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Deals, deals and more deals

by Matt Smith

Deal or no deal may be all the rage over here, but in baseball right now it’s just deal, deal and more deals. Lots of moves have taken place over the last 24 hours and not just of the Rule 5 variety (although that was a strangely active affair).

Pitcher called Lilly

Sometimes there is a poetic symmetry to events. “Pictures of Lily” is famously a song by The Who all about, well, masturbating. Plenty of times over the past few years I have considered the Cubs to be a bunch of tossers. Consequently it was almost written in the stars that they would spend even more money by snapping up Ted Lilly. No doubt Jim Hendry will be enjoying his hospital soup this morning. We can all poke fun at some of the contracts they are agreeing to, but how can you not admire a guy who can seal a deal while being “hooked up to [a] EKG machine”,as Lilly’s agent described. That they fought off the Yankees to get Lilly is a big coup for Chicago. Will it work out well though? I’m not sure. Even when he was at Oakland, I never quite had faith in him to get the job done. He’s solid enough and I guess solid costs $40million nowadays.

Freddie to the Phillies

It was the day of pitching changes and the Phillies have really started their off-season well. The White Sox had a bit of a starter logjam and, considering the free agent prices for starting pitchers, they were in a great position to deal from strength. To be honest I was surprised that they didn’t get more for Garcia, although that may be partly due to my unfamiliarity with the two prospects they acquired in exchange.  The fact that Garcia will be a free agent next year is probably a part of it as well, although the Phillies may look to sign an extension with him. Whatever Garcia’s contract situation, they can now go and shop Jon Lieber, presumably for an addition or two to the bullpen. There’s still a long, long time until April, but the Phillies look to be shaping up pretty well.

Meche signs for who?

As I logged on to MLB.com after getting home from work, I have to admit to making a double-take as I saw the headline story. Maybe this is being harsh but I’m not sure how many free agents would be looking to Kansas City as a place to further their careers right now. Still, the Royals have given Gil Meche the opportunity to further his bank balance and that counts for something. The report on MLB.com gives a nice little storyline of how this move fits into the overall roster, but my pessimism is fuelled by one telling comment:

“The five-year package was believed to be worth about $11 million a year for Meche, bringing him up to the level being paid to designated hitter Mike Sweeney who had the team’s top salary”.

Comparing him to Mike Sweeney doesn’t fill me with confidence that this is going to work out well for the Royals, but at least they are doing something.

And the same can be said for the Nationals who have signed Jesus (Flores) as a Rule Five pick from the Mets. The funny things is, Nats GM Jim Bowden probably thinks he has actually signed Jesus and credits his general all-round genius for pulling off such a shock.

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