Good Morning, dear readers. The Reds have a new pitcher. The club has agreed with free agent LHP Jeremy Affeldt – most recently a member of the NL pennant-winning Colorado Rockies – on a one-year, $3 million contract, pending Affeldt’s passing a physical.

I’m not terribly impressed with his overall body of work in the major leagues prior to last year, but for $3 million in today’s market? The husk of Ron Mahay is costing the Royals $4 million a year for the next two years. At least Affeldt, who is only 28, might still have some upside. He’s lefthanded, has postseason experience, is coming off a career year, his career ERA+ is right around league average, and if he doesn’t start, he could turn out to be the best LOOGY the Reds have had in a long time.

He could also enable a trade later in the year if the kids have taken over the rotation slots. If Affeldt plays well, they can trade a package consisting of Mike Stanton and two autographed pictures of Mel Queen to any team in baseball that’s willing to pay the asking price (a bag of batting practice baseballs sounds just about right), and consider it a deal that heavily favors the Reds.

Fox Sports is reporting that former Reds OF Mike Cameron and the Milwaukee Brewers have agreed to a one-year, $7 million contract that includes performance bonuses as well as a club option for 2009.

Which I find hilarious, considering that Cameron will start the season on a 25-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance, and considering that the Brewers were already getting numbers similar to the .242/.328/.431 Cameron put up for the Padres last season from their own Gabe Gross (.235/.329/.437) for a fraction of that money.

Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers added another former Red to their own collection, signing “Everyday” Eddie Guardado to a one-year contract featuring a $2 million base salary with another $4 million available in incentives.

That move at least makes some sense to me. If the season started today, the Rangers’ closer would probably be C.J. Wilson, the guy who inherited the role last season after Texas traded Eric Gagne. Wilson, however, was not a closer before that, and has only been in the majors for three years. He’d have to be considered closer to Travis Wilson than Don Wilson at this point. If Guardado’s arm is healthy, the Rangers at least have some relatively cheap (bearing in mind that they were paying Gagne $6 million last year) insurance, just in case Wilson ducks into a phone booth and turns into R.A. Dickey.

The Cincinnati Reds this afternoon announced that former St. Louis Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty has been hired by the Reds as a special advisor to owner Bob Castellini.

The official press release notes that in 13 years as the St. Louis GM,  Jocketty’s Cardinals teams went to the playoffs seven times, winning the NL Central Division six times and the 2001 NL Wild Card while producing two NL pennants and the 2006 World Series title.

An article by John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that current GM Wayne Krivsky will remain in his position, and will continue to report to Castellini. There are also some quotes from Castellini, Jocketty and Krivsky in that article and on Fay’s blog regarding the move.

The Reds signed a bunch of players to minor league contracts today, including former Yankee first baseman Andy Phillips.

I love a man with a big bat:

Also signed by the Reds to minor deals with spring training invites: righthander Jim Brower, infielders Jolbert Cabrera and Andy Green, and lefthander Adam Pettyjohn. And outfielder Jeff Fiorentino was claimed off waivers from Baltimore.

Mark Prior has landed back in his hometown of San Diego with the Padres. The deal is for 1-year, $1 million, with a whopping $4.5 million in incentives. It must be nice to feel so believed in. On the other hand, he didn’t throw a single pitch last year, so maybe $1 million sounds pretty good.

The headline of the story on Padres.com is “Padres sign Prior to one-year deal: Right-hander will look to avoid injury bug for hometown team.” Certainly a lack of Dusty Baker in his life will help that. A complete retooling of his mechanics wouldn’t hurt either.

Thanks to C. Trent’s blog for pointing me to the story, since I’ve hardly been paying attention to the sport the last month. And best of luck to you, too, sir. I’m confident that your post-Post career will be very bright.