Free agency has begun, hasn't it?

The free agent signing period started a week ago in Major League Baseball, but from the relative lack of action, you'd never know it.

Just one player has changed teams so far: Reliever Jeremy Affeldt, who threw well in relative anonymity in Cincinnati, is now in San Francisco. Now Jeremy is a pretty good setup guy, but I need more to base an entire blog post upon.

So why is there no activity? Because nobody has set the market. And because the economics of baseball (and everything else in the world) is in such a world of flux, nobody wants to be the first to set that market. And that's on all sides - players, their agents and management.

Heck, a couple of lawmakers in New York want to rename the Mets' new ballpark to Citi/Taxpayer Field. (And maybe they're not just trying to make a point.)

Eventually, a free agent signing will happen. Somebody will give CC Sabathia that big contract - my money is on the Angels right now - and the chips will begin to fall. But I can't really see Mark Teixeira getting that 10-year deal.

But right now, it's Affeldt, the Pirates signing two Indians - from the country, not Cleveland - who won on some kind of reality show, and the Red Sox's pursuit of Japanese right-hander Junichi Tazawa. That's the definition of a slow news week.

The big signings probably won't be coming until after we all carve up our turkeys on Thanksgiving.

Click here for the free agent scorecard, and the breakdown of this year's class.