I had every intention of getting this up on Sunday, but my ISP wasn’t cooperating (hard to post when you can’t connect at anything better than 21.6KBPS). Here are the player transactions in the NL Central that have occurred since the last update, as reported on the official web site of Major League Baseball.

Astros GM Ed Wade must have finally taken his holiday this week, as the Astros reported no transactions since I last updated you on these proceedings.

On Thursday 1/3, the Cardinals signed Matt Clement to an incentive-laden one-year contract with a club option for 2009. I reported on this in another thread. Also on Thursday, the Brewers invited OF Laynce Nix and RHP Steve Bray to spring training. A cursory search turned up no indication that Steve Bray and the Reds’ Bill Bray are relatives.

On Friday, the Cardinals signed IF Aaron Miles to a one-year contract, while the Reds – as previously reported by BubbaFan – claimed OF Jeff Fiorentino off waivers from the Orioles; and signed RHP Jim Brower, INF Jolbert Cabrera, INF Andy Green, INF Andy Phillips and LHP Adam Pettyjohn to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training.

On Saturday 1/5, the Cubs traded IF Angel Pagan to the Mets for a couple of minor leaguers, RHP Ryan Meyers and OF Corey Coles.

On Monday 1/7, the Brewers signed OF Drew Anderson, RHP Tim Dillard, 1B/OF Brad Nelson, LHP Manny Parra and RHP Luis Pena to one-year contracts. Also, the Pirates signed RHPs Adam Bernero and Elmer Dessens (a former Pirate, Red, and Brewer) to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training (Zeldink already told us about Dessens).

Note that there are two other Drew Andersons who have played recently in the minor leagues, one who was with the Reds’ organization the past three years and another who played in the Astros’ farm system last year. The Drew Anderson the Brewers signed on Monday spent all of last year at Class-AA and Class-AAA in the Brewers’ minor league system. Also, the Brad Nelson they signed is not the same Brad Nelson who pitched in the Braves’ farm system last year, and Luis Pena is not the same Luis Pena who pitched in the White Sox farm system a few years ago. The Brewers must be running out of names for their players and have to beg, borrow, and steal them from other teams…which, come to think of it, is pretty much the same approach they’ve used this winter in populating their bullpen.

🙄

Welcome to round 1 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest blogger contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one fella in limbo) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

If you haven’t already voted in our first pairing–the Jason LaRue/Manny Parra contest–take a gander at those hotties as well.

Our second pairing pits a couple of newbies against each other as the Cubs’ Sam Fuld (or as I like to think of him, “the honey with the light eyes”) and the Cardinals’ Rick Ankiel (or as I like to think of him, “the guy I included in the tourney specifically for Bellyscratcher’s husband to vote for) face off.

Sam Fuld
ht: 5-10 wt: 180 dob: 11/20/1981

Fuld’s only appeared in 14 games, so we have to forgive him his .000 average for the moment. He has the distinction of being the only Cubs’ profile picture that actually make me say, “oh!”

Rick Ankiel
ht: 6-1 wt: 210 dob: 7/19/1979

OK, calling Ankiel a newbie isn’t exactly accurate, but he’s new to the outfield after fighting back from forgetting how to pitch exactly when it mattered. He’s also been subjected to some steroid-related scrutiny lately. But he’s kinda cute, so he’s got that going for him.

[poll=9]

The St. Louis Cardinals have signed RHP Matt Clement to a one-year contract with a club option for 2009. ESPN has a pretty good breakdown of the terms for the incentive-laden contract here. Bear in mind when reading those contract terms that this is for a guy who hasn’t pitched since 2006.

ESPN quoted Cardinals’ GM John Mozeliak as saying that Clement is physically ready to pitch and “can be a solid addition to our starting rotation.” Which, to me, sounds like what the Cubs have been saying about Wood and Prior since the National League was founded in 1876.

JK

Welcome to round 1 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest blogger contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one fella in limbo) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Special thanks to the literally one of your who nominated players. Don’t see your favorite on the list? Well, I hope you’ve learned the benefits of nominating someone. The rest of the players were selected via a complex scientific process of looking at their profile photos on their teams’ MLB pages and, in some cases, me just adding them. They were then quasi-randomized and bracketed for this exciting, once-in-a-lifetime contest opportunity!

You’ll have 1 week to place your vote in each contest. New contests will be available as I get around to them. Feel free to pimp for your favorite in the comments. Results are final and cheating is OK as the contest doesn’t really mean anything.

Our first pairing pits a longtime Red Hot Mama favorite, the Cardinals’ Jason LaRue, against an unknown in the Brewers’ Manny Parra.

Jason LaRue
ht: 5-11 wt: 205 dob: 03/19/1974

LaRue boasts the square jaw, rugged features, and constant damp skin of the hometown boy all the country girls swoon over.

Manny Parra
ht: 6-3 wt: 200 dob: 10/30/1982

Parra brings a subtle sweet smile and boyish charm. And though you’ve never heard of him, that’s only because he just debuted in July. In his 26.1 innings pitched, though, he brought a 3.76 ERA and 26 Ks.

[poll=8]

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