Best and Worst Deals of the Off-Season?

[Crazysilver03]

Just to start some discussion, what do you think are some of the best and worst deals of the off-season?

Best

-Orioles acquiring J.J. Hardy for Hoey, Jacobson, and the salary dump of Harris

-Rays trade Garza for several top Cub prospects

-Red Sox acquire AGon from San Diego

-Cubs convince Matt Szczur to sign a baseball only contract

Worst

-Tampa Bay leaving Anuery Rodriguez exposed in the Rule 5 draft, selected 7th overall by Houston

-Washington signing Jerry Hairston Jr. to a major league deal, subsequently released JD Martin from the roster

-Phillies sign Cliff Lee to 5/125M approx

[O's are Legends]

Winners:

The Rays – 4 good prospects for Matt Garza, signed Joel Peralta for a 1 year contract for only $900k, Somewhat off topic but Balfour, Soriano, Crawford signing with other teams giving them another 6 first round draft picks (is that correct?) should pay off in a big way

The Brewers – traded just one prospect for Shawn Marcum (may end up the best trade of the offseason), Saito 1 year contract

Orioles – Hardy and Reynolds trades, Derrek Lee on a 1 year contract

Red Sox – will be shocked if AGon doesn’t sign an extension with Boston

Losers:

Nationals – should have traded Dunn during the season if they weren’t going to resign him, just like they should have traded Soriano years ago,

instead they overspent on Jayson Werth

Cubs – trading away too many good prospects for Garza

Jays – need to get more for Marcum

White Sox – Konerko contract could look ugly starting the 2012 season

Rangers – too many years and too much money for Beltre

Meh:

Orioles - Kevin Gregg deal

Cubs – Carlos Pena for $10 million

White Sox – Dunn, 1 year too many (is he really going to play first base half the time? An awful defender), a player many AL teams should have signed to a 4-5 year contract 2 years ago, I know he didn’t want to DH but money speaks

Tigers – 4 year $50 million for Vmart, not sure what I think about this, he’s getting up there in baseball years and didn’t hit well at all away from Fenway

Phillies – Cliff Lee deal, let’s see if they win another WS or 2

Braves – Uggla better put up some monster power numbers his first few years as a Brave otherwise the contract extension could look bad, especially since he’s a mediocre 2nd baseman

[Crazysilver03]

Winners:

The Rays – Somewhat off topic but Balfour' date=' Soriano, Crawford signing with other teams giving them another 6 first round draft picks (is that correct?) should pay off in a big way

[/quote']

The Rays will have 3 first round picks, 7 supplemental round picks, and 2 second round picks.

I agree with most of your decisions overall.

[scOtt]

Just to start some discussion, what do you think are some of the best and worst deals of the off-season?

Best

-Orioles acquiring J.J. Hardy for Hoey, Jacobson, and the salary dump of Harris

-Rays trade Garza for several top Cub prospects

-Red Sox acquire AGon from San Diego

-Cubs convince Matt Szczur to sign a baseball only contract

Worst

-Tampa Bay leaving Anuery Rodriguez exposed in the Rule 5 draft, selected 7th overall by Houston

-Washington signing Jerry Hairston Jr. to a major league deal, subsequently released JD Martin from the roster

-Phillies sign Cliff Lee to 5/125M approx

I disagree on Cliff Lee. It's a ton of money and very risky, but to add him to that rotation I think is worth the chance.

[GreatEight]

Winners:

The Rays – 4 good prospects for Matt Garza' date=' signed Joel Peralta for a 1 year contract for only $900k, Somewhat off topic but Balfour, Soriano, Crawford signing with other teams giving them another 6 first round draft picks (is that correct?) should pay off in a big way

[b']The Brewers [/b]– traded just one prospect for Shawn Marcum (may end up the best trade of the offseason), Saito 1 year contract

Orioles – Hardy and Reynolds trades, Derrek Lee on a 1 year contract

Red Sox – will be shocked if AGon doesn’t sign an extension with Boston

Losers:

Nationals – should have traded Dunn during the season if they weren’t going to resign him, just like they should have traded Soriano years ago,

instead they overspent on Jayson Werth

Cubs – trading away too many good prospects for Garza

Jays – need to get more for Marcum

White Sox – Konerko contract could look ugly starting the 2012 season

Rangers – too many years and too much money for Beltre

Meh:

Orioles - Kevin Gregg deal

Cubs – Carlos Pena for $10 million

White Sox – Dunn, 1 year too many (is he really going to play first base half the time? An awful defender), a player many AL teams should have signed to a 4-5 year contract 2 years ago, I know he didn’t want to DH but money speaks

Tigers – 4 year $50 million for Vmart, not sure what I think about this, he’s getting up there in baseball years and didn’t hit well at all away from Fenway

Phillies – Cliff Lee deal, let’s see if they win another WS or 2

Braves – Uggla better put up some monster power numbers his first few years as a Brave otherwise the contract extension could look bad, especially since he’s a mediocre 2nd baseman

Nice list here, agree with most. I think Cliff Lee will be a good deal for Philly. If you add the Grienke deal to the Brewers, (I hear they did pretty well in that trade, but admit i don't know too much about the prospects they traded away) they look like they did real well.

[Scrat1]

Well, a new bar has been set by the Angels. Even Werth's insane contract made some semblance of sense. Napoli and Rivera for Wells makes zero.

Talk about a panic move.

[Blizzard1090]

With the Cliff Lee deal, I honestly feel this will probably be his last shot to get a World Series win. Many of the players are becoming older and less effective at the plate and the farm system has basically been depleted.

The Phillies aren't the same team that won the championship 3 years ago (which their fans just love to remind people of) or the ones that faced the Yanks two years ago.

Personally,I dread the thought of them winning it all. Their fans are almost as unbearable as Bankee and Red Sox fans are.

[DrungoHazewood]

I think teams are generally getting smarter and reaching consensus on player valuation, but the Wells and Werth deals are big, big outliers.

The Blue Jays get huge props for getting themselves out from under both Wells and Rios.

[ShaneDawg85]

Two words: Jayson Werth.

One of the worst contracts that has ever been given out, for the most absurd reasoning possible.