Warm Oven: Fast Start

Now I am not one to pat myself on the back, wait yes I am. Part of the reason I wanted to create the idea of the Warm Oven blog was to open the world to my opinions, thoughts, and analysis of the baseball world this offseason, so I was never put in that, "I knew that was gonna happen," or "see I told ya so," scenario with no visual proof. Well here it is folks.

One thing I had mentioned in the beginning of the year were stars I felt could have new homes before spring training hit. 2 of those 5 players have already inked with new teams and the deals are all but finalized. Hideki Matsui recently signed with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for one year and $6.5 million. LAA definitely upgraded their situation after losing Guerrero (they recently lost out on the Halladay sweepstakes more on that to come.) Fresh out of the warm oven and onto the hot stove, Juan Pierre has just been dealt to the Chicago White Sox for two minor league pitchers according to Yahoo! writer Tim Brown; a perfect segway to my next topic.

I had mentioned that Kenny Williams likes to work fast and that he has done. After inking Andruw Jones and Omar Vizquel and trading for Mark Teahan early, just days after the winter meetings came to an end the GM signed RP J.J. Putz to a one year, $3 million deal and has just traded to fill that OF spot I said he needed to. Also the Pierre deal fills the whole at the top of the order that has been the number one topic for concern from upper management this  off-season.

One thing I promised my valued readers as well was a quick start to the week following the winter meetings; the general mangers of baseball's finest have not failed to disappoint. The Phillies came out of no where and swept Roy Halladay off the market, sending Cliff Lee to the Mariners, and several other prospects will be dispersed between the three teams. John Lackey has officially signed with the Boston Red Sox for five years, and worth slightly more than A.J. Burnett's $82.5 million according to a source on ESPN.com. The final major news to report is yet another one of the big FA this year, Matt Holliday and the Cardinals are currently in discussions with reportedly eight years and $16 million range a year.

Now I wish I had some prophetical words of advice for you, but I am writing this in between classes and a paper that I am putting, but if this off-season has been any indication of things to come expect some other big names to move. That seems vague, but I mean Jason Bay, Adrian Beltre, Matt Holliday(although in negotiations) have all yet to sign. The Mets have thrown a lot of money at some of these free agents and maybe we can see the Mets move some of their money. Carlos Beltran? Carlos Delgado? At this point I'd have to label David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Johan Santana untouchables, but you can't always predict the seemingly predictable.

I will be back later this afternoon with more.