My wife would be quick to confirm that I tend to ramble. I'm going to combat that by doing what I call "Hot Stove Quick Hits".
Gary Matthews Jr- 5 yrs, $50M- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Bakersfield, San Bernardino, and greater Barstow- A year from now I'll be back in this spot echoing Denny Green by saying "He is who we thought he was!" It won't be a compliment. Also, did you know that Matthews managed to get a no trade clause included in the deal? Gary Matthews Jr gets a NTC?
Alfonso Soriano- 8 yrs, $136M- Cubbie Bears-Soriano is required to donate $25,000 annually to both the United Way and to Cubs Care. Paging John Stossel!
Carlos Lee- 6 yrs, $100M- Houston Astros- Well, he's better than Preston Wilson... What I really want to know are the details of his "nominal weight clause."
Randy Wolf- 1 yr, $8M + Vesting 1yr, $9M Option- LA Blue Man Group- Finally a deal that isn't 3 years longer and twice as expensive as it should be.
Juan Pierre- 5 yrs, $44M- LA Sr- For all the well-deserved insults that were thrown at Allard Baird, he did give the Royals what might be one of the better bargain contracts in baseball over the next few years. David DeJesus is a much better baseball player than Juan Pierre and will be paid $25.2M less over the next 5 years. Part of that is the fact that DeJesus was pre-arbitration when he signed, but not ALL of that.
David Dellucci- 3yrs, $11.5M- Cleveland Indians- I like this deal almost as much as the Randy Wolf deal. It's a reasonable price and while it's a year longer than I like, he's proven that at worst, he's one of the better platoon players around.
Adam Kennedy- 3yr, $10M- St Louis Cards- Pass
Keg Igawa- New York Yankees- The Yanks bid a reported $26M for his rights, or about half what the Red Sox gave for the vastly superior Daisuke Matsuzaka. Ladies and gentlemen, the Japanese Carl Pavano!
Kip Wells- 1yr, $4M- StL- In this market, this is the equivalent of buying a $2 scratch-off ticket. Low cost, low upside, low chance of it turning out how you want.
Alex Gonzalez- 3yrs, $14M- Cincinnati- It's a special kind of insanity where you give a 3 year contract to a 30 year old who has only 3 seasons in his career where his OBP was over .300.