Personalities who benefited most from wacky winter

	Lou Piniella has a new job with a team that just spent hundreds of millions in player acquisitions. AP

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Pitchers and catchers start reporting to spring camps in a matter of days, and several of the pitchers will report a lot richer this year. Of course, the winter's biggest winners include Barry Zito, who got more years and much more money than anyone figured, Gil Meche, who made mediocre pitchers everywhere smile, and Jason Marquis, who turned a 6-plus ERA into gold.

But those are only the most obvious of winter winners. Here is my complete list of 25 winners and stars from the off-the-wall offseason that was 2006-07:

1. Greg Landry, agent. He might not be one of the best-known agents in the business (he's even less known than his namesake, the former Lions quarterback) but he raised the bar for all pitchers who have struggled to keep their ERAs below 5.00, been sent to the minors somewhat recently and generally haven't accomplished anything that would make anyone take notice. Landry will forever be remembered for the startling $55 million, five-year contract he extricated from those notorious cheapskates, the Kansas City Royals, for Meche. And if that wasn't all, Landry talked the Yankees into giving Doug Mientkiewicz a guaranteed contract, the final straw that prevented Bernie Williams from getting one.

1a. Casey Close, agent. Close is Meche's co-agent, so he gets a gold star as well. But that was just the tip of Close's gold-plated iceberg. Close, Derek Jeter's longtime representative, won a spirited agent battle to represent superstar Ryan Howard. Having Jeter probably didn't hurt. Nor did it hurt that Close jumped last spring to the fabled Creative Artists Agency, which represents Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Tom Hanks and George Clooney. Howard could easily see his move to CAA as a way to enhance his off-field earnings potential, if not make him a movie star.

2. Lou Piniella, Cubs manager. Piniella moves from his role as one of TV's blander announcers back to his usual free-wheeling, shoot-from-the-hip managerial self. He also gets a Cubs team enhanced by a whopping $300 million-plus in player signings. While they're still probably a pitcher short, they've got a shot in the wide-open NL Central, especially if St. Louis feels a little satisfied after stunning us all and winning the World Series.

3. Zito, Giants pitcher. Not only did he get the richest pitcher's contract ever ($126 million), he gets to stay home. In baseball, there's usually a hometown discount, but since technically the longtime San Francisco resident moved crosstown, that doesn't come close to applying here. This California surfer dude is deadly serious about his craft and his condition and he's still just 28, so this deal will likely have a happier ending than Kevin Brown's, the $105 million contract few thought agent Scott Boras could top for Zito. The only negative: He has generously offered to locker next to Barry Bonds, which doesn't exactly make for a lot of laughs.

4. Theo Epstein, Red Sox GM. Not only did he make the right move in making the big $51.1 million bid for Daisuke Matsuzaka, who's said by most to be even better than Zito, but also he upgraded in right field and shortstop and found time to elope. Though apparently his father, Leslie, the head of the creative writing department at Boston University, was pulling a prank when he said Epstein was married by an orthodox rabbi at Nathan's Famous on Coney Island. Of course, how silly. Everyone knows most rabbis prefer the dogs at Gray's Papaya.

5. Roger Clemens, free-agent pitcher. He told us the other day at St. John's University, "I'm failing at retiring." Well, maybe so. But that's about the only thing. Four years after his fancy farewell, he again has three teams chasing him. The Yankees still look like favorites over Boston and Houston to pay him a pro-rated $23 million salary from June 1 on (about $15 million). That beats collecting social security.

6. Alfonso Soriano. He was a $50 million player, at best, when the Nationals got him, and he turned himself into an fine outfielder and put up attention-getting numbers, though none more attention-grabbing than his $136 million contract. Nice work by agents Fern Cuza and Diego Bentz to get double what the Nationals were offering.

7. Gary Matthews, Jr., Angels center fielder. With his $50 million, free-agent contract, he'll make many times over what his father earned over his whole career. This despite Jr. having just one season with more than 55 RBIs (last year, he had 79), compared to his dad, who had 11 such seasons. Agent Scott Leventhal took advantage of a big 2006 season for Matthews and a big 2006 postseason for Jeff Suppan ($42 million) to gets hauls for two clients who never stood out until they needed to. Matthews might miss Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, whom he credited for his sudden surge. But he won't go poor.