Link: http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/10918886 Full article (Keep scrolling down for your hometown team): Was this the greatest MLB trade deadline in history, or what? Forget about the deals themselves -- thanks to smothering coverage on the tube and 24/7 rumor-mongering online, we experienced the magic and whimsy of the Adam Lind/Raul Ibanez negotiations practically in real time. If you didn't enjoy the 48 hours before the deadline, then you obviously don't like baseball, America, grandma, apple pies or nigh-libelous innuendo ("Manny Ramirez couldn't keep his hands off Terry Francona's nurps"). But now it's time for teams to exhale before they start parading their D-list fodder -– Kevin Millar, Jarrod Washburn, et al -– through waivers. There won't be another deal for a few days, and anything that happens from this point on will be decidedly low-impact. So could there be a more appropriate moment to take a look at where each major league franchise stands vis-à-vis its peers? No! There couldn't! Hence the Second Annual Uncle Larry Organizational Rankings. The rules: this is a gut-take, big-picture evaluation, as opposed to a move-by-move analysis of GMs and ownership. What I'm trying to do here is identify which teams have their act together and which teams don't. Giddy-up. 1. Boston Red Sox (last year: 2): They are the champs, they are flush with prospects, and they're unapologetically unsentimental, as we'll see once again when they proffer Jason Varitek a contract in November worth maybe 2/9 what the Yankees gave Jorge Posada. Still, I gotta ask: Is 15 months of Jason Bay worth three players, one of whom is named Manny Ramirez, and 7 million kahunas? No matter. As much as it pains me to say it, the Sox are by a pretty wide margin the best-run team in baseball. 2. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (3): They picked the ideal moment to get out of the prospect-hoarding business, as Mark Teixeira transforms that lineup from oafish to punchy. Too, they have every possible advantage moving forward: a rich owner, a slightly more daring GM, a resolute manager. Combine this with their fortunate placement in a short-bus division, and the Angels are set up for every-year contention. 3. Milwaukee Brewers (10): See, now this is how you make a title push: Load up on free-agent-to-be aces (Sheets/Sabathia) who could dominate a short series, then hope your hitters aren't so weakened from their vegan diets that they fail to hold up their end of the bargain. Milk this run for all it's worth, Brewers fans. 4. Arizona Diamondbacks (6): If you're going to empty your pockets, you might as well do so for a pitcher of Dan Haren's caliber and contract status. The young hitters have regressed a bit in '08, as young hitters are wont to do. They'll recover. 5. Chicago Cubs (15): The Cubbies have gotten much, much smarter about adding depth behind their headliners via occasionally useful parts like Mike Fontenot and Jim Edmonds. It'd be almost cruel if the team's injury-risk pitchers -– Kerry Wood, Rich Harden and the overworked Carlos Marmol -– can't answer the bell in October. 6. Tampa Bay Rays (18): Last year in this space we wrote the following about the Rays: "Bold prediction: they'll challenge the Blue Jays for third place in the AL East by 2009." After doing everything wrong for so long, they've started doing an awful lot of things right; that Garza/Bartlett trade with the Twins was a game-changer, upgrading the rotation and defense while barely denting their cache of impact hitters. Still, with a playoff berth within reach -– the juxtaposition of "Tampa" and "playoffs" prompts my computer to expel a plume of steam out of its USB port -– the Rays should have dipped into their prospect pool to shore up either the DH slot or right field. Winning is hard, dude, and seasons like this don't come around all that often. 7. New York Yankees (9): They devoted a hearty chunk of organizational resources to player development. They ignored the talk-radio catcalls and successfully eased Joba Chamberlain into the rotation midseason. They resisted the temptation to deal a truckload of minor leaguers for a costly ace. Who is this team and what have they done with my Yankees? 8. Oakland Athletics (4): I was wondering the other day what it might take to get us media folk to turn against brilliant-industrial-scion-by-day/crime-fighting-crusader-by-night Billy Beane. My best guess? It would probably involve a Jose Guillen return engagement. There was a bit too much selling-high for my tastes, though. Even knowing Rich Harden is perpetually at risk for ligament shears and hysterical leprosy, you have to get more in return for a pitcher of his talent. 9. St. Louis Cardinals (13): So long as they keep Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan happy, everything else is almost irrelevant. They'll know better than to re-up Kyle Lohse after this season. 10. Detroit Tigers (5): The Tigers got old fast afield and had nobody waiting in the upper minors when the bullpen crashed. The Edgar Renteria acquisition has been a disaster: When watching him wave at glovable grounders, sometimes I wonder if perhaps his teammates have bolted his feet to the infield, just as a gag. 11. Florida Marlins (16): They sold at the precise right moment on Dontrelle Willis, currently high-leg-kickin' in the low minors, and they have locked up Hanley Ramirez through his prime. 