{"id":4112,"date":"2010-02-12T15:07:25","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T20:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/?p=4112"},"modified":"2017-06-22T11:02:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T16:02:20","slug":"mlb%e2%80%99s-best-free-agent-signings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2010\/02\/12\/mlb%e2%80%99s-best-free-agent-signings\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB\u2019s best free agent signings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SPORTSWith the Super Bowl behind us and spring training starting next month, I thought it was time to look at the winners of MLB free agency. Last off-season, the New York Yankees spent $423 million to sign just three players: C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. Those signings worked out well for the Yankees as they won their 27th World Series championship this past October.<\/p>\n

But not all free agent acquisitions work out that well. Just ask the Chicago Cubs who wasted $30 million on outfielder Milton Bradley before they suspended him in September for bad mouthing the general manager that signed him to his outrageous contract.<\/p>\n

With that being said, here is my list of this winter\u2019s best signings:<\/p>\n

5. Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been years since Cincinnati has done anything this bold, giving a 22-year-old pitcher -who can reportedly throw 100 MPH – $30 million before he\u2019s ever played an inning in the Majors. I like this move because it shows the Reds are actually trying to improve. They had to do something after losing nine straight seasons.<\/p>\n

4. Chone Figgins, Seattle Mariners<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 5-foot-8 Figgins isn\u2019t your typical power hitting third baseman, but he doesn\u2019t need to be. What he lacks in size and power, he more than makes up for with quickness and a good glove. Combined with lead off hitter Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle now has two of the game\u2019s best table setters at the top of their batting line-up. Now the Mariners just have to find someone that can knock those two in.<\/p>\n

3. Jason Bay, New York Mets<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mets were in desperate need of a power hitting left fielder and that\u2019s exactly what they get with 31-year-old Bay. I don\u2019t expect him to match the 36 home runs he smashed last year when he played half of his games at the hitter-friendly Fenway Park, but he should be able to surpass 100 RBI for the fifth time in his career and is without a doubt an upgrade over Gary Sheffield.<\/p>\n

2. Matt Holliday, St. Louis Cardinals<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was critical for the Cardinals to re-sign Holliday if they wanted to repeat as National League Central Champions and for $120 million, they did just that.\u00a0 Holliday, along with first baseman Albert Pujols, will be one of the new decade\u2019s most feared hitting tandems.<\/p>\n

1. John Lackey, Boston Red Sox<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lackey, a 19-game winner in 2007, comes to Boston playoff proven (he won game seven of the 2002 World Series) and makes an already good Red Sox rotation a great one. If pitching wins championships, then I like Boston\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Super Bowl behind us and spring training starting next month, I thought it was time to look at the winners of MLB free agency. Last off-season, the New York Yankees spent $423 million to sign just three players: C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. Those signings worked out well for the Yankees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[55,983,982,1402,1383],"class_list":["post-4112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-baseball","tag-free-agent","tag-mlb","tag-samuel-huist","tag-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-14k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4112"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4163,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112\/revisions\/4163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}