Yeah, so this is what passes for news these days.

Abraham Nunez was invited to camp.  He's on a minor league deal, so there's no reason to complain about picking up such a weakling; he's great insurance in case Counsell needs to start and we need a backup infielder.  Nunez got a whole lot of starts over Wes Helms in Philly the last couple of years, for whatever that's worth.

And the Red Sox, who have been very quiet this offseason, signed Dan Kolb.  I hope Danny likes Pawtucket as much as he liked Indianapolis.

If you had told me in October that Mike Cameron could be had for a $5MM, one-year deal, I would've been spared an awful lot of thinking.  Given the free-agent/trade options, this is the best possible outcome for the Brewers, and it isn't even close.

First of all, I should say that I'm really surprised Doug Melvin opted for the Braun-to-LF, Hall-to-3B scenario.  If this was Strat-o-Matic, that would be obviously the right move, but even a hardcore stathead like me can see that it might not be the best idea to move Billy for the second year in a row, and to give Braun something else to think about in his first full season in the bigs.

Now that it's done, though, I think it'll be ok.  Of course Hall has played plenty of third base in his life, and--knock on wood--I can't see his bat suffering any more than it did last year.  I'm a bit more worried about Braun, but LF is probably the easiest position on the diamond, and he's an athletic guy.  What's more, he's got three and a half months until Opening Day to get after it.

On to the good part.  Mike Cameron is quite possibly the best defensive center fielder in baseball.  This move improves our defensive substantially at two positions--3B and CF--and it probably makes Braun less of a liability in that regard.

Better still, Cameron is a solid offensive contributor.  His unadjusted stats--242/328/431--are not too inspiring for 2007 in Petco, but taking the park into account, that's an above-average offensive player at a premium defensive position.  And it's the worst he's hit since 1998.  While Menchkins was (were? I'm not up to speed on the grammar of platoon names) decent last year, their park-adjusted stats were not as good.

In addition to having two position players switch spots, there is a negative: Cameron's 25-game suspension to open the season.  It's certainly not ideal, but if that's what meant we could get him for $5MM instead of $10MM (which is probably what he's worth on a one-year deal), it's a small price to pay.  Either Gwynn will hold down the fort for a few weeks, or Hart will play center and Gross, etc. will cover right.  Not a huge loss either way.

There's one more negative: LaPorta is now blocked.  If Braun is in left, I think it's safe to assume that he's not going back to third anytime soon.  I'm not sure how big of a deal this is.  There was speculation from draft day on that LaPorta was drafted as trade bait for the 2008 or '09 club.  Maybe that'll still happen.  Or maybe Corey Hart will go on the block, with Braun moving to right.  Whatever happens, it probably won't happen this year, and the current alignment of the team gives us many more reasons to be excited about 2008 than anything beyond that.

One more interesting aspect here.  I assumed all along that however we filled the 3B/LF/CF gap, it would involve trading Capuano.  It certainly looked that way when the Rolen trade was on the table.  While Cappy is no more than a 4th starter right now, he's still quite useful.  A rotation of Sheets/Gallardo/Suppan/Cappy/Bush projects a whole lot better than anything involving Vargas, and it  means Villanueva can either contribute from the pen, or be the #6 guy, as (inevitably) need be.  It also gives us the chance to deal Cappy at the deadline for whatever we need then--maybe he'll bounce back in the first half and we'll get more value for him in July than we would right now.

If you can't tell, I'm ecstatic.  Signing Cameron for five million bucks erases all the stupidity of the Estrada/Mota/Wise disaster, and more.

Here's the link.  

It's a reclamation project, but it's a heck of a lot smarter (assuming the money is reasonable) than some of the reliever projects that the Cardinals took on last offseason.  This isn't going to change my assessment of the Cards chances in 2008--basically a straight shot at third place--but it is an improvement.

Jinxie  is finalizing a two-year deal with the Phillies.

It's $13MM for two years, with an option for 2010 that kicks in at a certain number of plate appearances.  This is a decent deal for all sides--Jenks gets the multiple years he was looking for, and $6.5MM per year is probably about what he is worth.

And hey, if he takes advantage of the bandbox that is Citizen's Bank Park, he might just score another multi-year deal when this is over.

Good luck, Geoff--may you occasionally hit home runs off of Matt Wise, but never off of Guillermo Mota.

The Mets signed Matt Wise to a one-year deal.

Let's review the transactions here:

1. Brewers traded Johnny Estrada to the Mets instead of non-tendering him.
2. Brewers acquire Guillermo Mota in the deal, along with his $3.2MM salary for 2008.  Mets fans rejoice.
3. Mets get a better catcher and non-tender Estrada.  That's what we probably would've done, so the Mets literally dumped Mota's contract on us.
4. We have a roster crunch and have to non-tender Matt Wise.  Mota may be the worst pitcher in the pen right now, so we basically kept Mota instead of Wise.
5. Mets sign Wise, probably for less than half of what the Brewers will pay Mota.

