As I did last Friday for the National League, I present a report card evaluating the successes and failures of each team’s off-season in the American League. As you’ll see, I think the already-stronger junior circuit got quite a bit stronger this winter.

NEW YORK A The Yankees, it’s pretty clear, got a lot better during the past few months – probably more so than any other team in the game. Their single biggest weakness, center field, was turned into an area of strength with the Johnny Damon signing, which will of course also help the team’s secondbiggest weakness – its starting pitching. With the signings of Kyle Farnsworth and Octavio Dotel, the team’s thirdbiggest weakness, the bullpen, was also addressed. All of this is up to the team’s most important move – the decision to consolidate power with general manager Brian Cashman.

CHICAGO B+ It’s rare for the defending world champions to substantially improve during the off-season, but that’s what the Chicago White Sox did when they made a trade for slugger Jim Thome, another trade for starter Javy Vazquez, and signed several role players who should make this year’s team better than the one that broke the longest championship drought in the sport. It did come at a heavy price – top prospect Chris Young and center fielder Aaron Rowand are not players with whom the Sox lightly disposed – but they may still be the team to beat this year.

BOSTON B+ Just as the league’s other top teams did, the Red Sox got quite a lot better.Adding no.1 starter-in-waiting Josh Beckett alone would have made this off-season a winner; the move to bring in Coco Crisp as a younger, better replacement for the departed Johnny Damon saw the Sox turn what could have been a disastrous few months into an opportunity to get quicker and stronger at the same time.

TORONTO B Along with Los Angeles, the Jays were the busiest team this offseason.But they haven’t improved quite as much as you might think just to look at the barrels of print that they’ve caused to be spilled on the agate pages. The various position-player swaps they worked are at best a wash, as they’ve given up in defense what they added in power, and while the additions of A.J. Burnett and B.J. Ryan will truly improve the pitching rotation, neither is the sort of elite player who will make the team dominant. Their final move, this week’s signing of catcher Bengie Molina for one year and $5 million was a nice way to cap the winter.

CLEVELAND B The Indians were, on paper, the AL’s best team last year, maybe the best in baseball.They made a bold move in trading Crisp for top prospect Andy Marte, who fills the team’s need for a long-term solution at third base, and that bold, long-sighted move more than makes up for the shortterm loss of offense and the departure of Kevin Millwood.

BALTIMORE B Adding promising young Corey Patterson was an unmitigated success, getting rid of Sammy Sosa and Raffy Palmeiro was as well, and the team added a moderately useful new catcher, Ramon Hernandez. Best of all, the Orioles hired Hall of Fame pitching coach Leo Mazzone. Even having alienated Miguel Tejada, one of the sport’s true franchise players, this was an excellent few months for a team that’s often seemed doomed.

TAMPA BAY C+ The Devil Rays get the high mark on the basis of one move: They finally got rid of Chuck LaMar, their long-time general manager, who was nowhere near so bad as people made him out to be,but was nonetheless a bad fit for this franchise.With a veritable army of young talent in Tampa and in the minors, this team could be quite dangerous in the near future.

OAKLAND C+ In trading for pariah Milton Bradley and signing mediocre starter Esteban Loaiza to a 3-year deal, Oakland made a pretty puzzling pair of moves. There’s every reason to think the A’s will rank among the best teams in the league this year, but Bradley is that rare player who truly may be enough of a problem to outweigh the contributions he makes on the field.

TEXAS C+ It’s a good thing not to have resigned Kenny Rogers, but be tween him and Chris Young, the Rangers lost a lot of pitching, which all their moves didn’t make up for.Trading Alfonso Soriano for Brad Wilkerson was an excellent move, one of the best made this winter, but even by signing Millwood, the team didn’t truly address the pitching woes that have kept it from competing for years.

MINNESOTA C The Twins had the definition of a neutral off-season; the variety of relatively small moves they made could add up to big improvements,but at the same time they didn’t address the key problem – an awful lack of power – that has plagued them for years.

ANAHEIM C Like Minnesota, Anaheim added in some areas (the rota tion), lost a bit in others (behind the plate), and in all probably ended up about where they were at the end of October. In this case, that’s not a bad thing. The Angels remain one of the most dangerous teams in the sport, a real threat to win it all.

DETROIT C- The Tigers are one of the teams that has a real shot at shocking the world this year,but that’s mostly down to the maturation of some promising young talent rather than to anything they did recently. When the big move of the offseason is signing 120-year-old Kenny Rogers to front the rotation, it’s not anything to get happy about.

SEATTLE D- As Still oblivious to the fact that just because you have money doesn’t mean you have to spend it, the M’s continued their headlong slide toward utter irrelevance by signing Jarrod Washburn as their centerpiece move. Washburn’s pretty ERA masks some pretty ugly underlying indicators, and no matter how much the team promotes him as an Andy Pettite-like workhorse, this was a lot more like signing a left-handed Steve Trachsel.

KANSAS CITY F Reggie Sanders! Mark Grudzielanek! Doug Mientkiewicz! Scott Elarton! The Royals signed a lot of players, and there’s some value in running out this kind of mediocre veteran squad to avoid ruining young players’ careers by rushing them to the bigs, but gosh.

tmarchman@nysun.com