For years you could chart it. The best free agent would sign someplace in December and after the best had established a market value, the next best would sign and so on down the line till the reds signed Jimmy Haynes or somebody like that to a contract that was too long and too expensive.

The press would complain about the crazy money the players were making and then spring training would start and we would all watch the games for a bit.

The exception was the collusion years. All the free agents just sat by the phone and waited.

This year something different happened. The free agent starting pitchers, the ones who traditionally cash in, just waited and waited and ....the phone never rang.

Have the owners learned?
Or was the free agent class that bad?