Monday, February 8, 2010
AL East
Key losses- Chris Ray, Danys Baez
Key additions- Kevin Millwood, Garrett Atkins, Mike Gonzalez
Off-season grade- C+
Justification- Kevin Millwood provides some leadership for the Orioles young staff. He’s also very durable and that should keep the young staff from pitching too many innings. Garrett Atkins is a nice low risk/high reward signing. Mike Gonzalez stabilizes the back end of the bullpen.
Key losses- Billy Wagner, Jason Bay, Casey Kotchman
Key additions- Mike Cameron, John Lackey, Adrian Beltre, Jeremy Hermida, Marco Scutaro
Off-season grade- A
Justification- It looks like Theo Epstein set out to improve the defense on this team and this off-season reflects that. They upgraded in center with Cameron. The Cameron signing also allows Jacoby Ellsbury to move to left field, where he is better defensively. Scutaro is an upgrade over Lugo. Boston’s defense could rival Seattle’s this season. The signing of Lackey gives the Red Sox one of the best rotations in baseball.
Key losses- Melky Cabrera, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Phil Coke, Jerry Hairston
Key additions- Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson, Javier Vasquez
Off-season grade- A
Justification- They won the World Series so they did not have a lot of holes to fill, but the rich did get richer. Curtis Granderson is an upgrade defensively in center field. Nick Johnson will most likely take over for Matsui at the DH spot and he provides a nice on-base percentage. Javier Vasquez is a nice addition to an already stellar pitching staff.
Key losses- Akinori Iwamura,
Key additions- Rafael Soriano
Off-season grade- C+
Justification- They were not very active, but they did upgrade the bullpen, which was a weakness last year.
Key losses- Roy Halladay, Marco Scutaro
Key additions- Alex Gonzalez, Brandon Morrow
Off-season grade- C-
Justification- They lost one of the best pitchers in the game and did not get a major league ready pitcher that can fill in in 2010. I did like them getting Kyle Drabek from the Phillies though. They were probably smart in letting Scutaro walk and collecting the draft picks. They did not do much to improve the team in 2010, but they did make some good moves toward the future.
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Rick Mell is a graduate of Northern Illinois University with a BA in Communications with an emphasis in Media Studies. He is a diehard Cubs fan and even went as far as to get the Cubs logo tattooed on his arm. He also keeps up to date on the other 29 team...[Continue Reading]
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