Today, I take a look at the signings/trades of 2008.

A few ground rules here.

• To qualify using "worth", The player must have been acquired by Friedman prior or during the 2008 season and must have had at least 50 IP as a starter or 20 IP as a reliever with the team during the year.
• Several players were acquired by Friedman, but did not qualify for worth. However, since they received a salary, I included them in the salary portion of the chart. Call them "sunk costs."

After a miserable 2007 season, there was no place to go but up in the bullpen and 2008 bullpen aces J.P. Howell and Grant Balfour led the way. Howell successfully made the transition from starter to reliever and was worth 1.7 wins and $7.8 million dollars. Co-Ace in the pen, Grant Balfour, was one of the most valuable relievers in all of baseball. His 2.7 WAR was higher than Francisco Rodriguez, Joakim Soria and on par with Joe Nathan and Brad Lidge. He made only 400k last year, but was worth a whopping $12.2 million. This is why you don't play relievers a lot of money.

In the rotation, the Rays received a huge boost from Matt Garza. Garza, who also made 400k, was worth 2.9 wins and $13.2 million. This was even with some injury problems and bouts of inconsistency. For me, his game 7 performance was worth $13 million alone.

However, it wasn't all golden as the Rays lost money on a few veteran relievers, most namely Troy Percival. Percival, who was hurt for a big chunk of the season, was worth -0.9 wins and reversed his salary($3.9m) in worth with a value of -$4.0 million. The Rays are on the hook for another $4 million in 2009 and it doesn't look promising.

Also costing the Rays money is the trio of Dan Wheeler, Al Reyes and Gary Glover. Reyes and Glover didn't last the season with the Rays, but were paid a combined $3.4 million for a combined 0.1 wins. Dan Wheeler, a hot topic around these parts, was worth 0.2 wins that cost the Rays $2.9 million when he was really worth about $1 million.  All in all Friedman got a 2.6:1 worth to salary ratio for his acquisitions in 2008, which is his best to date for pitchers.