[ultimopain]

With fishfan25's thread about the Mariners improving this off-season I thought it might be a good idea to start a list ranking what everyone thinks are the top 5 clubs that had the best off-season in terms of FA signings / trades / etc. I'll start.

1. Mariners: Obvious one. They've re-signed King Felix to a long-term contract and traded for Cliff Lee giving them probably the best 1-2 punch in baseball. Bedard is coming on a low-risk, high-reward deal as a 3rd starter. Chone Figgins will make a tremendous 1-2 punch with Ichiro at the top of their line-up. Brandon League is a quality setup man. Bradley has the potential to be one of the better impact players in that team. Their GM has done a great job.

2. Yankees: While the Yankees haven't made a lot of moves numbers wise, they've made the ones that have counted. They traded for one of the best CF'ers in the game today without giving up the world to get him, in Curtis Granderson. They shored up their rotation by adding Javier Vasquez and re-signing Pettitte. And they added the best OBP man of last year who we know so well, Nick Johnson.

3. Red Sox: This off-season they've worked on shoring up their offense. Adrian Beltre instantly boots their defense and has potential to bounce back offensively with the Green Monster. Marco Scutaro is a great addition at SS which has been a position of weakness for Boston over the last few years. Mike Cameron moves to CF allowing Ellsbury to move to his better position of LF. Hermida has the POTENTIAL to be a great fourth outfielder, or bust completely. Still, I like their moves.

4. Phillies: Ugh. As much as I hate to say it. Again they haven't made many moves but they made a BIG one that counted. Halladay. Enough said. Also Baez and Contreras are good depth signings for their bullpen although who knows how they may turn out. I think Gload is a huge signing for them. Last year, Stairs and Dobbs struggled mightily off the bench unlike in '08 when they won the WS. If Gload performs like he did last year with the Fish, then he will be very potent off their bench.

5. Orioles: For me this was a toss-up between the O's and Rangers, but I just gave it to the O's and the reason being is the positions they added their personnel. One of their problem positions long-term has been closer, but now they have a sure thing in Mike Gonzalez. They also have a legitimate ace in Kevin Millwood. And they added Tejada who will provide a spark and leadership to a team who I think is going to be much more competitive in future years with the young talent they have coming through.

What would be your top 5?

[Fish Dynasty]

Kevin Milwood a "legitimate ace"? C'mon.

5. Twins:

Added- Orlando Hudson, J.J. Hardy
Lost- Carlos Gomez

4. Mets:

Added- Jason Bay, Kelvim Escobar
Lost- JJ Putz, Brian Schneider

3. Yankees:

Added- Curtis Granderson, Javier Vazqiez, Nick Johnson
Lost- Hideki Matsui, Phil Coke, Melky Cabrera, (likely Johnny Damon)

2. Red Sox:

Added- John Lackey, Marco Scutaro, Adrian Beltre, Jeremy Hermida, Mike Cameron
Lost- Jason Bay, Takashi Saito

1. Mariners:

Added- Cliff Lee, Chone Figgins, Milton Bradley, Casey Kotchman
Lost- Adrian Beltre

[Mets_bs]

The Phillies traded an Ace and their best prospects for a better ace and worse prospects. That trade was the definition of a wash. Their bullpen still sucks. The back end of the rotation is still weak. They did add Placido Polanco, but that doesn't blow me away. I can't put the Mets on there either, no real 1st baseman, didn't add any starters, didn't get rid of Castillo, they're pretty much the same team just added Jason Bay.

1. Mariners
2. Yankees
3. Red Sox
4. Rangers
5. Twins

[EricWiener]

The Mariners? Sure the pitching is nice, but they are not going to be any better than best in league (their ranking last season). That team's problem is that they can't punch their way out of a paper bag. By adding Figgens they now have 2 guys atop the order that will be stranded. The Mariners need to add 2 legit power hitters, and the currently have 2 of the prime power spots filled with no-power leadoff guys. Branyan is gone and he was about as much Punch as that team of Judys could manage.

