The game is in motion. Its reputation for listlessness is being shot all to Houston and back.

Near the eve of baseball's annual winter meetings, what we have is movement, not NBA crazy movement, but a shift toward almost movement, which, in baseball, often enough counts as movement.

This comes on account of several factors.

The Miami Marlins are wacky.

Seven franchises – including megaliths from Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles – have new general managers or, in the case of the Houston Astros, are in the process of stalking and abducting a new general manager of their own.

New field managers have been hired in a handful of places. Most notably, that means Bobby Valentine in Boston and Ozzie Guillen in Miami. It means Tony La Russa is gone from St. Louis. It means new faces and new ideas from Dale Sveum and Robin Ventura in Chicago, along with Mike Matheny in St. Louis.

[Related: What does Valentine hire say about Cherington?]

Among the free agents and potential free agents, there are

So, Boston, welcome to Bobby V's world.

Based on a 35-minute press conference alone, it's a place of teary entrances, of unapologetic (and slightly resistive) looks back (for the sake of the New Yorkers in the crowd) and of an admission he dared not hope to become manager of the Red Sox because, he said, "I didn't want to be heartbroken."

And, of course, it's already a time for repair.

The man had barely buttoned his jersey before his boss – the young Ben Cherington sitting at Bobby Valentine's right shoulder – was asked if this was really the candidate he wanted to manage his ballclub.

The two of them together at the table – alone, without president Larry Lucchino or owner John Henry – breathed for Cherington, "my guy."

And yet he was going to have to say it. He was going to have to deny that Dale Sveum was his guy, that the Red Sox overlords had insisted on Valentine, that this relationship – fresh young GM, old and hardened baseball man – was doomed from this very moment.

"It's just

Desperate for production out of their catchers since their ill-advised trade of Mike Napoli(notes), the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday acquired Chris Iannetta(notes) from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for pitching prospect Tyler Chatwood(notes).

This would be new GM Jerry Dipoto cleaning up after former GM Tony Reagins.

The Rockies, in turn, were expected to reach a contract agreement with free-agent catcher Ramon Hernandez(notes), who probably will find in Colorado one of the younger rotations in the game.

Among a set of rotation candidates including the likes of Chatwood, Jhoulys Chacin(notes), Jason Hammel(notes), Esmil Rogers(notes), Juan Nicasio(notes), Clayton Mortensen(notes), Alex White(notes), Drew Pomeranz(notes), etc., only Hammel is even close to 30.

Hernandez's contract is for two years. Fox Sports reported it was for $6.5 million.

At the core of this trade, however, is Iannetta. The Angels offense was 10th in the American League in runs last season, and their catchers

The Boston Red Sox on Tuesday hired Bobby Valentine to be their manager, according to numerous reports, so the suits have retaken the clubhouse.

This is what happens when an organization puddles up over a month. This is what comes when an historic decade becomes grounds for gluttony.

Two months from the official end of the freefall, the GM is in Chicago, the manager is bounced, the assistant GM is in the big office and upper management is leaning in.

These are the new Red Sox, cut from consecutive third-place seasons, drawn from $330 million in payroll dollars, in hindsight more wisely used as kindling to warm a stoop on Yawkey Way.

This is the humiliation that chases the epic collapse – a manager search, and then some handwringing, and then a manager search 1B, followed by a Twitter-flood.

This is what it looks like when the adults show up, when the men who spend the money expect a return, and when the men who crave power see an opening.

You get Bobby V.

And, damn, did the Red Sox

Nobody can spend other people’s money quite like a baseball writer.

Well, nobody other than Fred Wilpon.

It’s what happens, maybe, when you have so little of your own.

Point is, Theo Epstein might be gaining fast.

The Chicago Cubs, long believed to be a reasonable landing place for Prince Fielder(notes), both for what he would do to Wrigley Field and what the transaction would do to their NL Central neighbors – the Milwaukee Brewers – on Monday afternoon checked in on Albert Pujols(notes) as well.

Of course they did.

Look, if Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer had any ideas about building from within in a reasonable time frame, the restrictions on amateur bonuses in the new CBA blew that up. What the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays have done over the last several years just got a lot harder to do. General managers across the sport now believe they’ll need to build from the top down, which is bad news for operating budgets but good news for high-end free agents.

Like Fielder and Pujols.

While

What Ben Cherington and the Boston Red Sox brass must decide – and presumably they will in the coming hours – is if the big theater that comes with the big personality is worth hiring Bobby Valentine over the more staid and predictable Gene Lamont.

Valentine can be a wonderful motivator. And the Red Sox certainly appeared to lack motivation down the stretch. But – and Cherington knows this club – how might the veteran team respond to his heavy-handed tactics?

I guess it couldn't respond any worse than it did to whatever tactics Terry Francona employed in September.

The Red Sox – that being ownership, upper management and new general manager Cherington – expect to have their man in place by the winter meetings, which begin Monday in Dallas.

My belief is this will be too big of a job for a young manager, and certainly for a first-timer, so the Red Sox – by whatever process they used, including steamrollering Cherington – were wise to settle on Valentine or Lamont, even if it doesn't

To the National League Most Valuable Player, to the vote of apples or apples, to the slugger on the division champion or the one on the cusp of the triple crown, and to the Jewish kid from the San Fernando Valley who plays his ball in the Midwest or the African-American kid from Oklahoma who plays his in Los Angeles.

To Ryan Braun(notes) or Matt Kemp(notes).

To the one who got the phone call Tuesday morning on a balcony in Malibu.

"It's a beautiful day," Braun said.

Or the other, on a balcony down the coast with a more distant view of the Pacific Ocean, whose phone did not ring.

"He's right on the ocean," Kemp said. "He's doin' it big."

After the quarrels of Monday afternoon, when Justin Verlander(notes) became the American League MVP after a months-long debate of pitchers vs. position players for such an award, along came the purest argument of all:

Braun or Kemp?

At the end of two of the more magical months baseball has ever seen, starting with the final hours of the regular season,

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun(notes) was voted National League MVP on Tuesday, winning by a close but significant margin ahead of Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp(notes).

Braun received 20 of 32 first-place votes in a ballot of BBWAA members. Kemp received 10.

Given that the players were statistically similar, Braun apparently benefited from the Brewers’ National League Central title, which perhaps better framed his value. The Dodgers were not a factor in the NL West.

NL Rookie of the Year four years ago, Braun batted .332 with 33 home runs, 111 RBIs, 33 stolen bases and a .994 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

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Kemp, who last week agreed to an eight-year, $160-million contract extension with the Dodgers, batted .324 with 39 home runs, 126 RBIs, 39 steals and a .986 OPS. Kemp finished third in the batting race, so just that far from the first Triple Crown season since Carl Yastrzemski’s with the Boston Red Sox in 1967. It