8.4 Bob Feller's career high in strikeouts per nine innings. It was posted during his incredible 1946 season, when he threw 371 innings, struck out 348, and led the majors in wins, starts, complete games, shutouts, hits allowed, walks allowed, strikeouts, and batters faced. It was actually a different era in terms of strikeouts back then, though. Feller is remembered as a strikeout pitcher, but he actually didn't strike out a very high percentage of the batters he faced. Even before the shoulder injury that sapped his fastball, his career K/9 is 6.1. For comparison's sake, there were 15 starting pitchers in 2010 alone who had a K/9 above 8.4, the highest mark of Feller's career.

10 The number of seasons in which Feller pitched more than 200 innings. For all of his outsized legend, Feller had a comparatively short career; he lost three and a half seasons to World War II, suffered a shoulder injury before turning 30, and spent his 30s somewhere between above-average and ordinary. In many

With their acquisition of Cliff Lee(notes), the Philadelphia Phillies have put themselves in a position to field perhaps the best four-man rotation of all time. FanGraphs' Dave Cameron crunches the numbers and compares the 2011 Phillies to the 1993-1998 Braves and writes that the Phillies appear to come out on top:

"If there's a four-man rotation that has ever looked this dominant heading into a new year, I can't find it," he says.

However, Cameron doesn't discuss the other most famous four-man rotation in history: Earl Weaver's 1971 Baltimore Orioles, the last team to field four 20-game winners.*

*The only other team with four 20-game winners was the 1920 Chicago White Sox — it was the year after the Black Sox scandal, and following their confessions to a grand jury, the alleged conspirators were suspended by their owner at the end of the season, ending the team's chances of a pennant. Shortly thereafter, they were banned from baseball. Among them were Ed Cicotte and Lefty

With the signings of Jayson Werth(notes) and Carl Crawford(notes) this past week, there have now been 10 free agent position players who have received contracts of $100 million or more. Thanks to the efforts of Werth, Crawford, and Matt Holliday(notes) in January, 2010 is proving to be one of the most expensive years in the recent history of free agency.

It's the first time since 2006 that three different $100 million contracts were given out in the same calendar year. Unfortunately, the three 2006 deals are three of the worst free agent contracts ever given out: Alfonso Soriano's(notes) 8/$136, Barry Zito's(notes) 7/$126, and Carlos Lee's(notes) 6/$100. Considering that many of these contracts were recently signed in the past few years, it might seem unfair to classify and rank them from best to worst. But every December needs a scrooge, so ... here we go!

Note: This list deals only with free agent position players. So no extensions (think Derek Jeter(notes) or Vernon Wells(notes))

Ron Santo passed away on Thursday and is the best third baseman currently not in the Hall of Fame. In fact, many believe that he is the best position player who has never delivered an induction speech in Cooperstown. He fell off the writer's ballot after the 1994 season, so his only hope of a posthumous induction is through the veterans committee in future years.

Third base is the most underrepresented position in the Hall: There are 16 catchers, 25 first basemen, 18 second basemen, 22 shortstops, 21 left fielders, 21 center fielders and 22 right fielders, but only 14 third basemen.

Of those 14, three are former Negro Leaguers, and four are relatively weak players from the dead ball era who were elected by a previous, much more permissive incarnation of the the veterans committee. (These include Frank "Home Run" Baker, whose most notable feature is his nickname, and Freddie Lindstrom, who was mainly elected because he was a member of John McGraw's dynastic New York Giants.)

Santo came

Aging shortstops. They've formed one of the main themes of this early offseason as Derek Jeter(notes) and the New York Yankees battle over dollars and years while the Colorado Rockies have committed themselves to Troy Tulowitzki(notes) until his age 35 season in 2020.

Position No. 6 on your scorecard is one of the most demanding positions to play well on the wrong side of 30, so we decided to take a look and see some of the best seasons ever put up by an over-30 shortstop. It should probably come as no surprise that shortstops in the second half of their 30s have generally not put up historical numbers, a fact that does not bode well for 36-year-old Derek Jeter as he goes forward with his demands.

Shortstops 35 and under, though, have fared well, which should give some confidence to Rockies fans as they prepare to live with Tulowitzki, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, over the next decade.

Without further delay, here are 10 of the best offensive seasons ever put up by a

The New York Yankees' hardball tactics with Derek Jeter(notes) and Mariano Rivera(notes) have some speculating that we could soon see a day where neither is dressed in their familiar pinstripes.

It's hard to picture either side allowing such a situation to occur, but the fact is that the Yankees and many of their most storied players have gone their separate ways before.

The most famous of the departed players, of course, was Babe Ruth of the Boston Braves. But six other players with plaques in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park finished their careers in different uniforms.

Meanwhile, two of the four managers honored in Monument Park — Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel — ended their careers with teams other than the Yankees. That number could grow to three when the freeze between Joe Torre and the Steinbrenners thaws and his monument is placed in center field.

At any rate, let's take a closer look at the seven players who ended their careers with other teams. They provide proof to Jeter

Last week, I wrote about George Steinbrenner's Hall of Fame chances, and noted that his favorite punching bag, Billy Martin, also had a strong case for the veteran's committee to judge.

Steinbrenner hired and fired Billy Martin five times, which says a lot about both men. They both had enormous egos and combustible tempers. They may have been made for one another, but that didn't stop them from going at each other's throats.

Like another manager Steinbrenner fired, Lou Piniella, Martin was a part-time Yankee during his playing days. He earned a reputation as a sparkplug as he won four rings in his first four seasons, 1950-1953, and a fifth in 1956. Piniella had a longer and more productive career as a platoon player, but his and Martin's playing careers were roughly equivalent for Hall of Fame purposes: They played more than 10 years, making them Hall-eligible as players, but despite their longevity, neither was particularly noteworthy. Both men made one All-Star game and had one

Almost immediately after George Steinbrenner's death in July, a lot of baseball writers, players, and fans came out in favor of his candidacy for the Hall of Fame. They argued that, despite his faults, his long tenure with the New York Yankees made him one of the most influential owners in the game's history. They also pointed out that since the resolutely anti-integration Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey was in the Hall, then Steinbrenner had to go in as well.

Despite all of those assertions, Steinbrenner was never nominated for Cooperstown during his lifetime, despite multiple opportunities and the same laundry list of accomplishments.

So were Steinbrenner's supporters merely speaking with the rose-tinted glasses of eulogy?

Or was their analysis spot-on?

We'll find out soon. Thanks to a rule change that was passed in July, Steinbrenner is now eligible for the Hall of Fame, just four months after his death. His name will appear on a ballot that the Hall's Veterans Committee will vote