I see them losing lots of 3-2 and 2-1 games.

[Fish Dynasty]

EricWiener, on February 8, 2010 - 01:53 PM, said:

The Mariners? Sure the pitching is nice, but they are not going to be any better than best in league (their ranking last season). That team's problem is that they can't punch their way out of a paper bag. By adding Figgens they now have 2 guys atop the order that will be stranded. The Mariners need to add 2 legit power hitters, and the currently have 2 of the prime power spots filled with no-power leadoff guys. Branyan is gone and he was about as much Punch as that team of Judys could manage.

I see them losing lots of 3-2 and 2-1 games.

This thread is asking for the most improved teams, not the best teams.

[EricWiener]

Fish Dynasty, on February 8, 2010 - 05:01 PM, said:

EricWiener, on February 8, 2010 - 01:53 PM, said:

The Mariners? Sure the pitching is nice, but they are not going to be any better than best in league (their ranking last season). That team's problem is that they can't punch their way out of a paper bag. By adding Figgens they now have 2 guys atop the order that will be stranded. The Mariners need to add 2 legit power hitters, and the currently have 2 of the prime power spots filled with no-power leadoff guys. Branyan is gone and he was about as much Punch as that team of Judys could manage.

I see them losing lots of 3-2 and 2-1 games.

This thread is asking for the most improved teams, not the best teams.

If you get something you didn't need, you didn't improve. Plug in Lee and Figgins, and I doubt either their team ERA or OPS improve. The team needed 2 legitimate hitters with power, it did not require either speed or pitching (not that pitching isn't nice to pad). The team is unlikely to improve in the standings at all until and unless they add middle of the order hitters.


Added note: If Milton Bradley returns to anything resembling his form of a couple years back, then they are halfway there.

[catchoftheday]

I really think that the Pirates have actually improved A LOT this year, that to me is the most improved team in the league (considering the talent they adquired)

1 - Pirates
2 - Angels
3 - Mariners
4 - Philies
5 - Yankees

[Iowa]

White sox.. and their offseason started last year. acquiring peavy, rios, kotsay, garcia... and then adding putz, pierre, teahan, jones and vizquel this offseason

[Fish Dynasty]

EricWiener, on February 8, 2010 - 10:32 PM, said:

Fish Dynasty, on February 8, 2010 - 05:01 PM, said:

EricWiener, on February 8, 2010 - 01:53 PM, said:

The Mariners? Sure the pitching is nice, but they are not going to be any better than best in league (their ranking last season). That team's problem is that they can't punch their way out of a paper bag. By adding Figgens they now have 2 guys atop the order that will be stranded. The Mariners need to add 2 legit power hitters, and the currently have 2 of the prime power spots filled with no-power leadoff guys. Branyan is gone and he was about as much Punch as that team of Judys could manage.

I see them losing lots of 3-2 and 2-1 games.

This thread is asking for the most improved teams, not the best teams.

If you get something you didn't need, you didn't improve. Plug in Lee and Figgins, and I doubt either their team ERA or OPS improve. The team needed 2 legitimate hitters with power, it did not require either speed or pitching (not that pitching isn't nice to pad). The team is unlikely to improve in the standings at all until and unless they add middle of the order hitters.


Added note: If Milton Bradley returns to anything resembling his form of a couple years back, then they are halfway there.

Really? Lee won't improve their ERA at all?

[Backin2008]

Here are my five most improved teams:

1. Mariners: Lee, Figgins, Kotchman, Bradley, Byrnes, Garko and Bard. They also got Brandon League but I didn't like the fact that they gave up Brandon Morrow to get him. Overall, they are a much better baseball team than they were when the 2009 season ended.

2. Orioles: Garrett Atkins, Miguel Tejada, Kevin Millwood, Mike Gonzalez and Will Ohman. I don't think the Orioles will win the American League East or anything but they won't finish last in the division either.

