On Thursday, former Yankees left fielder/DH Hideki Matsui announced he'd be retiring. The 38-year old finishes his career in America with a career line of .282/.360/.462, 175 homers, and 1253 hits in 1236 games over ten seasons stateside. Matsui played in the first 518 games of his career, the record to begin a major league career, before breaking his wrist in 2006.

But it was in Japan where Matsui's career began, and it was in Japan where he became a superstar. He was a member of three Japan Series winning teams with the Yomiuri Giants. He won three Nippon Pro League MVP awards in the Central League, one of just two players in the last 30 years to win the award three times (with the other being Ichiro Suzuki). In his career in Japan over ten seasons, Matsui bashed 332 homers in a career that started at age 19. Comparing America to Japan isn't a fair comparison, but only four American players in history had more homers in their age 19-28 seasons.

I promise you, that's my last Christmas related pun. But anyway, a few teams got some Christmas presents this week!

-The Red Sox got a closer for the second straight offseason in Joel Hanrahan
-The Pirates got some more hope for the future with the Hanrhan trade and the signing of Francisco Liriano
-The Angels got a completely transformed franchise under Jerry Dipoto over the last two winters
-Everyone got new batting practice caps, some more attractive than others
-Chipper Jones got a basketball hoop, then screwed up installing it.

Finally, if your team didn't get what they wanted for Christmas...well, I hope you don't need to look at the free agent market. It's a horror show out there.

Enjoy your offseason, everyone.

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Chipper Jones has been doing a good job keeping himself busy in the first few months of his retirement.  He's been out and about with his new Playboy model girlfriend, spending time promoting his "VIP" Super Bowl party and generally getting chubbier.  But it isn't all glitz and glamor for the future Hall of Famer.  It turns out that when it comes to putting things together, Chipper is as bad at that as he good at baseball.

What's wrong with this pic folks? Never said I was the sharpest tool in the shed. Damn ladder!!! Lol twitter.com/RealCJ10/statu…

— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) December 27, 2012

As a guy who struggles to assemble basic furniture, I want to sympathize with Jones, but... I mean... come on.  That's just ridiculous.  I guess we should give him points for actually properly assembling the hoop (or at least it looks like it), but that only bumps it from a level 100 fail to a level 99.  Good job, good effort, Chipper.  Maybe next time use the proceeds from your asburd Super Bowl party to hire a handyman to put things together for you next time.

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For those of you who love buying a new hat every year, MLB will be releasing new batting practice caps for the 2013 season. Many of them are the same (or very similar) to their 2012 versions. Yet, as Paul Lukas at ESPN's Uni Watch explores, some are very different and rather old school in their design. Here are some of the highlights.

Oakland Athletics

THE ELEPHANT IS ON THE CAP! THE ELEPHANT IS ON THE CAP!

The long-rumored trade between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Red Sox that would send Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan to Boston has been completed. Hanrahan and infielder Brock Holt will be sent to the Red Sox, and in return, Pittsburgh will receive pitcher Stolmy Pimental, reliever Mark Melancon, outfielder Jerry Sands, and shortstop Ivan DeJesus Jr. 

In case you missed it, on Monday I wrote about the potential Hanrahan trade and the Pirates signing of Francisco Liriano, noting that it was a step in the right direction for the franchise. Knowing all the particulars involved now, my opinion hasn't changed in the slightest. Pittsburgh essentially punted one year of control with Hanrahan for four in Melancon, and Hanrahan will make more in 2013 than Melancon could potentially make over the next four seasons if he's used as a middle reliever in Pittsburgh. Melancon is also four and a half years younger than Hanrahan, and actually contributed more value in 2012 than the former Pirates closer. 

Last year, the MLB free agent market took awhile to get sorted out. After New Year's Day, a number of free agents finally signed that would have a huge impact on the 2012 season, including Fernando Rodney, Coco Crisp, Hisashi Iwakuma, Darren Oliver, Wei-Yin Chen, Norchika Aoki, Yu Darvish, Hiroki Kuroda, Cody Ross, Yoenis Cespdes, and of course, Prince Fielder (among many others). 

But this winter, things are a little different. Of Keith Law's top 50 free agents (Insider required), just six of the top 30 and 11 of the top 50 players don't have homes yet. There is also a glut of top players available at certain positions, and a complete lack of players available at others. For instance, do you want a reliever? No problem, we've got veteran closers like Matt Capps, Francisco Cordero, Francisco Rodriguez, Kyle Farnsworth, Rafael Soriano, Jose Valverde, Brandon Lyon, Kevin Gregg, Bobby Jenks, and Jon Rauch available, as well as lefties like Mike Gonzalez, JP Howell, Manny Parra, and Hisanori Takahashi. But if you're looking for a corner outfielder, you're essentially looking at bench playrs like Scott Hairston, Juan Rivera, Austin Kearns, Kosuke Fukudome, and Bobby Abreu. Not exactly a buyer's market at this point in the year.

There are still some great options left on the market, and here's the "best of what's left" at every position.

Catcher: I really hope you don't need a starter behind the plate, because your best options are Rod Barajas, Jesus Flores, Miguel Olivo, Kelly Shoppach, Chris Snyder, and Yorvit Torreabla. Shoppach and Olivo were the only ones that played above replacement level in 2012, and Olivo was barely over the neutral mark. So uh...good luck with that.

First Base: Adam LaRoche is still out there, but the odds are that he'll return to the Nationals, which would make Michael Morse expendable for Washington. But if LaRoche does go back to Washington, and you don't want to pay the price in young talent for Morse, there are a few veterans still on the free agent market that could interest some teams, like Lance Berkman, Aubrey Huff, Casey Kotchman, and Carlos Lee. Of course, Berkman and Huff barely played in 2012, and Kotchman and Lee were awful, so it's not as if any of that quartet would be a good consolation prize.

