From the Windup: About Last Winter

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

Every Hot Stove season, each team reshapes its roster in an attempt to better themselves. After each transaction, whether a free agent acquisition, trade or something else, writers and bloggers everywhere provide knee-jerk reactions on each particular move. Though the majority of the analysis is educated, it's still just conjecture. Today, we'll take the long view and look back at some of the maneuvering this past offseason and see how it played out on the field.

This is a subjective list, and each "move" doesn't necessarily have to be one transaction. It can be a direction (as both No. 1 "moves" are), which means we'll lump together some moves and/or decisions by individual teams. Inaction and lineup decisions are also eligible for the list.

10 Best Offseason Movements

1. Yankees sign CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. The pea-brained will whine about how the Yankees bought a division championship (and probably more). The educated baseball fans already realize that the Yankees had Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, and Mike Mussina coming off the books. They also re-signed Andy Pettitte for significantly less than he made in '08. The result? They signed three highly sought-after free agents, have a lower payroll than in 2007 -- and a negligible difference from last season -- and have a significantly better team.

2. Angels watch Francisco Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira walk, sign Brian Fuentes and Bobby Abreu. In the same process, they allowed Kendry Morales to take over at first. Morales and Abreu are central figures in the Angels' league-leading offense, Fuentes has a better save percentage than K-Rod and the Halos saved a ton of money in the process.

3. Phillies let Pat Burrell walk and instead sign Raul Ibanez. There's really no explanation needed. This was a blowout of epic proportions -- at least for 2009.

4. Dodgers grab Orlando Hudson and Randy Wolf on the cheap after letting Derek Lowe walk. They are actually paying Wolf and Hudson half as much combined as Lowe is making this year. It probably helped them retain the services of Manny Ramirez. Oh yeah, Wolf is having a significantly better season than Lowe and Hudson was an All-Star.

5. Rangers move Michael Young to third base; promoting Elvis Andrus in the process. One of the reasons the Rangers have significantly improved this season is because of their defense. One of the main reasons that happened was this shift.

6. Mariners give Russell Branyan and Don Wakamatsu each a chance. Branyan has never been an everyday player until this year, and he's putting up great power numbers (27 homers and 70 RBI) in his first chance. Wakamatsu became the first Asian-American manager in baseball history, and the Mariners have had a successful bounce-back season under his tutelage.

7. Tigers rework starting rotation. Not only was the trade for Edwin Jackson brilliant (more on that later), but throwing 20-year-old Rick Porcello into the fire has also worked out very well, with the Tigers leading the AL Central. Yes, the Tigers were basically forced into promoting Porcello, but many teams would have made a desperation signing of a washed up veteran instead of throwing their top prospect into the rotation.

8. Rockies acquire Jason Marquis. His ERA is nearly a full point lower than it ever was in Chicago, and he's already notched 14 wins and his first-ever All-Star appearance.

9. Marlins deal Mike Jacobs for Leo Nunez; turn around and trade Kevin Gregg. Should we even be shocked when the Marlins spin a dreadful defensive first baseman with a .299 on-base percentage into a good reliever? Plus, with Gregg out of the way, the Marlins have been able to break Nunez in as their closer of the future -- once Matt Lindstrom fell injured, that is.

10. Brewers sign Trevor Hoffman. 26 saves and a 1.80 ERA for a 41-year-old? Not bad.

10 Worst Offseason Movements

1. The Cubs changing the face of a 97-win team based upon a three-game sample (the NLDS against a surging Dodgers team). Like George Costanza did in his life -- until he started doing "the opposite" -- everything Jim Hendry did this past offseason ended up being wrong. He dumped the salaries of Marquis and Mark DeRosa in order to gain payroll flexibility, only to use said flexibility on Aaron Miles and Milton Bradley. Ryan Dempster was awarded a significant contract on the basis of what appears to have been a fluke 2008 campaign. Hendry traded for Aaron Heilman, in the process sending Ronny Cedeno out the door. He also allowed Henry Blanco to walk, and it appears he was a great mentor for Geovany Soto. Finally, he let Kerry Wood walk, which may not have been bad had Carlos Marmol been awarded the closer role he deserved. Instead, Hendry traded for Gregg. Marmol's had awful control problems all season, but how do we know that still happens had they simply promoted him to the job he rightfully earned in 2008?

2. Red Sox don't go the extra mile for Teixiera, but do throw eight figures at John Smoltz and Brad Penny for 2009. The Sox reportedly only needed a few million more to ink Tex and wouldn't do so. Instead, they wasted a bunch of green on broken down, old pitchers. We won't know if Teixiera would have signed with Boston, but that's the problem. Pony up the dough you have and find out.

3. A's sign Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera and Nomar Garciaparra; trade for Matt Holliday. That's a lot of money to waste on veterans and wind up finishing last. Couldn't they have let the youth develop instead? At least they got a good returns for Holliday and Cabrera in deadline deals.

4. Braves sign Derek Lowe. He's making $15 million this year and he's getting worse. The Braves have a great group of young arms, but the 36-year-old Lowe has three years and $45 million left on his deal.

5. Giants don't go after relatively cheap bats. Adam Dunn, Abreu and Hudson sat on the market for a long time. The Giants ended up having to trade this July to bolster the offense -- and they gave up solid pitching prospect Tim Alderson in the Freddy Sanchez deal. Neither Ryan Garko nor Sanchez will have the impact any of the above guys would have had on the offense.

6. Astros waste money on Russ Ortiz, Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Hampton. Really, though, what's new?

7. Rays give Tigers Edwin Jackson for Matt Joyce and also sign Pat Burrell. It's tough to take the Rays to task for anything, because they do such a good job of operating within a tough division and on a tight budget. Still, the Jackson move was done to clear payroll, and they turn around and spend good money on Burrell. That needs to work out, otherwise it's a bad move. Thus far, it's bad.

8. Brewers' handling of starting pitching. Obviously, Ben Sheets being hurt wasn't their fault and they couldn't afford to keep CC. But they should have done a better job of patching up the rotation than signing Braden Looper and counting on Jeff Suppan and Dave Bush to make another playoff run. A good example? See above. You don't think they could have given the Rays a better young hitter than Joyce for Jackson?

9. Mets didn't address depth issues. They couldn't have predicted the rash of injuries, but that's why teams should be proactive instead of reactive ("hey, Carlos Delgado, our 37-year-old first baseman, is hurt. What do we do now?"). Also, the Oliver Perez signing was pretty bad.

10. Small-market blunders. You hear about how teams with low payrolls can't afford to keep star players, but then you see them throwing away money on guys who don't end up helping them. Why did the Royals need Willie Bloomquist? Why did the Reds need Willy Taveras and Jerry Hairston? Why did the Twins need Joe Crede? You never see the Marlins making ridiculous signings like this, and that's why they are a much more successful franchise these days. (In fairness, the Minnesota move looks like an outlier. They are usually pretty adept with their funds).