a great-glove, mediocre-bat third baseman.
82. Ramon Santiago, UT: Cobbles together solid seasons with good glovework at all the infield positions and a bat that is fine in limited use.
83. Endy Chavez, OF: Excellent defensive replacement at all three outfield positions, serviceable bat and good wheels. Need a fourth outfielder on the cheap? He’s your guy.
84. Nick Punto, UT: Set a career high with a .388 on-base percentage in 166 plate appearances. If he’s even within 40 points of that next season, he’s a good addition.
85. Dontrelle Willis, SP/RP: How does .100/.169/.200 sound? Those are Willis’ splits in 60 tries against left-handed hitters last year. Give up on the starting dream, convert him to a lefty specialist, thank me later.
86. Rod Barajas, C: Lots of power and decent-enough receiving ability make him stand out in this catching crop drier than a Barolo.
87. Jon Rauch, RP: Struggled in Toronto, particularly in the second half when opponents hit .317/.349/.617 off him as he hit the DL with appendicitis and torn cartilage in his knee.
88. Yuniesky Betancourt, SS: And we’re not even halfway through the list.
89. Willie Bloomquist, UT: Still doesn’t have a season with an OPS+ over 86.
90. Octavio Dotel, RP: The Brewers should sign him specifically so Ryan Braun doesn’t have to face him.
91. Dan Wheeler, RP: One of the many relievers whose reinvention via the cut fastball could add years of life onto his career.
92. Arthur Rhodes, RP: If he adds any years of life onto his career, could become the first desiccated corpse to pitch in the major leagues.
93. Reed Johnson, OF: On one hand, his .309/.348/.467 showing represented a career renaissance. On the other, he struck out 63 times and walked five. Those are not typos.
94. Rick Ankiel, OF: He’s got a tremendous arm. Maybe he could be a pitcher?
95. Laynce Nix, OF: Getting to the part of the list where we begin to wonder what the Y in Laynce stands for. Yes? Yahtzee? Ypsilanti? Yahoo!?
96. Jorge Posada, DH/C: It’s going to be really weird to see him in a different uniform.
97. Mike MacDougal, RP: Finished last season with a 2.05 ERA. Full name is Robert Meiklejohn MacDougal. Not sure which is a less-known fact, nor which is cooler.
98. Luis Ayala, RP: Joined MacDougal for best under-the-radar ERA season. Ended up at 2.09 with the Yankees.
99. Aaron Cook, SP: Disastrous back-to-back seasons for a sinkerballer who has lost a couple inches of movement over the last few years as a broken leg and broken finger sidelined him.
100. Wily Mo Pena, OF: Still room on the bandwagon. #wilymo4derby
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