The times have changed with regards to major league baseball and free agency. The last couple of years have seen a drastic alteration in how owners have approached the business. Teams are far more reluctant to offer up the big-money deals that once ruled the landscape; even the best players are getting waited out.

However, we could feel relatively confident that we wouldn’t get TOO deep into spring training before the market’s two shiniest stars – Manny Machado and Bryce Harper – would be signed to deals at or near the level they sought. In a game of contract chicken that was the biggest talking point of the entire offseason, both men held out for what they believed themselves to be worth.

Eventually, they found teams that shared that belief.

Major League Baseball has the longest season of any of the major professional sports leagues, with 162 games to be played before reaching the October postseason. That many games leaves room for a lot of changes to happen over the season's six-month course.

Predicting MLB's 2012 award winners

The 2012 Major League Baseball season is in the books. The World Series is over and the San Francisco Giants have been crowned the champions for the second time in three years. Now, 30 MLB teams get to gather round the hot stove and start planning for next year. We're looking at a few months of minor league hype, trades and free agent signings to get us through to the spring.

However, before that happens, MLB has to dish out its individual awards. Here are one man's thoughts on how that hardware might be distributed: