Greinke to the.... Brewers?!?!

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What's up sports fans? I hope all of you are having a great holiday season. I bet none of you are having happier holidays than a Mr. Carl Crawford, Mr. Jason Werth, or Mr. Cliff Lee, that is unless you are Frank Wren or Doug Melvin. Of course the headlines will be full of the new $100 million men, but what about the genius trades by Wren and Melvin this off season?

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Let's start with Wren. Everyone in Atlanta has given Wren the WTF face at one point or another. Let's be honest, who would've thought picking up Troy Glaus and Eric Hinske would send the Braves to their first post season in 4 years? Wren also picked up a serviceable Melky Cabrera and lefty reliever Mike Dunn for Javier Vasquez who did what with the Yankees? Granted, Wren also engineered the Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth deals, but who can blame the guy for taking a chance? To follow up last year's off season, Wren must have felt the Marlins got a directive from Santa Claus himself by practically giving away Dan Uggla, one of the most offensively talented second base in history. The Braves will miss Omar Infante, but the buy low sell high model was nothing but sheer genius. The Braves lost Dunn (see above) and Infante, a career utility infielder, to shore up the one thing the Braves have been missing since the glory days of Andruw Jones, a clean up hitter. Martin Prado was more than willing to move to left and will eventually take over for Chipper Jones when Chipper soon becomes the hitting coach of the Braves (just a personal prediction). What's amazing about the trade is that the Braves essentially will, according to rumors, get Uggla for 5 years at around $60 million, which is the same yearly salary the Marlins were offering, and did not give up a single one of their top 25 prospects to pick up a 30 HR, 80 RBI guy who has more than excelled at Turner Field. To those who are criticizing signing Uggla long term, take a look at his numbers, only Albert Pujols has hit more home runs in the last five years and are first all time for a middle infielder in his first five season, ahead of Ernie Banks by 18 HRs. If the Marlins are ready to give away Hanley Ramirez, I'm sure the Braves will be more than willing to send Brooks Conrad and Christian Martinez or Peter Moylan to the Marlins. Good luck to you Mr. Jeffrey Loria. I can't wait to see Uggla put a stake in the Marlins' hearts in 2011.

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Doug Melvin also deserves a genius label for his latest deal. The guy goes out and gets Shaun Marcum, a legitimate #2 pitcher, and then trades a few prospects for a true ace to compliment the young and impressive Yovanni Gallardo. If the Brewers had a strong catcher, they'd be straight out scary. With Ricky Weeks, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Corey Hart, the emergence of Casey McGeHee, and Carolos Gomez, the Brewers are a preseason contender. Of course the Brewers gave up a talented but unproven Lorenzo Cain and a potential future phenom that is Jeremy Jeffress, but the Brewers also improved by adding Yuniesky Betancourt and sending Alcides Escobar to the Royals in the deal. The only positive spin for the Royals is that Dayton Moore proved to be a great asset in Atlanta and has taken the Braves' model of building a world class farm system with talent behind talent behind talent to ensure that the future is bright, but losing Greinke and signing Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francouer aren't exactly moves that get you recognized as GM of the year. For Mr. Moore, I hope I eat my words, but at least he won't have to face Greinke in the near future like Loria will face Uggla in Florida.

What other moves have been surprising this off season?