In the interest of balance, here you go.

 

1. Blue Jays - Went from Roy Halladay to Ricky Romero as their ace and from Scott Rolen to Edwin Encarnacion at 3B.

 

2. Padres - Did virtually nothing (did they make a move at all?) after a terrible year and will have a team full of sophomores.

 

3. Pirates - Outside of signing Aki Iwamura who missed most of last season with an injury, they're rolling in to 2010 as-is.

 

4. Mets - They got Jason Bay but they still have no middle of the rotation pitching, no catcher, no first baseman, no setup man, and a team full of injuries.

 

5. Athletics - While the rest of their division signed bats like Vlad Guerrero, Hideki Matsui, and Chone Figgins, their biggest offensive acquisition was Kevin Kouzmanoff. They did sign Ben Sheets but, even though he's reportedly looked good in workouts, he's far from a sure thing.

 

What say you?

Speaking of the Mets, they are close to signing Mike Jacobs to a minor league deal. That makes them even more unimproved.

2. Padres - (did they make a move at all?)

 

 

 

 

They signed free-agents:

Jon Garland.

Yorvit Torrealba,

Matt Stairs,

Jerry Hairston, Jr.

 

 

and traded:

 

Kouzmanoff for Aaron Cunningham and Scott Hairston (wonder-twin powers, unite! lol)

Here are the five least improved teams going into 2010 in my opinion:

 

1. Marlins: Jorge Jimenez, Hector Luna, Danny Richar, Hunter Jones, Chris Schroder, Derrick Turnbow, Jose Veras and Seth McClung. The Marlins are the least improved them so far. That is not saying that the team will be bad because they won't.

 

2. Rockies: Miguel Olivo, Melvin Mora, Paul LoDuca, Jay Payton, Tim Redding, Justin Speier and Jimmy Gobble. The Rockies didn't have any glaring holes on the roster so they will be good again in 2010 but they didn't help themselves much over the winter.

 

3. Indians: Brian Buscher, Mark Grudzielanek, Shelley Duncan, Austin Kearns, Brian Bixler, Mike Redmond, Jason Grilli, Jamey Wright, Saul Rivera and Mitch Talbot. I don't expect any of these guys will make a impact with the Indians in 2010.

 

4. Dodgers: Jamey Carroll, Nick Green, Jay Gibbons, J.D.Closser, Reed Johnson, Alfredo Amezaga, Brian Giles, Luis Ayala. The Dodgers built their bench in free agency but they didn't spend many bucks doing it.

 

5. Reds: Orlando Cabrera, Miguel Cairo, Aaron Miles, Josh Anderson, Aroldis Chapman and Jose Arredondo. The Reds at least got Cabrera to start at shortstop and he will help them. Chapman and Arredondo could really help the Reds down the road but not in 2010.

I'm going to rate teams that did nothing but clearly had the resources

 

1. Mets - No starting pitching, no catcher, no firstbaseman. They added Jason Bay and a bunch of relievers.

2. Angels - They lost some real talent and did nothing to replace it.

3. Cards - Very surprised by how little they did - and they still haven't locked up Pujols

4. Cubs - They got Marlon Byrd but they still suck.

5. Braves - They didn't do anything to improve their offense but add an ancient Troy Glaus.

Three of my picks have to be the Mets, Angels, and Dodgers.

 

The Dodgers especially let a ton of people walk and didn't replace them. They're going to miss Randy Wolf for sure, unless both Billingsley and Kershaw show more leadership at the top of the rotation. Kershaw is still very young, but Billingsley doesn't really have an excuse anymore.

 

The Mets signed Jason Bay, but that was it. They missed out on any FA starter, something they desperately need. They were close to a deal with both Piniero and Bengie Molina, but then both of them walked away. Even their second choice for catcher, Yorvit Torrealba, spurned them and signed elsewhere. They are going into Spring Training with Omir Santos penciled in as the starter. Behind him they have guys like Josh Thole, Chris Coste, and Henry Blanco, with Blanco most likely the backup. You also get the sense that Jason Bay's first choice wasn't the Mets, but the Red Sox and Cardinals were not interested, and no one else had the cash (even the Yankees).