The only way this is defensible to me AT ALL is if the Brewers know something about Mota or Wise that we don't know.  Maybe Mota is ready to bounce back (though he doesn't have that lengthy of a good track record) and maybe Wise really is done after hitting Pedro Lopez in the face.  I guess we'll see.  It's also possible that, when Melvin traded for Mota, he couldn't imagine that he'd be able to get three more superior relievers in Gagne, Riske, and Torres, and didn't think Mota's acquisition would mean we couldn't keep Wise.

But, regardless of the thought process, this doesn't make me happy.  I wasn't happy about losing Wise before, but losing Wise to the Mets is even more obnoxious.

For the record, my projections have Mota pitching 68 innings with an ERA of 4.48, 25 walks and 48 strikeouts.  Wise projects with an ERA of 4.56, 61 IP, 20 walks and 42 K's.  I would've thought Wise would come out a little better, but that's a projection for Miller Park with the Brewers defense, so it's probably almost identical if you neutralize everything.  I'd certainly bet on Wise to have the better year.  Either way, even if the results are similar, the Brewers are going to pay more for their middle reliever.

It's Jim Edmonds to the Padres for a prospect.  The Cards get some salary relief (though I gather they are sending some money to SD), and a big hole in center field.

The Cards do have a solid CF prospect in Colby Rasmus, but he hasn't played above Double-A, so it's hard to imagine he'll make much of an impact before 2009.  That means there's got to be another move coming.  I would be surprised if the Cards got in on Mike Cameron...that wouldn't be much of an improvement, and it would likely mean multiple years, blocking Rasmus.  Maybe Kenny Lofton as a rental?  Corey Patterson?

Unless the Reds pull off something big, this is increasingly looking like another year of Cubs-Brewers, and not much else.  The Astros might have made themselves worse even in the short term by acquiring Tejada, and while Edmonds isn't the player he once was, he's probably better in '08 than whoever replaces him.  Prepare yourselves, folks: it'll be another year of the word "weak" attaching itself to "NL Central."

Eveland, of course, is the centerpiece of the deal between Arizona and Oakland, but several other players are involved:

In all seriousness, I'm not at all sure that's a good deal for Oakland.  I expected them to do better dealing Haren to Cinci or Cleveland.  Gonzalez is a top-tier prospect with (I believe) All-Star potential, but I expected something a little bigger in the rest of the deal, especially given the very reasonable contract Haren is signed to--a little over $16MM total for the next three years.

We know by now that Matt Wise and Kevin Mench were non-tendered, which makes them free-agents.

Lots of interesting non-tenders from other teams:

• Adam Everett: odd man out of the Tejada deal, best defensive shortstop in baseball, one of the worst offensive regulars, too.
  
  
• Morgan Ensberg: good OBP, he plays third, gotta figure Melvin will make a call on this one.  I think I'd rather have Ensberg as a rental than trade for Hank Blalock, lose a prospect and/or SP, and pay a bigger salary.
  
  
• Mark Prior: don't worry, some Cubs fans still think he'll be a big contributor this year.
  
  
• Dallas McPherson: once big-time Angels prospect, now post-injury reclamation project.  Two years ago, he would've been a great gamble for the Crew.
  
  
• Nook Logan: he's like Tony Gwynn Jr., only with more service time!
  
  
• Kiko Calero: he's basically Matt Wise, minus the pop psychologizing. I don't think Melvin will go after him, but we could do much worse with the last spot in the bullpen.
  
  
• Aaron Miles: I wouldn't be surprised if the Cards went after Adam Everett and made Cesar Izturis, who they signed earlier this offseason, their middle-infield backup.
  
  
• Akinori Otsuka: I'm glad that we didn't deal for him right before he got injured, but it sounds like he could be ready to contribute quite soon. He's an even better bet than Calero. We won't get him, but we'll probably pay about the same amount of money to someone (Torres or Mota) who will not pitch as well in 2008.
  
  
• Miguel Olivo: no reason for the Marlins to keep him, but it seems odd to me that guys like Kendall and LoDuca are getting $4-5MM while Olivo will be a backup somewhere. Unless there's some huge advantage in veteran game-calling skills, there's no reason for it. Also, does this mean Matt Treanor and Mike Rabelo split time? Or that the Marlins will simply make a lateral move and bring in someone like Estrada? Wacky.
  
  Josh Towers: he'll land in a rotation somewhere. For better or worse, there's no room in ours. If anything, him being available will make Claudio Vargas a little less valuable.
  
  
• Johnny Estrada: say, why are paying $3.2MM for Guillermo Mota?