I think it's ridiculous to compare Gwynn to Cameron ... maybe they are similar defensively, but while Cameron is an average-ish MLB hitter, Gwynn is barely better than average for AAA.  

If Cappy's on the team on April 1st, he'll be in the rotation.  I don't know that I'm behind that decision, but that's what the decision will be, I'm almost positive.  I don't really care whether we call him #3, #4, or #5.  It probably doesn't matter much -- someone will get hurt or traded and Villy will get plenty of starts this year.

From 1997 (his first full season or his career minus his first 56 plate appearances) to 2007, Cameron had an OPS of .789 and an OPS+ of 107. Let's look at all the players who had 2000 or more plate appearances in that span and who spent at least 50% of their games in center field.

First, in terms of just OPS, Cameron is fifteenth, right behind Torii Hunter and tied with an aging Brady Anderson. Kenny Lofton is right below him at .786, so what Lofton gives you in on base percentage is what Cameron gives you in slugging percentage. As an aside, it's kind of interesting that Dave Roberts has the same OPS as Corey Patterson.

Here's the list using OPS+, which takes into account park and league and all that fun stuff. Cameron then moves up to eleventh. Lofton is fifteenth with 103 now, but still behind Cameron.

This doesn't even take into account defense. It'd be nice if Cameron got on base more, sure, but his defense is much better than that of the other free agent options (I'm thinking mostly of Lofton). Given that Cameron's a better offensive and defensive player and younger (doesn't mean much, since they're both on the downside of their careers), I think it's hard to say Lofton would be a better signing.

I'm not sure what higher-OBP, cheaper options there are without trading a whole bunch of players for them. I think a relatively cheap (heck, LOOGYs get $2 million now) one-year commitment to an aging but still good overall (especially defensively) player is worth it.

Finally, and this may be taking your point too far, I don't get the rally-killing strikeouts point as it relates to Hall and Jenkins. Even if we very loosely define a rally-killing strikeout as one with at least one runner somewhere beyond first base (i.e., in scoring position), Hall struck out 27 times in 135 chances (20.0%). That's actually less often than he struck out overall (128 K in 503 PA comes to 25.4%). In his career, he has struck out 22.8% of the time he come to bat with RISP as opposed to 24.4% of the time overall. If anything, he's slightly less likely to strike out in a rally situation. In his career, Jenkins has struck out in 22.7% of his plate appearances. With runners in scoring position, it's 22.7% again. Compared to Prince Fielder (18.9% overall vs. 20.5% with RISP), guys that keep their K rate steady or even lower it with RISP are valuable. :) (yes, yes, Fielder still strikes out less than either of those two, but still...)

I guess I figure with regular players getting between 125-175 PA with RISP during the year, you'd expect almost anyone on the roster to strike out 25-35 times in my rally-killing scenario (I know that everyone has their own idea of when a rally is killed, which is a problem as well). Psychologically it stings more when it's someone like Hall or Jenkins because they're not the golden-boy uberprospects and they strike out a lot anyway, but the difference between them and another player on the roster is minimal. On the other extreme is a player like Johnny Estrada who didn't strike out but didn't have much luck with avoiding DPs. Who knows, maybe Cameron will continue to rake with RISP (.266/.371/.472 in his career), occasional ill-timed strikeouts or not.

I agree that a high-OBP, cheap player would be the best but I think the front office did okay without having to pay through the nose (especially since at best the starter de jour of the Diftosynn bunch would probably at best give you Cameron's equal offensively without the same defense). Alright, I'm done rambling on and on now. :)