The defending World Series champions, now have a bullseye on their chest. How did new GM Ruben Amaro fare in building the 2009 Phillies?

Ivan Rodriguez finally found a home (so did Sidney Ponson) and plenty of people were reassigned to the minors. Let’s recap the week that was.

It was a slow week as the clubs started trimming the excess fat off their spring training rosters while crossing their fingers that their players playing in the World Baseball Classic don’t get hurt.

Nothing particularly shocking happened this past week, as you probably know. Scott Baker got a new contract while David Roberts lost his. Oh yeah, some really good hitter signed with the Dodgers.

The Atlanta Braves finally got a hitter to come to Turner Field while the Washington Nationals started step one of moving past the Esmailyn Gonzalez scandal with the resignation of general manager Jim Bowden. Unfortunately, whoever takes over will find logjams at first base and center field. Read on for this past week’s transactions…

With the first week of spring training out of the way, Ken Griffey Junior returned home to his former stomping grounds while the Orioles locked up the face of their franchise through 2013. All that, and more, in this week’s edition of Lost in Transactions.

Spring training is finally here! Now we get six weeks of watching pitchers throw gently off a mound and the scrubs get face time on the television networks. While there are still plenty of quality free agents unsigned, they’re starting to concede the economic climate as we’ve seen with Adam Dunn and Braden Looper signing deals.

Lots of moves occurred this past week: the Chicago Cubs dumped off two pitchers while the Philadelphia Phillies locked up Ryan Howard for three years.

This past week, Zack Greinke and Paul Maholm both took leaps of faith in staying with their mediocre teams. Also, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox brought back their aging former stars while Garrett Olson went on the move again.

The minor league and one-year contracts are starting to trickle in, and Lost in Transactions is on top of it. Also: farewell to Jeff Kent and Sean Casey.