3. Nationals: Adam Kennedy, Ivan Rodriguez, Jason Marquis, Matt Capps, Brian Bruney, Eddie Guardado, Miguel Batista, Chuck James, Tyler Walker and Shawn Estes. The Nationals had holes in the bullpen, starting rotation, catcher and 2B and they filled all of them. They could still use another starting pitcher but maybe one of the guys on minor league deals will step up.

4. Diamondbacks: Kelly Johnson, Adam LaRoche, Edwin Jackson, Ian Kennedy, Aaron Heilman and Bobby Howry. The Diamondbacks filled up every hole that they had at the end of the 2009 season.

5. Rays: Kelly Shoppach, Rafael Soriano. The Rays had two gaping holes on the roster and they improved the team in both areas. Soriano gives them the lockdown closer they need. They will win a lot of close games in 2010 that they lost last season.

[FutureGM]

1. Mariners
2. Red Sox
3. Phillies
4. Orioles
5. Rangers

I'm leaving off the Yankees because in my mind Granderson for Damon is a loss, as Damon was better last year. Granted, he could regress with whoever he signs with, but that's still in the air. They stole Vazquez from the Braves, IMO. Hopefully Vazquez doesn't go back to the stats he put up his first go-around in NYC, however. Signing Nick Johnson made no sense, as they were better off keeping Matsui to DH. So that's a loss there.

[Delfino]

I like the signings of Gload, Contrares (sic) and Baez for Philadelphia, but I think they gave up WAY too much for Halladay.

If you include the pieces they traded to get Lee, who they later spun off along with OTHER top prospects, Philadelphia essentially gave up 9 of their top ten prospects for Halladay. He's good, but no where near worth that much. They were better off sticking with Lee, in my opinion.


While I won't argue Halladay is a better pitcher than Lee, I also can't in full faith say there's THAT much of a talent differential to where Philadelphia had to give him AND several of their remaining top prospects to get him.

[EricWiener]

Fish Dynasty, on February 10, 2010 - 04:09 PM, said:

Really? Lee won't improve their ERA at all?

I find it exceedingly unlikely that the Mariners will have an ERA that is signifiancly better than 3.87.

[Fish Dynasty]

EricWiener, on February 17, 2010 - 02:47 AM, said:

Fish Dynasty, on February 10, 2010 - 04:09 PM, said:

Really? Lee won't improve their ERA at all?

I find it exceedingly unlikely that the Mariners will have an ERA that is signifiancly better than 3.87.

I'm not going to sit here and try to calculate what all of the pitchers will need in order to achieve that, but you aren't taking the luck that they had last year into account (Washburn being the largest example.) The Mariners were 20th in the MLB in FIP last year, and I doubt they will still be below average with Felix and Lee at the top. Not to mention the possibility of Bedard staying healthy for the entire season.

If they didn't acquire Lee, it's pretty obvious that they wouldn't have as good of a rotation going into next year. I don't see how you could debate that.

[EricWiener]

Fish Dynasty, on February 17, 2010 - 04:40 PM, said:

If they didn't acquire Lee, it's pretty obvious that they wouldn't have as good of a rotation going into next year. I don't see how you could debate that.

As good of a rotation would not be improved.

[mystikol87]

The [expectation of the] Mariners' rotation with Cliff Lee is better than the [expectation of the] Mariners' rotation would have been without Cliff Lee. Bottom line.

[cubbies21]

catchoftheday, on February 9, 2010 - 12:55 AM, said:

I really think that the Pirates have actually improved A LOT this year, that to me is the most improved team in the league (considering the talent they adquired)

I must have missed the memo. Everything I have read and heard is that the Pirates will be lucky to win 62 games this season. Who did they pick up, and being the most improved can they contend with the Astros for 5th place in the NL Central? I'm sorry but I dont see it. Pirates will hold onto their stranglehold on last place in 2010.