Last year's World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers was an undeniably memorable seven-game showdown, easily the most entertaining Fall Classic since 2001's Yankees/DBacks Series. But what we saw between these two teams in October was perhaps just a taste of the next several years, as both teams have put themselves in positions to dominate for the next few years -- and potentially longer than that.

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Yesterday, I previewed the 2012 San Francisco Giants. They're a team with playoff aspirations, but they're coming off a pretty quiet offseason. Now I'll look at the 2012 San Diego Padres -- a team that isn't expected to compete, but still made a flurry of moves this offseason. They signed a couple free agents, Mark Kotsay and Micah Owings, to one-year deals (both of which were worth roughly $1M). In late November, they acquired catcher John Baker in exchange for lefty Wade LeBlanc. A couple weeks later, they acquired closer Huston Street. Another couple weeks passed, then their big move of the winter went down, as they sent ace Mat Latos to the Cincinnati Reds for Edinson Volquez and a few prospects (Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, and Brad Boxberger). At the end of December, they sent a couple pitching prospects (Simon Castro and Pedro Hernandez) to the White Sox for Carlos Quentin. On January 6, they traded Anthony Rizzo and Zach Cates to the Cubs for Andrew Cashner and Kyung-Min Na. Finally, they signed Cameron Maybin to a five-year $25M extension.

I've actually neglected to mention a couple trades, believe it or not, but I think you get the gist of it. They were quite busy this winter. So, after all the reassembling, how do they look entering 2012?

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For those that watched the Giants struggle, game after game last season, to push runs across the plate, it may be easy to forget, but the 2010 Giants -- who, of course, brought home the Commissioner's Trophy -- actually had a pretty decent offense. They scored 697 runs -- spending a lot of their time in less hitter-friendly environments -- and they ranked 6th in the National League in wRC+, sitting at a respectable 95. In fact, by that measure, they were better than the Colorado Rockies (94) and Arizona Diamondbacks (93). The run support, in large part, came from a pair of unlikely contributors in Andres Torres and Aubrey Huff, who combined for 531 total bases, 139 walks, and 7.6 oWAR.

The 2011 Giants, unfortunately, failed to clear the bar for acceptable offensive production, and accordingly, the team failed to defend its title -- failed, even, to make the playoffs. Part of it was injuries -- countless players spent time on the DL, and some of the losses were rather impactful. Buster Posey and Freddy Sanchez appeared in a combined 105 games, and Pablo Sandoval -- the Giants' most valuable player -- missed a quarter of the season after sustaining a fractured hamate bone. Some of it was bad luck -- the Giants had a .671 OPS overall, but when it came to hitting with two outs and runners in scoring position, they were a lot worse (.561), which is atypical. And some of it, obviously, was purely construction: the bad hitters were bad at hitting, and the good hitters were not aplenty.

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So far in this series, I've looked at five clubs -- the Nationals, Jays, Rangers, Rays, and Cardinals. I'm doing this in reverse alphabetical order, but so far, it happens to be a pretty good collection of teams. Now we get to the Mariners, who, quite frankly, aren't good. They've finished with a losing record in six of the last eight years, and barring a miracle, they'll add on a seventh year in 2012.

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Well, we're back. I was aiming to do one of these team previews a day, but it's rather difficult to keep up. Anyway, now we get to the defending champions: the St. Louis Cardinals. They just barely squeezed into the playoffs last year, but ended up going all the way. And that was without Adam Wainwright, and with an uncharacteristically great season from Albert Pujols (which is to say, he's usually more than just great). It was certainly an unpredictable year.

Anyway, Albert Pujols is gone now after signing a mega-contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. And that's no easy void to fill -- Pujols has played a crucial role in the Cardinals' success over the last decade, and he's arguably still the best player in baseball right now. But despite losing the face of their franchise, St. Louis is actually in pretty good shape to defend their title, thanks to a productive offseason.

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Back on September 3rd, the Tampa Bay Rays were nine games out of the wild card race. The Boston Red Sox collapsed, going 7-20 overall in the final month of the season, and the Rays took advantage. On September 28th, game 162, the Red Sox lost to the Orioles (in walk-off fashion), and the Rays beat the Yankees in extra innings, sending themselves to the postseason. The Rays have now made the playoffs in three of the past four seasons, after finishing in last in all but one year from 1998 to 2007.

Tampa Bay didn't spend a lot this offseason, but they did manage to bring in a number of useful pieces, signing Luke Scott, Carlos Pena, Jeff Keppinger, Fernando Rodney and Jose Molina. They also exercised options for James Shields and Kyle Farnsworth, and signed lefty Matt Moore to an incredible extension.

• MLB Depth Charts Projected Roster
• 2012 ZiPS Projections

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In 2010, for the first time in a decade, the Texas Rangers won the AL West, finishing with a 90-72 record. They went on to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division Series, and subsequently took the AL Pennant, beating the Yankees in six games. They eventually lost the World Series to these guys, but they had still won the first pennant in franchise history.

The 2011 Rangers built on that success, as they ran away with the AL West crown, winning a franchise-record 96 games. Once more, they made it all the way to the World Series, and lost. They'll give it another shot in 2012.

• MLB Depth Charts Projected Roster
• 2012 ZiPS Projections

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Unlike the Washington Nationals, the Toronto Blue Jays had a relatively quiet offseason. In fact, they only brought in two players via free agency (three if you count Rick Vanden Hurk's non-guaranteed split ML contract), signing a pair of relievers in Darren Oliver and Francisco Cordero. This doesn't necessarily come as much of a surprise though, as the Blue Jays didn't really lose much to free agency: Shawn Camp, Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch, Jose Molina. They were, however, active on the trade market, acquiring the likes of Trystan Magnuson, Luis Valbuena, Jeff Mathis, Sergio Santos, Ben Francisco, and Jason Frasor.

• MLB Depth Charts Projected Roster
• 2012 ZiPS Projections

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