The Roy Hobbs League

Tampa Bay has struck early and often in FA so far.  To date they have signed Glenn Lesher to a 3 year $28M deal to patrol RF, Alan Duncan for 3/$22M to play LF and SP Al Diaz for 1/$5M.  Lesher is one of the best SB threats in the league and an all around good hitter, while Duncan is a pure power hitter.  They are both coming off down years, but are young enough to expect that they can bounce back.  Both look like nice signings.  The 36 year old Diaz looks has trouble with lefties, but has put together 4 very nice yers in a row.  Again, a good bargain signing.

In a desperate bid to stay ahead of the Jayhawks, Philadelphia has bolstered their bullpen with the semmingly ageless Rock Oswalt and added slick fielding SS Dwight Mullin.  Oswalt looks like a very good deal for $4.4M.  Despite some pop in has bat, Mullin seems a bit pricey at over $15M for 3 years.  Still, that should be just enough to let wholck hold onto first place in the Al North.

Cheyenne picks up swingman James Fleming for a one year, $4.2M deal.  Nicbase is banking on last year's 2.10 Whip and 7.94 ERA were a fluke and he puts up season 18 numbers.

The Gatsbys have been bargain shopping, picking up a couple of great fielding 6 year minor league free agent shortstops, along with RP Aaron Gleason and SP Derek Cook.  Gleason can still put up some nice numbers as long as you don't need him more than once a week.  Still, useful for the $2.6M price.  Cook commanded a 4/$21.6M deal and will be well worth it if he can regain season 18 form and win 20 again.  Tomfool may well be wishing he had made that last year an option if Cook's control and vL slide any more though.

Hotdog signed Tomas Melo to apparently play every position on the diamond.  Wherever he ends up, look for him to be doing some serious damage to the fences in Helena.

Buffalo has already inked several lower priced FAs.  Catcher Kevin Nakamura looks like a useful backstop, and will be working with new pitchers Turner McMahon, a nice innings eating type for just one year and $4.6, and Keith Nixon who could be a real steal for $4.4M.  He was oddly underutilized in Tampa last year, despite putting up nice numbers.

In Honolulu, the Hurricanes are betting that Todd Quinn will be worth $5M to hold down a rotation spot this year.  Seems like a pretty decent wager to me.

In Kansas City, the Jayhawks are kicking it old school, by bringing home their long-time closer Pedro Candelaria from Indy to continue his run at Peter Browning's all-time saves record.  The bet here is that he is still good enough to get the needed 47 saves by season 21.

The Houston Oilers roll out the red carpet for new 3B Carlos Johnson....er, make that a green carpet.  As in 37M dollars worth of green.  He is a potential Gold Glove at third, but that .691 OPS from last year suggests that the bat may struggle to be worth the money.  Still, he is only 28, so we may not have seen the best of his hitting yet.  Defensive catcher Midre Jacquez has two claims to fame.  He is the only catcher I have ever seen who has gotten both a plus and a minus play in the same season, and he may be the most productive major league player who ever signed for $360,000 as an IFA.

San Juan inked CF Vic Chantre to 4 years at $5.4 per.  He still has the plus range to be a very good CF, and provides a decent bat and good SB potential, but bobbyj might regret not getting an option for that last season.

Coltjj has been busy so far, with three new players for Albuquerque.  Ed Thomas ($5.6) and Norberto Espinosa ($5.4) looks like nice signings for the rotation, with only one year commitments.  SS Ross Hunter will be a nice defensive backup.

Likewise, sckelly has hit the ground running  with 3 signings himself.  Al Atkins will probably never hit 42 homers again as he did in season 18, but he is still a nice little bargain at 3B for just over $9 mil total for the next two years.  I also really love the Darrell Kroon signing.  A nice RP for $2.8M with 3 80+ pitches?  I'll take two please.  Oh wait.  He nearly did find two.  He also signed Macbeth Sears for one year and $3.7M  Of course Sears only has two 80+ pitches.

I definitely have to do this more often.  This was like typing a term paper.