Sorry for the delay this morning, I've caught a bug. Anyway, as there is still little news from the Rockies front -all the Denver papers have moved on to another trade, apparently- I thought today would be a good day to catch upon what our competition has been doing the last week or so. Let's start with San Diego, which has united the brothers Giles in their hometown. Marcus is a tricky one to project, his power has dropped off a cliff since his breakout 2004, but he seems a promising candidate to have it bounce back. In my mind he's a slightly smaller gamble than Kaz Matsui, and the Padres have Todd Walker playing their version of Jamey Carroll to fall back on. The other significant signing by San Diego was to retain the services of reliever Doug Brocail.
The Padres also picked up another early draft pick yesterday when Ryan Klesko bolted to San Francisco. The Giants got Klesko to be their DH, apparently. Or, maybe the fact that Barry Bonds hasn't signed a contract or taken a physical yet is concerning them just a smidgen.
The Diamondbacks seem to be planning on entering the season in experimentation mode in regards to their lineup and rotation. Really, they still aren't ready to put up their strongest challenge in 2007, so this year would be a good one to take advantage of that before they get really strong offensively in the next few seasons.
Finally, Los Angeles still hasn't found a taker for Brad Penny as they search for a way to make their lineup as potent as their rotation figures to be, but they are the team most circulated in the gossip mill whenever a big player is supposed to be on the block. This extends to their already packed rotation as well, as the Dodgers were one of several NL West teams linked to the brief Randy Johnson trade speculation earlier this week. That particular rumor seemed more sportswriter fantasy than anything substantial. I'll put up the Pedro Strop profile later today (it'll be easy since I already kind of did the bio in front of the Rule 5 draft) but that might be it for today.