MLBTR Originals: 10/10/10 – 10/17/10

As the baseball world focuses on the League Division Series, we here at MLBTR are looking ahead to the offseason. Here's a recap of our original content from the past week…

• Ben Nicholson-Smith broke down Jose Bautista's historic arbitration case with some help from an expert.
• Tim Dierkes looked at the free agent market for second basemen, shortstops, and third basemen, as well as the trade market for first basemen, second basemen, and shortstops. He also listed the hardest-throwing free agent relievers.
• Tim also looked at the arbitration cases facing the Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Pirates, Brewers, and Astros this winter.
• Ben continued his series looking at what was said when each of the current general managers were hired. This week he tackled the NL East and NL Central.
• Mark Polishuk listed the managers and general managers who are entering the final year of their contracts. Ben re-introduced us to Sandy Alderson, the leading candidate for the Mets GM job.
• As usual, we examined the stock of several soon-to-be free agents. This week we tackled Carl Crawford of the Rays, Takashi Saito of the Braves, Jonny Gomes of the Reds, and Rick Ankiel of the Braves. We also looked at two non-tender candidates: Todd Coffey of the Brewers, and James Loney of the Dodgers.
• Our series looking at the largest bonuses each team has given to amateurs continued with the Braves, Orioles, and Red Sox.
• Among the poll questions this week, we asked who you thought would win the ALCS as well as the NLCS. We also want to know what you think the Reds will do with Orlando Cabrera's option.
• I dug up the latest and greatest links in this week's edition of Baseball Blogs Weigh In.
• Howard Megdal's latest Jack Of All Trades post highlighted Nelson Cruz.
• Here is Tim's chat transcript.
• Last, but certainly not least, welcome to all of the new readers that stumbled across the site this week! Here's a handy guide with all the different ways you can use MLBTR, as well as a list of our regular features. Make sure you check out our complete list of 2011 free agents.