From the Windup: Milton Bradley, Pat Burrell And Jason Giambi Heat Up Free Agent Market

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

This year's free agent market has been only slightly less frozen than the world's credit markets. There have been a paltry number of deals completed despite a contending team's worth of free agents available to interested bidders. At long last, the first Monday of the New Year brought some activity.

Three free agents made headlines by agreeing to or closing in on new deals, and all three are cut from similar cloth. Pat Burrell agreed to a two-year, $16 million contract with the AL champions in Tampa, Milton Bradley is heading to Wrigley for three years and $30 million and Jason Giambi is reportedly very close to agreeing has agreed to a deal bringing him back to the A's.

Giambi's rumored to be signing for one year, perhaps with an option year, which makes it clear that the glut of players suited for corner positions or DH has made for a buyer's market. So, operating under the assumption that all three teams made good deals, which player will have the biggest impact on their new club's postseason hopes?

Giambi will join the other big Oakland offseason pickup, Matt Holliday, in the middle of a patient, powerful lineup that should score a lot of runs. The downside is that Giambi will have to play first, Jack Cust will be the team's DH, and, in the words of Athletics Nation, he has the range of a "sedated sea turtle who is trapped on land." And said turtle makes better throws to the plate or second base.

The A's aren't making this move without full knowledge of Giambi's limitations, though. They know that Giambi struggles defensively and can barely run the bases, but his 2008 season showed that he can still produce offensively. That production was on par with the season Burrell turned in, but Giambi's glove leaves him just behind the ex-Phillie.

The Rays plan to play Burrell at DH full-time, so his brutal glove won't negate the value he creates with his bat. For the Rays, that value will be especially useful when they face southpaws. Pat the Bat has mashed lefties throughout his career, he's got a .950 career OPS against them, and the Rays managed only a .726 OPS against them in 2008. With the rest of the lineup returning and maturing, Burrell's addition should help the offense produce even more runs.

That means the Rays chances of returning to October are better today than they were yesterday. The same is true in Chicago. Bradley posted a monster offensive season in 2008, posting a 163 OPS+ for the Rangers and rightfully making his first All-Star appearance. He's probably the best overall player of the three at this point in his career, but there's ample reason to believe he'll have less of an impact than Burrell or Giambi.

For starters, he played just 20 games in the field in 2008 and won't have the luxury of using the DH slot to rest his oft-injured body with the Cubs. Even with that luxury, he played in only 126 games last season, which is pretty good for Bradley, but pretty bad for most able-bodied athletes. His injuries are one reason why he's joining his seventh team at the age of 30. He's also had some issues with anger and attitude, which should make his relationship with Lou Piniella an interesting one to watch this summer.

Bradley will almost certainly miss more than 30 games, which makes it very hard to quantify how much impact he'll have on a team that was already favored to win their division. If he's happy and healthy in October, though, he could make the difference between another early exit and a deep run for the Cubbies.

We're talking overall impact, though. Since the Angels have done nothing to shore up major offensive issues, the AL West is wide open and Giambi's boost to the Oakland offense gives them a greater chance at finishing on top than they had before. The A's still have serious pitching questions, though, and Giambi's poor defense could have more of an impact than it would if he were playing behind a better staff.

Burrell, on the other hand, shores up the biggest weakness in the Tampa Bay offense while doing nothing to impact the improved defensive play that made such a difference in 2008. With all the moves in New York and the continued strength in Boston, Tampa Bay couldn't afford to stand pat if it wanted to repeat its 2008 success in this coming season. Burrell keeps the Rays at the top of the fray, which means he wins this showdown.