- On July 24th, Barry Bonds and Moises Alou will be a combined age of 82, and to help preserve the Giants? two most important sluggers, they brought in a Peter Brady named Steve Finley to allow Felipe Alou to sit Greg and Bobby once or twice a week. Finley, who turns 41 in Spring Training, had three times as many home runs in 2004 than he did last year (36 to 12), but a career National Leaguer, excluding those first two seasons in Baltimore, has a very difficult time changing leagues, just ask Sammy Sosa. Finley still has an excellent glove and a wealth of playoff experience, playing in the post season every year except 2000 and 2003 since he went to the World Series as a member of the Padres in 1998. He won?t have an OPS of over .800 again, but it will certainly be better than his .645 of Anaheim, plus the real value here will be seen in the health of Bonds and Alou. A team that wants to win one for Bonds, can?t rely on a cousin Oliver named Todd Linden. - Kyle Farnsworth signed for more money and will be the set-up man, sliding into the Tom Gordon role, but Octavio Dotel will be the guy that gives the Yankees the potential of having a real dangerous bullpen, a bullpen that can make it a six-inning game. With Mariano Rivera, Farnsworth and Dotel, the Yankees have three guys that have both the stuff to close, but also experience. There is no telling how effective Dotel will be coming off reconstructive elbow surgery, but if he is even a shadow of his 2001-2003 self when he was setting up for Billy Wagner, the Yankees will have the best bullpen in the American League. - While the Yankees have depth in the AL, the Dodgers? trade for Danys Baez gives them the best 1-2 punch in the National League. The worst case scenario for Ned Colletti is Baez becomes a very nice insurance policy if Eric Gagne again is injury-plagued, but if Gagne does indeed return to form, Dodgers? opponents will be playing a very short game. Everyone knows how dominant Gagne can be, but Baez is still very much of a secret, playing the last two seasons in Tampa Bay obscurity. He saved 41 games last year, while posting a 2.86 ERA. His ERA will surely be even better in 2006, pitching in spacious Dodger Stadium against a weak NL West, without the monsters of Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Tejada back in the AL East. - The late-game substituons of Doug Mientkiewicz and Pokey Reese during their 2004 championship run became on of the trademarks of the Tito Francona-era and he again will have that option with the addition of J.T. Snow. Kevin Youkilis is undoubtedly, after much grand acclaim in ?Moneyball? and elsewhere, finally going to become an everyday player for the Red Sox, but Snow should still get his fair share of at-bats and his swing will be well-suited for Fenway. He also will become a Fenway favorite, filling some of the void with the female fan base created by the departure of Johnny Damon. Kevin Millar is gone and he certainly was something of a bodyguard for Manny Ramirez from the ?passionate? Boston media and while Snow won?t be that in any way, he will be one of the team?s leading sound byte providers, a team that in less than a year and a half has become painfully bland. Scott Eyre got tossed around the American League with the White Sox for parts of six seasons before finally finding his groove on the 2002 Giants that went to the World Series. 2005 was his best season, making 86 appearances and recording a 2.63 ERA. He was the only arm that Alou could count on from Game 1 until Game 162. Which Eyre will the Cubs get though? The one that never had an ERA under 5.00 on the South Side or the one of SBC Park. More than just a lefty specialist, Eyre gives the Cubs? bullpen teeth that they haven?t had for quite a while now. Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM and he can be reached at [email protected].