The waiver wire is crackling and humming, making this an optimum time to identify the worst contracts in baseball, players nobody wants because at one time so many teams coveted them that they were vastly overpaid. Funny how a player can go from priceless to pariah, sometimes only months after signing.

Waivers remind us of the most ridiculous contracts because the murky process is a lot like big fish languidly swimming far beneath the surface of the ocean. Big fish that aren't good eating.

Players placed on waivers – which are supposed to be kept secret – often have bloated contracts no other team is willing to take on. Once a player is ignored by every team, known as passing through waivers, he can be dealt just like before the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline.

Most waived players get a hard look by a few teams, and often when a player is claimed, his team allows the 48-hour waiver period to expire because there was never any intention of letting him go. Occasionally the offering team and claiming team can cut a deal – Cody Ross was acquired by the Giants this way in 2010 and became a World Series hero.

Once in a while a player with a huge contract is claimed, as the Dodgers did with Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee on Friday. The Dodgers had to be willing to take on the $110 million or so Lee is owed through 2016 if the Phillies consented. As it happened, the Phillies did no such thing, mostly because they simply can't reconcile that their much-hullaballood signing of Lee 18 months ago was irrational overspending.

Overspending, of course, occurs every year, and players with ridiculous price tags flow through waivers, drawing nothing more than laughs from general managers around baseball. Here are 11 players so wildly overpaid they can't be given away, worst first:

1. Vernon Wells, Los Angeles Angels; signed through 2014, owed $48 million: Trading for Wells before the 2011 season was unfathomably stupid. The Angels gave the Blue Jays Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera and got back an $84 million albatross. Wells is one of the least-productive players in baseball, and rarely plays since Mike Trout was promoted to the big leagues. Wells' last base hit came in May and he's hit .219 with a .250 OBP as an Angel. He's useless.

2. Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins; signed through 2018, owed $145 million: Everybody rejoiced when the parsimonious Twins sprung for an eight-year, $184 million deal for hometown favorite Mauer before the 2011 season. Wonderful has already been whittled to what-in-the-world? He plays catcher only half the time and doesn't hit with power. He'll remain a .320 hitter for a few years, but that's not enough for $23 million a year, more than 20 percent of the Twins' payroll.

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