The San Francisco Giants home-developed the starting rotation that pitched them to the World Series championship last year. The previous year the New York Yankees won the World Series with a primarily store-bought rotation. The Philadelphia Phillies hope to win it this year with a hybrid rotation, one that has been home grown, bought and traded for.

Then there is the Milwaukee Brewers’ idea. This winter they tried to do in their own way what the Yankees did with free agency two years earlier. The Yankees cornered the market by buying CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. This winter the Brewers cornered the trading market by acquiring Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum.

But they weren’t finished with their winter’s work even then.

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On the eve of the opening of the 2011 baseball season, management and labor demonstrated anew how remarkably harmonious their relationship has become. Without fanfare, without a hint that it was coming, without Congress or any other body or individual urging them to do something, the commissioner’s office and the players’ union announced Tuesday a way of dealing with concussions.

Besides developing a regimen for teams and players to follow in the event of a concussion or suspected concussion, they even created a new disabled list, a 7-day disabled list, for teams to take time to evaluate players with head injuries.

The only thing they didn’t do was give the new list an appropriate name: the Alan Schwarz disabled list.

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Eight years ago the chief executive of the Boston Red Sox called the New York Yankees the “Evil Empire,” and the Yankees have never returned the favor. The Red Sox, though, deserve equal name-calling notoriety.

What about Contract Connivers? Or Contract Conspirators? Neither has the colorful connotation of Evil Empire, but if the name fits, well, wear it.

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