The Mariners, apparently tired of acquiring 31-year-olds with little or no possibility of improvement, traded RHP Carter Capps to the Marlins for 26-year-old 1B/OF Logan Morrison. There is room for improvement, even though his best season was at age 23. Would he be an improvement over incumbent 1B Justin Smoak, who finally seemed to have a clue in September about hitting major league pitching? Would either Morrison or 31-year-old free agent OF/1B Corey Hart be capable of playing outfield defense with three bad knees between them, carting around 480 pounds of ballplayer? Hart, a two-time All-Star, missed all of this season because of microfracture surgery on both knees. Perhaps the answer to the questions above is that Miami was willing to take a reliever with a 5.49 ERA for Morrison. (And don't tell me anything about ERA+ or win shares for Capps; he wasn't a good pitcher by any measure in 2013.)
Hey, at least Hart and Morrison cost a fraction of what 31-year-old 2B Robinson Cano will.
The only other moves in the last couple of days:
-- The Tigers gave one-trick-pony OF Rajai Davis $10 million for 2 years to platoon in LF with OF Andy Dirks.
-- The Pirates gave RHP Charlie Morton a new 3-year, $21-million contract through 2016, with a team option for '17. Morton was probably the greatest beneficiary of Pittsburgh's new emphasis on shifting its defense for almost every batter.
-- The Rangers made official a 1-year contract with free-agent C J.P. Arencibia.
-- The busy-with-the-little-stuff Marlins confirmed their 2-year contract with free-agent 1B/OF Garrett Jones.
-- Almost forgot. The Mets agreed on a 2-year, $20-million contract with RHP Bartolo Colon, pending a physical. What? Are they afraid he might not be in shape?
RHP Roy Halladay returned to his roots, signing a 1-day contract with the Blue Jays before announcing his retirement. I've seen a lot of support for Halladay as a Hall of Famer, but I'm not so sure. Doc had some great years, but interspersed with those were a succession of injuries and some bad seasons. It wasn't just a Greg Maddux 6-15 or whatever it was rookie season with a bad team followed by lights-out season after lights-out season. What Halladay, a great pitcher, lacked was reliability.
I'll be sending my thoughts about the AFL Top Prospects later.
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Football. I took a 25-point lead in the first of two rounds in my scoring-plus-yardage ESPN league consolation semifinal. I've made some preliminary minor moves for this week, with more possible Thursday. In the scoring-only Andy Memorial Football League I got 1 point out of QB Matthew Stafford (for a 2-point conversion pass). In the same snowy game, my opponent received 10 from Eagles QB Nick Foles. That was enough for me to lose by 1 point, 33-25. That knocked me two games behind the co-leaders with three games left. I'm in a tie for third place, but would lose a tiebreaker. There are something like five teams one game behind us. So I'm figuring that I'll need to win all three weeks (possibly two) to get into the top-division playoffs during the NFL postseason.
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Hockey. I'm mismanaging my goalies again. Here's my current story. On Saturday afternoon, I got to watch in person as Flyers goalie Steve Mason allowed 3 goals in 1:02 against the Stars. My thinking at the time was that Mason has been playing somewhat over his head. Even though he had made a number of outstanding stops (25 saves in two periods), that barrage seemed to be the type of thing that could damage his confidence. Confident goalies are like confident closers; if they're not confident, you can't count on them. I gave Mason another chance Monday, but he gave up four goals again -- to Ottawa!
At the same time, I was figuring it was no longer prudent to keep riding Toronto G James Reimer. To replace him, I picked up tried-and-true free agent Martin Brodeur. So I started Brodeur Tuesday, and he gave up five goals! He's no longer on my team. I've now added Jonas Gustavsson from the Red Wings. Hope he doesn't give up six goals in his first start for me.
Bottom line: I lost 3 more points, mostly in the goalie categories. I'm still in third place, but now much closer to fourth place than second.
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Basketball. After Monday, I was 0-7-1, with a tie in steals. I realized that I had only one player -- Victor Oladipo, who didn't play very well -- active that night. My opponent had three players -- including Stephen Curry, who went for 40-some points.
On Tuesday, I had eight or nine players in action; he again had three. So now I'm ahead 6-1-1. We're still tied in steals, and I'm behind by only one assist. The other head-to-head competiti0ons are pretty close, so if the results stay the same, I'd move up only to seventh place. But I'd be over .500 and within five games of the lead.
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