Brian Sabean and the San Francisco Giants went into the 2009 offseason with a relatively short, but particularly important to-do list.

The deadline for offering arbitration has passed. The winter meetings are over. Free agents are coming off the market.

And what have the Giants done? Aside from being involved in a juicy rumor involving Dan Uggla and signing minor league pitcher Eric Hacker, San Francisco has only seen their players leave.

Former Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley (Cubbie Nation/file)

Even though Chone Figgins, Placido Polanco, and Pedro Feliz have been signed to play third base, the market is far from depleted. Free agents from Adrian Beltre to Troy Glaus are still teamless, which would be more surprising but for last year’s Type-A debacle, where players like Orlando Hudson and Juan Cruz remained on the market long after the winter meetings.

Cole Hamels went 14-10 with a 3.09 ERA in 2008. He ended the year a World Series hero.

Cole Hamels went 10-11 with a 4.32 ERA in 2009. He ended the year a World Series bust.

Naturally, any fan seeing this would think that Hamels had some sort of huge fall from grace; he must have done more wrong in 2009 than 2008.

The media was all over this line of thinking, particularly in the playoffs (when, admittedly, he did struggle, unlike his excellent 2008 postseason).

Not so fast.

This just in, San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean is gun-shy. Over a year ago, the Giants GM signed shortstop Edgar Renteria to a two-year 18 million dollar deal before the free-agent market fully developed.

Numerous other quality free-agents were left unsigned deep into January and even February. Players like Bobby Abreu and Orlando Hudson had excellent seasons despite signing after the new year.

Unfortunately for Sabean and the Giants, Renteria performed at a rate where he didn't even deserve half of his contract. 

I think Billy Beane is an excellent GM, and I agree with most of his moves.

But it's been reported that the A's are close to a 1-year deal with free agent outfielder Coco Crisp, and while I think Crisp is a fine player, such a move leaves me scratching my head as to what Beane is doing.

Presumably, the A's will go into 2010 with Rajai Davis in center field and Ryan Sweeney in right field. Crisp would slot into left field.

Crisp is a career .271/.331/.407 hitter, which is shy of acceptable for a left fielder.

I took a bit of time to offer up my thoughts on the Only Trade That Matters. For good reason, such a deal provokes an instant firestorm of reaction, and there's a point at which you are contributing to information overload instead of getting your message across.

Now that the Cubs have finally moved Milton Bradley, it appears that former Ranger Marlon Byrd is the target of choice for GM Jim Hendry in his ongoing search for a center fielder.

The caveat, of course, is that Byrd must agree to a salary that fits within the budget that GM Jim Hendry has following the Bradley trade. Yes, the Cubs received cash in the deal with the Mariners, but that cash is spread over two seasons, first of all, and second, part of it has to cover the difference in Silva and Bradley's salary.

If you take a quick look at Trevor Cahill's 2009 stats from, say, Yahoo! Sports, you probably would come away thinking "It's not great, but he did okay for a 21-year-old."

Cahill went 10-13 with a 4.63 ERA...something like a No. 4 starter.

However, a deeper look reveals a season built on luck rather than skill, and some serious problems for the righty.

After making major moves this offseason by acquiring 3B Chone Figgins and P Cliff Lee, the Seattle Mariners made another move that will hopefully pay off in the long run.

They allowed the Chicago Cubs to dump controversial outfielder Milton Bradley on them.

Bradley, an All-Star in 2008, was traded to the Mariners for P Carlos Silva and cash.

Yes, he will be more productive than Silva (5-18, 6.81 ERA during two seasons with Seattle...55-26, 4.31 ERA during previous six seasons). This trade shows how desperate the Cubs were to get Bradley out of town.