HOT STOVE, COOL SAND

ILX COME BACK WE MISS YOU (and I have rocks in my ass).

While with the Cubs, Alfonseca was thrown out of a game on September 2, 2003, for hitting an umpire with his stomach.

WAHT.

In other news, surprising no one, Bonds re-signs with Giants.

jp's highlights so far: russ adams, david bush, aaron hill and adam lind.

admittedly it's not exactly fair to compare 95-01 guys to those from 02-05, but that's still a pretty damning dropoff.

jp's highlights so far: russ adams, david bush, aaron hill and adam lind.

OK, this is silly. Young didn't come up in the J's org, and the last nine names are unproven/fouth OF/burnouts (koch), with the possible exception of Blake. The Jays were a shittier team when Ash ran the club, and therefore they could draft earlier and get more can't-miss prospects. It didn't take a genius to pick Vernon Wells fifth overall. Meanwhile, we won't know how JP's picks (which included a lot of impressive Sept 2006 callups) turn out for a few years yet.

Gord Ash banked on rejects from last-place Pittsburgh (Carlos Garcia, Orlando Merced, yeah WHO DEY) to push the team over the edge from mediocrity, and signed 190-year old Ruben Sierra because he didn't think Shawn Green was ready for the big leagues (even though it was his third full season with the club). His best trade was Plesac-Tony Batista, which looked like an absolute steal at the time but then again, only a couple of years later, Batista was gone and Plesac was resigned.

The biggest transaction that occured during Ash's tenure was the free-agent signing of Clemens, and he had nothing to do with it (club president Paul Beeston did all the work).

Well, they replaced Meche for a lot less than $11 million, and I'm not sure he's any worse!

Discreet.

Oh: the Tigers just signed JOSE MESA.

Negative spin expected tomorrow morning.

i was intrigued by the lowkey signings of ken phelps and j.r. house, but the orgy of relief pitching, the signing of bako and payton...yuck.

i actually think the wright deal wasn't too bad. oh, well.

if they can swing rodrigo lopez for marcus thames, i'll regain a little confidence in flanaquette.

yeah, yeah, probability that Gagne's arm falls off = 75%

All winter long, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with tracking the inflation in the free agent market. The magic number, after the most recent round of signings, is 47%. That is, teams are willing to pay 47% more for the same talent than they were one winter ago. This number seems to have stabilized after being as high as 70% — and as “low” as 30% — during various other parts of the free agent cycle.

I’ve had to make a few modifications to the Marginal Value Above Replacement Player formula, by the way, which I’ll describe in a full-length column sometime soon. But as a teaser, here are the three best and worst deals of the winter so far, according to MORP 2.0.

Best Deals

1. Adam Kennedy, Cardinals: $17.9 million savings.
2. Dave Roberts, Giants: $9.4 million savings.
3. Craig Counsell, Brewers: $7.3 million savings.

Worst Deals

1. Carlos Lee, Astros: $27.2 million overspend.
2. Gil Meche, Royals: $19.4 million overspend.
3. Adam Eaton, Phillies: $12.8 million overspend.