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If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again.



No, we're not talking about music from Aaliyah, but her lyrics can be used as a free-agent strategy for some of the best players left on the board this winter.

With pitchers and catchers due to report to spring training in less than 50 days, the Major League Baseball hot stove should be cooling down. Yet, many free agents are available and hoping to land a big contract before the start of the season.



For some, they most certainly will. Using this free-agent tracker from Yahoo! Sports, seven of the 20 best players are still out on the open market. For pitchers like Masahiro Tanaka, Ubaldo Jimenez and Ervin Santana, lucrative deals will happen soon.

For others, it may behoove them to accept a one-year deal, rebuild their value in 2014 and head back into the open market next winter.



Here's a look at those players.



*Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs, unless otherwise noted.



