Offseason Signings/Trades Thread

[Coldneck]

Trevor Hoffman resigned by the Brewers. 1 Yr / $8M. I'm glad Marmol will earn less than $1M next year.

[kbwsb]

We get the 15th pick in next year's draft.
Does that mean we can sign FA's at will (because it's a "protected" pick), or does that mean we have to give up the pick if we sign a Type A FA?

[Scarey]

<!--quoteo(post=65415:date=Oct 5 2009, 02:59 PM:name=KBwsb)-->QUOTE (KBwsb @ Oct 5 2009, 02:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->We get the 15th pick in next year's draft.
Does that mean we can sign FA's at will (because it's a "protected" pick), or does that mean we have to give up the pick if we sign a Type A FA?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That is correct, I didn't even realize we had the 15th pick. I was actually worried we would sign a bottom tier type A and have to give up our pick.

[kbwsb]

This was such a great story, I had to put it in here somewhere. I'm surprised that this stuff doesn't happen more often, especially in baseball. At some point, you have so much money that you can buy almost everything you want...why not help to buy wins? Winning tends to bring happiness, which supposedly can't be bought.

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Peter King: The Saints look like the best team in football. The Giants, Colts and Vikings might be too, and Denver and Baltimore and New England ... well, proclaiming a best team is a foolish pursuit on Oct. 5. But if the Saints are the best, I credit a decision Sean Payton made on Jan. 13, sitting by the firepit in his backyard in Louisiana with a cold beer in his hand.
At the time, he really wanted to hire Gregg Williams as his defensive coordinator; Williams had a history of making chicken salad out of chickenshit, and Payton knew his talent on defense was decent but limited, particularly in pressure packages. Payton knew where the Saints' offer was -- a little over one million (I can't be sure precisely what it was) -- but he also knew Williams was on the way to Green Bay after a great visit with the Saints, and he knew the Packers would offer him more than New Orleans did.
"So I had a couple of beers in me,'' Payton told me over the weekend, "and I start thinking, 'I make enough money. We really need this guy. I'm going to offer some of my own money to try to make this happen.' So the next day, I walk into [general manager] Mickey Loomis' office and say, 'Mickey, take $250,000 of my salary, add it onto our offer for Gregg and let's get this thing done right now.' Mickey called [owner] Tom Benson, they discussed it, and they agreed. So we upped the offer.''
One other thing: Payton knew it was important to Williams that he work with his son, Blake, an aspiring football coach who prepped at Princeton, and so the Saints brought him in as an offensive assistant working with the line. Williams saw the welcome mat. He took the three-year coaching offer, and the match has been perfect. "It's the perfect place for me,'' Williams said. "You're allowed to coach the way you coach here, and the only way I know how to coach is to get after the offense every day in practice. I know we give Drew [Brees] fits, and I hope that makes him better, because I know it makes us better, going against him every day.''
So what have the Saints got for their money? Last year, New Orleans was 26th in the league in scoring defense. This year, it's seventh.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Coldneck]

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->The Chicago White Sox have picked up their 2010 option on right-hander Freddy Garcia, sources confirmed for ESPN on Tuesday.

The pitcher's deal includes $1 million in base salary and $2 million in incentives.

Garcia signed as a free agent with the White Sox in June, rejoining the club following his release by the Mets in April. In nine starts for Chicago, Garcia was 3-4 with a 4.34 ERA.

Garcia pitched for Philadelphia in 2007 and Detroit in 2008. Before being traded by the Phillies after the 2007 season, he was 40-21 with a 4.24 ERA in 2½ seasons with the White Sox. He was the winning pitcher in Chicago's 2005 World Series clincher against the Houston Astros and was 3-0 in the postseason. He is 118-77 lifetime with a 4.07 ERA.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->