 

The Angels lost Chone Figgins, Vlad Guerrero, John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar, and a few others. They replaced them with mostly minor league options like Brandon Wood and FAs like Fernando Rodney and Hideki Matsui. One positive move was dumping Gary Matthews Jr. and getting an OK reliever in return. What I do wonder is how their bullpen will work, now that they have two closers on the team (Rodney and Brian Fuentes). Neither one is a great closer, but someone's going to have to get the job.

 

I don't know if I can put the Pirates and the Padres on this list, primarily because they were never planning to spend much, and aren't competing for awhile. I may have to put the Marlins on this list, for letting the bullpen deteriorate so much and replacing our best relievers with big unknowns. We're also putting more pressure on guys who have been playing over their heads like Brian Sanches, who are bound to have a bad season soon.

I know Toronto took a big immediate step backwards by trading Halladay, but for the future, they made out like bandits in that deal.

 

What they got, if you include Brett Wallace as part of the package, was about as good as they possibly were going to for Doc.

 

I also like the addition of Morrow.

 

I really don't think Toronto was "unimproved".. I think they had some tough decisions to make, and those decisions were handled about as well as they could have been.

In the interest of balance, here you go.

 

1. Blue Jays - Went from Roy Halladay to Ricky Romero as their ace and from Scott Rolen to Edwin Encarnacion at 3B.

 

2. Padres - Did virtually nothing (did they make a move at all?) after a terrible year and will have a team full of sophomores.

 

3. Pirates - Outside of signing Aki Iwamura who missed most of last season with an injury, they're rolling in to 2010 as-is.

 

4. Mets - They got Jason Bay but they still have no middle of the rotation pitching, no catcher, no first baseman, no setup man, and a team full of injuries.

 

5. Athletics - While the rest of their division signed bats like Vlad Guerrero, Hideki Matsui, and Chone Figgins, their biggest offensive acquisition was Kevin Kouzmanoff. They did sign Ben Sheets but, even though he's reportedly looked good in workouts, he's far from a sure thing.

 

What say you?

 

 

 

The 2 LA teams should be on the list, for sure.

Toronto is rebuilding. The A's didn't do bad...as you said, they got Ben Sheets.

 

I don't like your list. I'd say the 2 LA teams, and, at least, the Cubs belong on the list.

Here are the five least improved teams going into 2010 in my opinion:

 

1. Marlins: Jorge Jimenez, Hector Luna, Danny Richar, Hunter Jones, Chris Schroder, Derrick Turnbow, Jose Veras and Seth McClung. The Marlins are the least improved them so far. That is not saying that the team will be bad because they won't.

 

 

 

 

How are we tops on the list when we, basically, stayed with the same team?

Isn't "staying the same team" equivalent to being unimproved?

 

I think the Marlins are definitely one of the most unimproved teams. They lost a couple of guys who performed well in specialized roles (Calero, Donnelly, Johnson, Gload) and replaced them with minor league contracts.

 

Even trading Hermida, as disliked as he was, was a subtraction of talent from this team.

 

In terms of transactions the Marlins are probably the most unimproved MLB team; if their record improves from 2009 to 2010 it has more to do with the already existing talent stepping it up.

Isn't "staying the same team" equivalent to being unimproved?

 

I think the Marlins are definitely one of the most unimproved teams. They lost a couple of guys who performed well in specialized roles (Calero, Donnelly, Johnson, Gload) and replaced them with minor league contracts.

 

Even trading Hermida, as disliked as he was, was a subtraction of talent from this team.

 

In terms of transactions the Marlins are probably the most unimproved MLB team; if their record improves from 2009 to 2010 it has more to do with the already existing talent stepping it up.

 

 

 

Ok...but other teams actually got worse, as opposed to "staying the same team." We're not the most unimproved team in the big leagues.

I'm arguing that the Marlins got worse based upon the contracts they lost and the contracts they gained.

 

I haven't kept up with all of the transactions of all MLB teams to create a real ranking, but based on the commentary accompanying the rankings in this thread, it seems that some of the aforementioned teams have improved more than the Marlins have.

 

Their biggest rivals might be the Blue Jays or Anaheim in this department.