I though Vinny Castilla was dead.....

But apparently he's still alive enough to sign a 2yr/$6.3 million deal with the new Washington ______. Well this is the first move of the Jim Bowden era in Washington, before they even settled on a name which will eventually get changed when the team is sold sometime in the next year (if you ask me they should be called the "not-the-'spos" and bring Youppi with them). They followed this move up immediatley with the signing of Christian Guzman to a 4yr/$16.8 million deal, immediately starting the setting of the market for the other SS's. I like these signings for the club on a defensive standpoint. Both players are top-notch glove men with Guzman being possibly the top one in the AL last season. Both of them combing with the leather skills of Vidro will really help what will eventually be a pretty young staff for whatever they'll be called. The problem i have with these signings is this: Castilla will be 38 next year and they also garuanteed 2006, and this is a lot of money for a player going to be that old. You can also count on a power number decline to around 25 HR's, if that, for Castilla out of Colorado. The other problem is that as consisten Guzman has been defensively in his carrer he is just as inconsistent at the plate. He has only had one truly good year at the dish, 2001. All of the others have been decent to subpar. Maybe Bowden knows something we don't, but if Guzman doesn't pick it up at the plate this signing will look bad around the end of next season.


Sox Don't Get Vizquel

Well the Sox lost out on Omar because they wouldn't garuantee the third year option they offered him and the Giants did. Although he would have been a nice pickup for the palehosers I probably would have done the same thing if i were Kenny Williams and had the budget constraits Reinsdorf puts him through, I'm not sure i would have garaunteed more than year 1 to be honest. I don't know where the Sox will move now (maybe giving the job to Uribe) especially with Guzman signing today. But the Giants got thier man and move forward in thier quest of having the oldest lineup ever put together. If Felipe Alou can get his son there to play OF at age 39, they'll have five starters 37 or older, Alou, Marquis Grissom at 38, Bonds at 41, and Vizquel at 38 and JT Snow at 37.

I do feel badly for Williams on what Riensdorf made him do recently as well in stating that they will not work with Scott Boras or his clients (although i think a few current sox players are with him). This move does nothing but hamstring Williams as to who he can go after seriously, make the team less of a player in the market, and destroys the crediblity of the team even further. I know that Boras is a stain in the game but he does work under the rules the way thier written. Sometimes doing and saying what everyone wants to do is not the smartest way to do business. And i do have to hand it to the guy, he got teams to outbid themselves for key guys he had. The Dodgers outbid themselves by about $20 million for Kevin Brown, the Rangers by about $40 million or so for Chan Ho Park, and the Rangers agains by over $100 million on Arod. Supposedly the next highest actual offer from any other team was the Braves at $150 million (i don't know the years but i'm assuming 8 or 10). This is an amazing feat and one reason why teams should be allowed to announce what they offered players publicly during free agency.