With the 2009 season about to begin, many players are entering contract years.  Considering the economy, players have even more reason to jump into stardom for their next big paycheck.  The game-by-game attendance numbers are unknown by many baseball authorities, it is still a variable how many tickets baseball teams will be able to sell this season.  My bet is that teams will still pay large bucks to the top free agents on the market, but you won't see any record-breaking contracts like you saw this offseason.

Free agency can mean monster numbers for some players, not exactly 'monster,' but superior numbers to their yearly average.  Ask Ryan Dempster and Milton Bradley about it...their 30+ Million dollar contracts will show you the way.  Dempster was on my watch list all season last year and did not prove me wrong as he was fairly consistent all the way through.  Milton Bradley just had more of a reason to stay healthy and out of umpire's faces.  I'm not going to give you the obvious, most people should know that Jason Bay, Matt Holliday, John Lackey, Rich Harden, Vladimir Guerrero and Chipper Jones will perform just fine.  This year's free agents list goes pretty deep, but the one's that can really break-out are not hard to find.

Adrian Beltre, Mariners - He heads the list for two reasons, everybody and their brother, and their brother's cousin knows that he is going to be a free agent after this season.  The second reason is that everybody in Seattle should be very excited for it, why?  Because last contract year, Beltre smashed 48 HRs with 121 RBIs with a .334 batting average.  It was a once in a life time performance for him, can lightning strike twice?

Brett Myers, Phillies - I cannot figure it out either, which Brett Myers will we see this year.  The ugly one that got sent to the minors last year to work on his mechanics and velocity, or the one that returned and pitched sub 4.00 ERA the rest of the way.  Even though he had 3.35 ERA after being demoted, even those games didn't always look pretty.  In his last 8 starts of the season, he only had a whip under 1.30, twice.

Erik Bedard, Mariners - He is the Adrian Beltre of pitching.  Last contract year, he was mostly healthy and went 13-5 with 221 strikeouts in only 182 innings pitched.  If there is any year in which the Mariners could make a run at the playoffs, it is with Beltre and Bedard healthy and living up to their potential.  In the words of Chris Berman, "Come on Seattle, Come on!"

Kevin Gregg, Cubs - For all you people that are bummed that Carlos Marmol is not the end-game guy for the Cubs, you should not be surprised.  Gregg's great spring training performance should be a clue of things to come.  Closers get paid more and Gregg is determined to keep it.  It is a great decision for the Cubs as well as Gregg might be targeted with trades for his capable salary and the Cubs having a great closer in the making in Marmol.  It makes a lot of sense to keep Gregg as closer.

Mike Cameron, Brewers - Here is a bit of a sleeper for you fantasy people.  Not only is this guy possibly playing for a good contract, he might be auditioning for the Yankees as I'm sure his connection with C.C. Sabathia still might hold some leverage and if the Brett Gardner experiment doesn't pan out.  Cameron has never been a great BA guy, but he should hit close to 30 HRs and for 90+ RBIs while playing close to 150 games (He hit 25 playing in 121 games last year).

Kelvim Escobar, Angels - This guy is already showing he wants to be on the field in 2009.  He has accelerated his rehab and wants to be the man for the Angels until Ervin Santana and John Lackey can come back.  He hasn't pitched since 2007, but everything looks good as he is consistently hitting 95 mph on his fastball so far.

I have some more players to watch, such as Adam LaRoche, Khalil Greene, and Xavier Nady as LaRoche wants to stay with Pirates (Imagine that?), Greene is finally in a smaller ballpark (used to be at Petco Park) and Nady is finally a definite everyday player.  If you're wondering why a Jermaine Dye or Jose Valverde might not be on my 'watch list' it is because I don't think they can do too much more than they already have.  Would it really surprise you if Dye hit 44 HRs and 120 RBIs like he did in 2006...it wouldn't surprise me.  Jose Valverde has been one of the most consistent closers the past two years saving more than 40 games each season.  Yeah, he could save 50, but that wouldn't surprise me.

On a side note, Jim Thome is in a contract year, and I think he is still one of the better aging players in baseball.  A line of .270-90-35-100 is still quite in range and I think he plays more than 140 games this year for his contract.  It will be interesting to see where he goes after the season (obviously in the AL) as the White Sox are trying to get younger.

Joe Berger is a writer for Sports2debate.com and you can reach his mailbag with comments, questions, fan or hate-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it