Florida's aggressive Off-season
Only a couple of days after being a part of a major deal with Seattle, Florida sent their ace Josh Beckett, Randy Wolf, back up outfielder Jeremy Reed, 2 second round picks (#15 and 17) and a 3rd round pick (#26) to California in exchange for the second pick in the draft, second base prospect Luis Valbuena, pitching prospects Gio Gonzalez and Ryan Tucker, and first baseman/outfielder Luke Scott. In exchange for a couple of proven veterans, Florida continued its recent trend of acquiring young players with high upsides in an attempt to rebuild from a couple of dismal seasons into a team that can compete for a championship in a couple of years.
World Series Champions acquire more pitching
Having witnessed the team they beat in the World Series make moves to acquire Javier Vazquez only days before, the Oakland Athletics were not content to sit back, but made a similar move to bolster their starting pitching staff acquiring pitcher Jon Lester along with second baseman Luis Castillo, outfielder Chase Headley and reliever J.J. Putz from the California Squirrel Demons in exchange for Shortstop Alexei Ramirez, closer Mariano Rivera and the 8th pick in the draft. California, after having made significant improvements in its starting pitching with the acquisition of Beckett and Wolf from Florida, had the ability to move one of its young promising pitchers in exchange for some help at shortstop where Ramirez will replace Ryan Theriot, and at the back end of the bullpen, acquiring aging but lethal closer Mariano Rivera.
San Francisco acquires 3rd second baseman in 3 years
San Francisco made a move to acquire second baseman Brian Roberts and closer Jonathan Papelbon from San Diego in exchange for all-hit-no-defense slugging second baseman Dan Uggla and pitcher Jonathan Sanchez. The addition of Roberts at second and the takeover of Furcal at short from the slumping Yuni Betancourt marks the third double play combination in the past 3 years for the San Francisco club (Renteria-Hudson '08, Betancourt-Uggla '09, and Furcal-Roberts '10). The addition of Uggla provides a boost of power that was noticeably absent from the San Diego club which hit only 115 Homeruns last year, better only than lowly California.