This year's free-agency period has been the most glorious one in the history of free-market economics. Why? Because, thanks to the realization by many agents that they've promised their clients millions more than they're going to get, it has dragged into January. This has given baseball geeks more time to bask in the glory of unsubstantiated and ludicrous rumors ("the Twins are in on Manny"), with no fast resolution on the horizon.
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| The Yanks bully the rest of the league by spending big bucks on pitchers A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia. (Getty Images) |
Still, it's never too early to celebrate the folks who have thrown their weight around and/or wielded their checkbooks like a scythe. In that spirit, I present our inaugural Free Agency Rankings Index PowerGrid Matrix Scorecard. The higher the listing, the better the team, individual, or inanimate entity/concept played the free-agent game. Updates to come as the remaining dominos tumble, or not.
New York Yankees: What's the point in being the biggest kid on the playground if you don't flaunt your size advantage and shake down the weinerdogs for lunch money? The Yankees have clearly learned something about market dynamics since the panicky procurements of Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright and Tony Womack pushed Carlos Beltran out of their price range. This time around, their two areas of weakness happened to coincide with the two best players on the market. They pounced. This is what bullies do.
As for instituting a salary cap or otherwise affecting a much-needed tweak of baseball's economic infrastructure, well, good luck with that. The MLBPA isn't buying into the gloom-and-doom scenarios, especially since they don't conform with reality: The league has its own cable network now and plenty of new media revenue, plus fans keep streaming through the turnstiles. Once owners start having to lease out their Gulfstreams and cut their private landscaping staffs, maybe we'll see change. But we're still a ways away from that.
Raul Ibanez: He hit the defensively-inept-corner-slugger jackpot, netting three years and $30 million while younger, superior players are settling for less. Ibanez must've made one hell of a case as a guy who can lend some intangible something-or-other to one of baseball's most stable clubhouses. Until I hear otherwise, I'm dubbing him The Lidge Whisperer.
Los Angeles Dodgers: From where I'm sitting, it appears that they've handled the Manny Ramirez grenade with admirable caution. After an initial two years, $45 million offer was met with a P-U stinky face by Scott Boras, the Dodgers went away ... and, inevitably, Boras has circled back. Meanwhile, they re-upped Rafael Furcal at the last possible moment, tweaked Andruw Jones' contract to accelerate his departure (the fewer trusty veterans Joe Torre has at his disposal, the better) and let the closer market ebb before wading in -- plus they still have cash to spend and they play in a featherweight division. I never thought I'd laud GM Ned Colletti for anything other than the sturdiness of his push-broom 'stache, but here we are.
Reason/rational thought: Yes, every team is using the economy as its excuse to penny pinch and part ways with beloved franchise scamps like Brad Ausmus and Jimmy, the affable, stuttery clubhouse peon. Is it possible, though, that teams might be getting smarter?
This is a dangerous statement to make a few weeks after a franchise gifted Edgar Renteria with a deal for roughly twice his actual value. Who knows what kind of lunacy (five years for Derek Lowe?) might still follow. But compare where we are today with where we were at this time in 2008. Then, teams were giving $46 million to Francisco Cordero, who won't throw more than 75 innings in a given season, and $48 million to Carlos Silva, who appears to want opposing batters to succeed. Now, teams are holding the line at three years for elite relievers and aging sluggers. This constitutes a smarter deployment of resources and, thus, progress.
Next up on the common-sense agenda: the "goldarnit, you had to see them play to appreciate their sublime basebally magnificence" Hall of Fame candidacies of Jim Rice, Andre Dawson and Jack Morris. Consider this a litmus test.
Tampa Bay Rays: Exhibiting the market awareness that dimmer-bulb teams lack, the Rays cheaply filled their DH black hole with Pat Burrell, who neatly balances their lineup. The Rays' opening day batting order –- something like Iwamura/Upton/Pena/Longoria/Crawford/Burrell/Joyce/Navarro/Bartlett –- looks quicker (Burrell's blind-man-chasing-squirrel dashes around the bases notwithstanding) and just as powerful and patient as what the Yankees and Red Sox will trot out, and we've already seen the Rays' run-prevention skills in action.
Pavano: Somehow he wangled a one-year deal for $1.5 million guaranteed, with the possibility of $5.3 million more in incentives.
Greg Genske: He did great work getting CC Sabathia a contract commensurate with his heart and appetite, and odds are he'll find some team able to appreciate Adam Dunn for what he is (a goofball slugger with a great eye) rather than denigrate him for what he's not (defensively speaking, a tree). Here's what impresses me most about Genske, though: he runs a leak-free shop.