12. Minnesota Twins (12): Two questions for the folks who constantly laud the Twins for growing/harvesting their own players and acting all polite and midwesternish and whatnot. First, why do they appear to be incapable of developing or trading for a major-league-caliber third baseman? Second, why would a poor, itty-bitty-market franchise owned by a multibillionaire consider $47 million for 320 or so innings of the aging Joe Nathan a sound appropriation of resources? 13. New York Mets (11): They overpaid for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider; they underpaid for Johan Santana, and then proceeded to overpay him. Far out, man. Omar Minaya is much better at scavenging for spare parts than he is at drafting, though, and the team continues to make foolish bets on the reliability of oldy-old players. 14. Chicago White Sox (14): Ken Williams' bad-trade/good-trade streak continues unabated: Jon Garland/Orlando Cabrera (bad), Carlos Quentin/cute little prospect (good), Ken Griffey Jr./slightly less cute prospects (bad -– Junior in CF is a disaster waiting to happen). Both the rotation and bullpen are held together by twine as the team heads down the stretch. 15. Philadelphia Phillies (21): My kingdom for an able fourth or fifth starter! The hand of my eldest daughter in marriage for a functional bridge to the ninth inning! But hey, the Brad Lidge trade has proven a winner. 16. Atlanta Braves (1): They gutted their system for Mark Teixeira at this time last year and have 77 wins since then to show for it. If there was a reason for bringing back Tom Glavine that didn't involve hugs and happy ice-cream sunsets, I'd love to hear it. 17. Los Angeles Dodgers (17): They would have been ranked four or five slots lower before their for-nothing acquisition of Manny Ramirez on Thursday. That said, L.A.'s outfield options include Manny, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre and their shortstop options include ... wait, I totally know this one. 18. Cleveland Indians (8): You can't blame Mark Shapiro & Co. for the injuries that have besieged the organization like an early-evening plague of midges. But eesh, that long-term commitment to Travis Hafner is positively payroll-crippling and they still haven't bothered to address the corner-OF deficit. 19. Texas Rangers (27): Last summer's Teixeira deal looks twice as good now than it did then (and it looked pretty darn good then), plus Ron Washington has proven a mildly adept leader of men. Whooda thunk? 20. San Diego Padres (7): GM Kevin Towers might still have the recipe for magic bullpen-resuscitation stew, but he wouldn't recognize a legit positional prospect if it gored him with a bat shard. 21. Baltimore Orioles (29): They finally got religion, building depth via well-timed deals that sent Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard a-packin'. Congrats on the belated realization that 76-win purgatory isn't the most pleasant place to spend the next decade. 22. Pittsburgh Pirates (30): See the Orioles entry above, but substitute "Jason Bay and Xavier Nady" for "Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard" and "71-win neverland in a town that has understandably grown indifferent to baseball" for "76-win purgatory." 23. Colorado Rockies (23): I don't want to say they got way lucky during their 20-8 September in 2007, but ... well, I don't know how to finish that sentence. Either way, they're not gonna get the same out-of-nowhere lift from rookie pitchers like Ubaldo Jimenez and Franklin Morales this time around, because no such pitchers exist in the upper levels of their system. 24. Cincinnati Reds (24): I still don't understand why Wayne Krivsky was fired just a few weeks into the season. If you want the guy gone, fine, but let's not pretend you can learn anything important about a team in its first 30 games. Anyway, let's give newly installed GM Walt Jocketty a chance to work his magic with castoffs before we judge him. 25. Toronto Blue Jays (19): They do just enough stupid things -– the mammoth Vernon Wells extension, the quick abandonment of Frank Thomas, $4.5 million for the human ray of sunshine that is David Eckstein -– to negate their mild successes in developing pitchers. Bleh. 26. Kansas City Royals (25): For a team that is currently rebuilding around prospects, they sure don't seem to have a lot of prospects. The Trey Hillman hire seems to be working out well enough, at least. 27. San Francisco Giants (26): Let's play "match the low-grade San Fran trade bait to the description!" Bait: 1. Rich Aurilia. 2. Randy Winn. 3. Omar Vizquel. Description: A. Impractical. B. Pointy-eared. C. Confused. Answers: Does it really matter? 28. Washington Nationals (28): Add Tim Redding to the long and fat list of players (Dmitri Young, Ronnie Belliard, etc.) that Jim Bowden declined to trade when they were worth something. The Nats lead the league in toolsy/miscreant outfielders (Elijah Dukes, Wily Mo Pena et al), even if they currently rank 47th in runs scored. 29. Seattle Mariners (23): While the M's were off mortgaging the ranch for the tissue-soft Erik Bedard, the rest of the division was stockpiling prospects. It gets worse: At the deadline, the M's massively overvalued guys like Raul Ibanez and Jarrod Washburn, who aren't likely to help the team when they're prepped to contend again in 2011. It gets worse than that: They still owe Carlos Silva $36 million. Get used to looking up at Oakland ass and Texas tail in the standings, Seattle fans. 30. Houston Astros (25): Why? Why, God, why?
I forgot this area of the forum isn't just about the Astros. CBS Sportsline MLB Organizational Rankings would have been a better thread title.
