Read: Keith Law’s Top 50 Free Agents
In what is a must-read article, at ESPN.com, Keith Law ranks the Top 50 Free Agents for this off-season.
Keep in mind, as Tim Dierkes pointed out at MLB Trade Rumors, Law has proven to be very astute in his predictions, noting in 2006 that Barry Zito should be regarded as only a third starter.
Interestingly, this time around, Law ranks A.J. Burnett ahead of Derek Lowe, who is ranked ahead of Ryan Dempster, who is ranked ahead of Oliver Perez.
In terms of closers, Law’s top free-agent 
closer is Kerry Wood, of whom he writes, “However, for a one-inning, shutdown closer, you’re not going to do much better than Wood if you can stomach the health risk.”
In Law’s opinion, after Wood, Jeremy Affedlt is the next best available closer, who is immediately followed by Francisco Rodriguez, who is ranked ahead of Brian Fuentes.
Law has the following to say about Rodriguez:
“He’s sitting 91-93 mph now with good life, but his once-devastating slider is far less sharp, and he pitches much more off his fastball than he did before… Among players likely to get contracts of four years or longer, K-Rod probably represents the greatest risk of a flameout.”
…i am torn on wood…i like the idea of him, but i totally afraid of his arm, health, etc…i feel it is too much of a risk to have him as your closer, for fear of seeing the Mets end up in essentially the exact same situation they were at the end of 2008…
…the buzz in baseball seems to suggest the Rangers, Mets and Tigers could be among teams who show interest in wood…
However, according to Peter Gammons at ESPN.com, the Rangers would need to trade Hank Blalock to afford Wood.
