31 December 2008

Man, the Chicago Cubs are like the center of the universe right now! They were so mortified at having lost out on Jake Peavy that they traded Jason Marquis to the Rockies for Luis Vizcaino (the reliever, not the infielder), traded Mark Derosa to the Indians for three minor league pitchers (Jeff Stevens, Chris Archer and John Gaub), and signed Aaron Miles to a two-year deal to replace DeRosa. ESPN thinks all this might end up with them signing Milton Bradley.

Meanwhile, the Rockies decided to keep Marquis company by signing Luis Gonzalez (the utility infielder, not the outfielder). Somehow I doubt that Gonzalez will be able to help Marquis improve his atrocious K/BB or K/9. The Dodgers stuck their tongue out at Derek Lowe by signing ex-Expo Claudio Vargas (who's basically a right-handed Randy Wolf) for $400,000 -- not bad at the price, I guess -- and the Orioles improved their chances in the AL East by signing ex-Marlin Mark Hendrickson (who's basically an extremely tall right-handed left-handed Randy Wolf) for $1.4 million. Both Vargas and Hendrickson have heavily incentivized contracts that could earn them hundreds of thousands more depending on what they do. However, what they will do is suck. Inevitably.

The Angels added Brian Fuentes at 2/$17.5, a nice price considering that it's less than the Indians paid for Kerry Wood.

And Frank Wren still hasn't given us any hope he's going to go after Derek Lowe. C'mon now, Frank. This is getting idiodiculous.

Next >