As I sit down to write the very short report on NLC player transactions since my last update on the subject, I feel the need to acknowledge the demise of The Cincinnati Post. Best wishes to Lonnie Wheeler, Trent Rosecrans, and the rest of the gang at The Post. I enjoyed your work (or at least that portion of it that made it onto the Internet where I could read it…since I live near Buffalo, I couldn’t exactly run down to the corner store and buy The Post off the newsstand). I sincerely hope you guys land on your feet.

This week’s update is short because only two transactions were reported since 12/26. The Houston Astros were the only team that apparently didn’t get the memo about it being a holiday week,  and GM Ed Wade made the following moves:

• On Thursday (12/27) they signed OF/1B Darin Erstad to a one-year contract worth $1 million plus incentive, thus adding outfield depth and a left-handed bat off the bench. I suppose I should note for you trivia fans out there that Erstad is the only player in baseball history to win a gold glove as an infielder and outfielder.
• On Friday (12/28) they signed RHP Oscar Villarreal to a two-year, $2.85 million contract with a club option for 2010. Villarreal, a reliever, was obtained by the Astros from Atlanta for outfielder Josh Anderson last month.

So there you have it, and thanks a lot, Ed, I could have taken the week off. 🙄

Happy New Year to all!

Thanks to the holidays (and my own basic laziness), I neglected to post the weekly summary of transactions this past Sunday. Fortunately, RHM already gave you the big stories, and it wasn’t as busy as the previous week, so we’ll just catch up on things today. It’ll make next Sunday’s summary that much easier to do. So without further ado, the NLC player transactions from 12/17 thru 12/25/07:

On Monday 12/17, the Astros signed RHP Jack Cassel to a $400,000, one-year contract.

On Tuesday 12/18:

• The Cardinals jumped into the market for former Reds players, signing free agent IF D’Angelo Jimenez to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.
• The Astros signed RHP Chad Paronto to a one-year, $500,000 contract.
• The Pirates re-signed free agent RHP Masumi Kuwata to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.

On Wednesday 12/19, the Cubs signed OF Kosuke Fukudome to a four-year, $48 million contract, as previously reported by RHM. Fukudome has no page on Baseball-Reference.com yet, so I’ve linked to his page on The Baseball Cube instead. To me, that just seems like a lot of money for a guy who’s 29 and has never seen a major league pitch. In fact, for that money he better be good, because if not, the Bleacher Bums at Wrigley are going to have a field day with that surname of his.

On Thursday 12/20, the Brewers coaxed OF Gabe Kapler out of retirement with a one-year, $800,000 contract. The eight-year veteran spent last year managing the Red Sox’ Class-A Greenville farm team in the South Atlantic League, A.K.A. the Sally League. Greenville went 58-81, finishing 14th in a 16-team league, but I’m sure that had nothing at all to do with Kapler’s decision to give up managing and become a baseball player.

On Friday 12/21, the Pirates signed C Michel Hernandez, C (and ex-Red) Miguel Perez, RHP Mike Thompson and INF Jorge Velandia to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training. And of course, there was that trade involving the Reds and Rangers, on which RHM has given us the details in another thread.

That’s been it in the NLC, unless you are a Cardinals fan and are stockpiling ammunition with which to villify and condemn John Mozeliak, in which case you need to know that the Phillies snapped up OF So Taguchi two days before Christmas with a one-year, $1.05 million contract. Is it my imagination, or does it look like the Cardinals are trying to meet the Pirates in the basement?

JK

This week on the podcast:

• Cubs signing Kosuke Fukudome and Cubs non-tendering Mark Prior. Both sort of hard to quibble with.
• Houston trading for closer Jose Valverde from the Diamondbacks for 2B Chris Burke and pitchers Juan
• Gutierrez and Chad Qualls.
• Houston trading for Miguel Tejada and Tejada appearing in the Mitchell Report.
• Even more talk about the Mitchell Report.
• Cardinals trading away Edmonds, and the tears that flowed thereafter. But don’t worry; he’ll be OK.
• Brewers tendering one-year contracts to: SS J.J. Hardy, RHPs Dave Bush, Claudio Vargas, and Seth McClung, and LHPs Brian Shouse and Chris Capuano.
• Reds tendering one-year contracts to 2B Brandon Phillips and RHP Matt Belisle, coincidentally two guys likely to show up in the Hottest NLC Player bracket later this week (if I get all my Christmas presents wrapped in time).
• Pirates continuing to do not much of anything. Imagine.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I woke up this morning to find my truck buried under several inches of snow that fell overnight, along with a warning in my e-mail from the National Weather Service office here in Buffalo to expect another 4-10 inches by tomorrow morning. Ergo, I need a baseball fix. And since you need your weekly summary of player transactions from the past week, it’s a match made in heaven.

