One of the best and simplest explanations I ever heard about the game of baseball goes something like this: “When nothing looks like there’s anything going on, that’s when everything is happening.”

And in its purest form, baseball is a three-hour game played in millisecond increments.  It’s between the pitch and the swing where the game really happens.  Signs are exchanged while the batter stands waiting for a Vulcan mind meld with the pitcher to occur that hopefully results in a perfect collision of ball meets bat.

And so it is with baseball’s off-season.  When it looks like nothing is happening, that’s exactly when everything is going on.

Take Chicago Cubs baseball for instance.  While many of us in Cubdom were licking the sting of another first-round playoff exit, general manager Jim Hendry and company were doing far more than housekeeping - they were cleaning house.

No fewer than 11 players that appeared at one time or another on the 2008 Cubs roster are now employed elsewhere.    The list included everyone from the marginal, like Rich Hill, who four-foot breaking ball is only matched by the space between his ears, to the mythical, ala Kerry Wood, who bore the brunt of a 100-years of Cub fans’ hopes on an arm that could only last an inning or two.

Others, like outfielder Felix Pie and utility man Ronny Cedeno simply ran out of minor league options and were traded. For Pie, his departure from the Chicago Cubs was reminiscent of another former five-tool player with can’t miss potential - Corey Patterson.  And like Patterson before him,  Pie exited the embrace of the Windy City for the waiting arms of obscurity. Otherwise known as the Baltimore Orioles.

Unfortunately, Pie will most likely be remembered as the guy who got his testicles in a twist rather than the top prospect he once was.

Then there was Jason Marquis, who got his wish after bringing a bit of controversy to the Cubs during spring training last year with his start me or trade me ultimatum.   The Cubs moved Marquis in early January to Colorado for reliever Luis Vizcaino.  The biggest question surrounding the trade is whether Marquis’ string of playing eight consecutive years on playoff teams will finally come to an end.

Perhaps the most perplexing of those moved this Cubs off-season was the shuffling off of super utility player and fan favorite Mark DeRosa to Cleveland for a trio of minor leaguers. Whether the move was made to make cash available for a potential Jake Peavy trade, or simply to make room in Cub manager Lou Piniella’s dog house is unclear.

What is certain is Piniella is looking for another utility infielder to replace DeRosa and Cubdom might not be able to tell this year’s team without a scorecard.