A lot has been made about the Pittsburgh Pirates signing long-time Twins starter Francisco Liriano to a two-year, $12.75 million deal. Over at WHYGAVS, our own Pat Lackey thinks the deal is a gamble, but one worth taking with a potential huge payoff. The Pirates are also in the midst of trading closer Joel Hanrahan to the Red Sox as part of a six player deal that would net them four players, though only two (Stolmy Pimental and Jerry Sands) are currently known, with the potential movement of Mark Melancon also up in the air. 

Of course, we can't really analyze the Hanrahan deal until all the names are known. But after re-signing Jason Grilli to a two-year, $6.75 million deal, there wasn't any need for the Pirates to keep Hanrahan and pay him that much just for 2013. It's not as if Hanrahan is some sort of stud closer (which you'd assume based on his All-Star berths and high save total). Last year, he struck out 67 and walked 36 in 59 2/3 innings while allowing eight homers. He's 31, a free agent in a year, and is coming off of a year where his walk rate was over five, his strand rate was a hair under 90%, he allowed just a .225 BABIP, and his groundball rate was under 40%. He's not worth the $6.9 million or so he'd be due in arbitration, and for a budget-conscious club like the Pirates, they shouldn't be paying a closer that sort of money for one season.

Jerry Dipoto is a man with a vision.  He’s among the most detail oriented executives in all of baseball.  It’s generally how his mind works, he’s analytical and calculating.  Some call it diligence, others, obsessive.  He’s also proven to be a risk-taker, which can be a very good thing or bad thing in this business.  Before becoming the General Manager of the Los Angeles Angels, he was the interim GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks, filling in until Kevin Towers would be hired.  At the time he had an underperforming ace in Dan Haren on the trading block.  Dipoto would later be blasted by the media for not trading Dan Haren to the New York Yankees when they were offering a package of Jesus Montero, Ivan Nova and more. 

He instead traded Haren to his future team, the Los Angeles Angels in return for relatively unknown LHP prospects Tyler Skaggs and Pat Corbin and inexpensive inning eater LHP Joe Saunders.  The deal was described as a heist for the Angels.  Three years later however, it appears Dipoto knew what he was doing.  Nova is a backend starter and Montero is a weaker hitting DH, Tyler Skaggs would go on to post an ERA under three in the minors with a high K/9, emerge as a Top 15 prospect and make it to the majors by age 20.  Pat Corbin would climb the ladder steadily and make it to the majors as a 22 year old at the backend of the D-Backs rotation.  Saunders would provide the D-Backs with two full years in the rotation and an ERA in the low 4’s/high 3’s.      

But the controversial moves didn’t end with his tenure in Arizona.  When Jerry Dipoto was given the reigns to the Los Angeles Angels before the 2012 season, he inherited a minor league system flushed with Top 100 prospects and a team coming off an 86 win season.  Still, he felt a complete makeover as needed.  He saw an over-performing team and an over-rated farm system.  Dipoto replaced the entire front office of the Angels, fired most minor league scouts, coaches and coordinators, hired new ones, and even replaced a major league pitching coach that had been with the Angels since Dipoto was still a pitcher in the Rockies organization. 

But it appears Dipoto’s moves were not unwarranted.  GM Tony Reagins and his front office were developing a bad reputation in the league and were responsible for debacles such as the Vernon Wells and Scott Kazmir trades.  But after Dipoto’s house-cleaning, perception of the Angels changed.  You’d think this would take a wildly successful 2012 season and a farm that’s the envy of every team in baseball, but quite the contrary.  The Angels missed the playoffs again last season and now have a farm system that very well could be ranked dead last in all of Major League Baseball.   So how did they become regarded as one of baseball’s new powerhouses in an increasingly Western shifting power structure?

Simple really, it took risk, and a lot of future money. 

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of the TOC readers out there! Due to the holiday falling on a Tuesday this year, and absolutely nothing happening on it, we're going to be preempting our Wednesday DD this week and rolling with just Monday and Friday editions. Also, there will be no new posts on Tuesday, so enjoy the holiday. Today, we've got two posts lined up in the hopper for you, so check both of them out before embarking on spending time with your friends and family.

But just because we're going to be a little light on content over the next two days, that doesn't mean that we haven't been busy lately! Over the weekend, we posted anlyses of several free agent signings, including those of Roberto Hernandez, Edwin Jackson, Cody Ross, AJ Pierzynski, Nick Swisher, and Raul Ibanez. We also brought you the news of Josh Hamilton claiming that the Rangers never gave him a contract offer, the tragic passing of former Reds utlityman Ryan Freel, and in a much lighter note, a version of Abbott and Costello's legendary Who's On First comedy routine performed by Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal, and Jerry Seinfeld.

Enjoy your holiday, everyone.

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On Saturday, the Seattle Mariners signed Raul Ibanez to a one-year, $2.75 million deal, with incentives adding a potential $1.25 million to the contract. It'll be Ibanez's third stint with the Mariners during his career, which began during a four game stint in 1996 with Seattle.

The team just acquired a full-time DH in Kendrys Morales, who joins their other full-time DH in Jesus Montero. Unless of course, the plan is to let Morales play first base and send Justin Smoak packing...but then you still have two DHs, with Montero likely getting some playing time behind the plate while Ibanez plays DH. A platoon between the two would actually make sense, due to Ibanez's career history of struggling against southpaws and Montero bashing lefties last year.