WINNER NO. 1: ROY HALLADAY: He was traded to a contender (Philadelphia) that trains near his Oldsmar, Fla., home, and received a contract extension
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WINNER NO. 2: TWINS: Francisco Liriano received raves for his work in the Dominican Winter League, so the Twins might have rediscovered an ace internally. And externally they upgraded their roster and took their payroll near $100 million.
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WINNER NO. 3: MARINERS: The best move any team made was Seattle translating three good, but not elite prospects into Cliff Lee to team with Felix Hernandez atop the rotation.
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WINNER NO. 4: OWNERS: For the second straight year, only elite players in their prime (Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, Matt Holliday) received enormous contracts.
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WINNER NO. 5: BLUE JAYS: the Blue Jays under new GM Alex Anthopoulos have embarked on an ambitious plan. They assembled the largest scouting staff in the majors this offseason with the idea that they are not going to outbid the Yankees and Red Sox at the top of the market, and instead have to do better at the draft, international signings and scouring rivals’ farm systems to make good acquisitions.
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WINNER NO. 6: ORIOLES: in trying to win more and protect that young talent, Baltimore added Kevin Millwood, Mike Gonzalez, Miguel Tejada (to play third) and Garrett Atkins (to play first).
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WINNER NO. 7: RED SOX: Got John Lackey for the same deal (five years, $82.5 million) that the Yankees used on A.J. Burnett. Lackey is someone you wouldn’t mind starting in a Game 1, and Boston already had two from that department in Josh Beckett and Jon Lester.
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WINNER NO. 8: YANKEES: Made good trades for Curtis Granderson and Javier Vazquez, and a reasonable sign of Nick Johnson. It all made sense under the guidelines of keeping payroll at about $200 million and trying to get younger wherever possible.
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WINNER NO. 9: ROCKIES: Addressed depth with Melvin Mora, Tim Redding and Miguel Olivo, and by retaining Rafael Betancourt and Jason Giambi, who believe it or not was an important team leader after his acquisition for the stretch last year.
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WINNER NO. 10: DIAMONDBACKS: Obtained Edwin Jackson and have received positive medical news on Brandon Webb. They could join ace Dan Haren to form a strong rotation top-3.
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LOSER NO. 1: DODGERS: The divorce of the McCourts is to Dodgers ownership what the Madoff scam is to the Mets: a seemingly obvious throttle on finances that those in charge nevertheless insist is having no bearing.
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LOSER NO. 2: ROYALS: Kansas City apparently wants to accumulate more bad multi-year deals than any team in the sport. … Put it all together and we will soon be talking about the trade market for Zack Greinke.
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LOSER NO. 3: METS: After the Jason Bay signing, the wallets snapped shut when they already had acknowledged they had plenty of other deficiencies to address. The Mets promised to clean up their medical mess and yet found themselves in a dispute with Carlos Beltran over his surgery.
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LOSER NO. 4: ASTROS: The best news would have been if Drayton McLane finally had sold the team. Instead, Houston used the little money it had to give a three-year contract to a pseudo-closer in Brandon Lyon.
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LOSER NO. 5: A’S: Oakland’s aggressive bidding was shunned by Adrian Beltre, Jamey Carroll, Marco Scutaro and Aroldis Chapman. The A’s then gave Ben Sheets $10 million. He is talented, but also injury-prone, so that plan to trade him in July if the A’s are out of the race is flimsy.
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LOSER NO. 6: INDIANS: It feels like success for the Indians’ season would be having Kerry Wood, Jake Westbrook and Fausto Carmona pitch well enough before the trade deadline that some more salary can be shed.
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LOSER NO. 7: CARDINALS: Mark McGwire came out of seclusion to be the hitting coach, brandishing tears and a fairy tale about steroids not helping him hit homers.
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LOSER NO. 8: GIANTS: They needed a big run producer or two, and continued to go piecemeal by retaining Bengie Molina and Freddy Sanchez.
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LOSER NO. 9: PHILLIES: they have a window for greatness now and should have cut elsewhere to keep Cliff Lee. Plus, I question if Placido Polanco can play third, whether Danys Baez provides real insurance if Brad Lidge is a dud again and whether Jose Contreras (ticketed for the bullpen) can provide rotation depth if needed.
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LOSER NO. 10: SECOND CITY: The White Sox could have the best top-to-bottom rotation in the AL, but the offense needed to add more punch than Juan Pierre, Mark Teahen and Andruw Jones. The Cubs, meanwhile, made their offense even more righty dominant and their outfield defense just as suspect by adding Marlon Byrd and Xavier Nady. READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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