As usual, clicking on the first instance of a player’s name will open his stats page on Baseball-Reference.com for your convenience in determining whether you should applaud your team’s moves this week, or organize a mob to descend upon the club offices with pitchforks and torches. Unless you have your browser settings botched beyond repair, the page will open in a new window. Just close it to get back here.

For at least three of the guys mentioned below, I will resist (albeit barely) the temptation to link to the Mitchell Report instead of to their pages on Baseball Reference.

Sunday 12/9 – No transactions were made in the NLC, possibly because all the GMs in the division spent the day at church, praying that none of their players would be named in the Mitchell Report.

Monday 12/10 – Brewers DFA’ed OF Kevin Mench and signed RHP Eric * Gagne to a one-year contract.

Tuesday 12/11 – Brewers outrighted OF Laynce Nix to Class-AAA Nashville, signed C Eric Munson to a one-year contract (thus avoiding arbitration), DFA’ed RHP Matt Wise, and signed RHPs Greg Aquino and Seth McClung and C Mike Rivera to one-year contracts.

Wednesday 12/12 – Busy day:

• The Cardinals signed LHP Ron Flores and C Mark Johnson to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training, re-signed RHP Hugo Castellanos and 3B Rico Washington to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training, tendered one-year contracts to RHP Todd Wellemeyer, C Yadier Molina, and OF Rick * Ankiel, non-tendered IF Aaron Miles, making him a free agent.
• The Pirates signed free agent INF Chris Gomez to a one-year contract, and non-tendered 1B Brad Eldred and RHP Brian Rogers, making them free agents.
• The Brewers tendered one-year contracts to SS J.J. Hardy, RHPs Dave Bush and Claudio Vargas, and LHPs Brian Shouse and Chris Capuano, and non-tendered the aforementioned RHP Matt Wise and OF Kevin Mench, making them free agents.
• The Astros acquired SS Miguel * Tejada from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for OF Luke Scott, RHP Matt Albers, LHP Troy Patton, RHP Dennis Sarfate and 3B Mike Costanzo; Claimed RHP Ryan Houston (isn’t that special?) off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays; non-tendered SS Adam Everett, making him a free agent (and he’s gone, the Twins signed him on Thursday).
• The Reds tendered 2008 contracts to 2B Brandon Phillips and RHP Matt Belisle. They also non-tendered SS Jerry Gil and RHP Brad Salmon, making them free agents – and promptly re-signed both to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training.
• The Cubs non-tendered RHP Mark Prior, making him a free agent.

Thursday 12/13 – The Cubs signed LHP Neal Cotts to a one-year contract.

Friday 12/14 – The Astros acquired RHP Jose Valverde from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for INF Chris Burke and RHPs Juan Gutierrez and Chad Qualls. The Brewers lost RHP Greg Aquino, who was claimed off waivers by the Orioles.

Saturday 12/15 – As RHM told us in the post below, the Cardinals traded OF Jim Edmonds to the Padres for 3B David Freese.

And that’s the way it was in the NLC this week.

John K. (HMZ)

The long anticipated Mitchell Report is finally available, and kudos to MLB for not trying to bury it. Commissioner Bud Selig is talking about dealing with the offenders on a case-by-case basis, and maybe he will, but the best thing for the whole situation will be this report.

The Crack Technical Staff and I sorted through the names looking for connections, however small, to NLC teams. Our list is below. Check out the whole shebang on MLB’s site.

Astros
Ken Caminiti
Roger Clemens
Andy Pettitte
Stephen Randolph
Miguel Tejada
Ricky Stone
Gregg Zaun

Brewers
Derrick Turnbow
Ricky Bones
Gary Sheffield
Eric Gagne
Fernando Vina

Cardinals
Mark McGwire
Gary Bennett
Larry Bigbie
Cody McKay
Rick Ankiel
David Bell
Darren Holmes

Cubs
Manny Alexander
Rafael Palmeiro
Matt Franco
Jerry Hairston Jr.
Glenallen Hill
Todd Hundley
Todd Pratt
Rondell White
Gary Matthews Jr.
Ismael Valdez

Pirates
Barry Bonds
Armando Rios
Jason Christiansen
Tim Laker
Josias Manzanillo
Kevin Young

Reds
Benito Santiago
Ryan Franklin
Kent Merker
Hal Morris
Denny Neagle
Mike Stanton
Ron Villone
Rondell White
Jose Guillen
Scott Schoeneweis