MLB Free Agency

Everyone knows baseball games are won on the field, but winning games is made easier if a team has a good general manager. The offseason is a busy time for front offices, as they try to construct teams that will be competitive during the coming season.

This year there have been four GMs who have really made a statement about the direction they are taking their team and have delivered with big home runs.

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Building a baseball team is a delicate process. If a team is too aggressive in its approach, it will have a one-  or two-year window to win a World Series. If a team isn't aggressive enough, it will toil in mediocrity (or worse) and rarely give hope to its fanbase.

Fans of the Minnesota Twins want to see the aggressive approach at the moment, as they've been screaming for general manager Terry Ryan to do something this offseason to solve one of Major League Baseball's worst pitching rotations.

As a fan of the two Bay Area baseball teams, most of my observed impressions of players around Major League Baseball are based on their performances against the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's.

Teams this offseason have been looking to find free agents who are going to hit a bunch of home runs or win a lot of games, when they should be taking a player’s defensive skills into consideration.

Just because a free agent doesn’t have the best on-base or slugging percentage doesn’t mean that they can’t be valuable. And just because a pitcher doesn’t throw 90 miles per hour doesn’t mean that they aren’t worthy of a spot in the starting rotation.

It was rather shocking to see Michael Bourn's name linked to the New York Yankees this winter.

It's shocking because the Yankees already have their outfield all set for the 2013 season with Brett Gardner in left, Curtis Granderson in center and the recently re-signed Ichiro Suzuki in right.

According to Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com, the Cleveland Indians have agreed on a one-year contract for corner infielder Mark Reynolds. The deal is valued at $6 million, but could be worth as much as $7.5 million if he reaches certain performance bonuses.  

After trading shortstop Cliff Pennington to Arizona for outfielder Chris Young and losing Pennington's eventual successor Stephen Drew in free agency to the Boston Red Sox, the Oakland A's once again took to the international market to fill a void.

Kyle Lohse remains one of the top starting pitchers on the free-agent market after going 16-3 with a 2.86 ERA in 211 innings for the St. Louis Cardinals last season.

The signings of Zack Greinke with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Anibal Sanchez with the Detroit Tigers, Ryan Dempster with the Boston Red Sox and Dan Haren with the Washington Nationals have really opened up the market for Lohse, but he still hasn’t decided where he wants to pitch in 2013 and beyond.

The Philadelphia Phillies have potentially signed two key pitchers in recent days.  According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, the Phillies have likely reached a multi-year agreement with free-agent setup man Mike Adams.

Josh Hamilton is off the market and I'm OK with that, but not everyone feels the same way.

In fact, based on the response from most of the people I've spoken to and read, the Mariners' whiffing on Hamilton is a bit of a problem.

Upon hearing the news, a good friend and long-time M's fan sighed, "It's going to be a long winter and summer at the rate things are going."