[Westheim]

February 3 – 33-yr old ex-OCT LF Wes McCormick (.271, 132 HR, 533 RBI) signs a 2-yr, $1.46M contract with the Condors.
February 4 – The Titans land OF Pedro Flores (.267, 16 HR, 396 RBI). The 37-year old, well-traveled Dominican signs a 2-yr, $1.98M contract.
February 4 – $270k lands the Condors 1B Jose Valenzuela (.279, 85 HR, 526 RBI) for one year. He spent 2007 with the Rebels.
February 6 – The Pacifics add 30-yr old ex-TIJ SP Curt Powell (66-68, 4.31 ERA) for 2-yr, $2.58M.
February 9 – Another addition in Boston, as 35-yr old ex-DEN 1B/2B Dave Heffer (.292, 50 HR, 795 RBI) is signed to a 1-yr, $880k deal. Heffer already played for the Titans in 2006.
February 12 – The Canadiens are going to spend $3.6M over the next two years for ex-CIN RF/LF Dan Morris (.320, 362 HR, 1,367 RBI). Morris is the active leader in career home runs, and overall trails only all-time slugger king Raúl Vázquez (416 HR), who is still looking for another engagement at age 41.
February 14 – The Raccoons land international free agent SP Jong-hoo Umberger, a 29-year old right-hander, for $3M over three years.
February 18 – The Crusaders add 33-yr old INF Bob Butler (.263, 126 HR, 644 RBI), who will make $720k in 2008.
February 21 – The last first-rate free agent is signed. 27-year old ex-SFW CF Earl Clark (.303, 53 HR, 431 RBI) is added by the Cyclones for 1-yr, $1.66M.
February 23 – The Canadiens sign MR Bill Corkum (42-43, 2.75 ERA, 199 SV) to a $254k deal.
March 4 – The Pacifics sign ex-LVA 1B Albert Martin (.283, 145 HR, 537 RBI) to a 1-yr, $212k contract.
March 25 – Ex-NAS RF Cristo Ramirez (.325, 69 HR, 1,233 RBI) signs a 1-yr, $310k contract with the Indians. Ramirez, 38, only needs 95 base hits to reach the career record mark by Dale Wales.

The turn Al Martin’s career took when we dropped him for Quebell saddens me to an unimaginable extent. I always liked him. I don’t like Quebell.

Prices drop in February. Umberger would have gotten $5M in January from me, when he wanted $9M. Now he had to settle for $3M because there were still no other potent suitors around. You can get along with a $1M mis-investment, but when you put $1.8M into - … well, that’s what Dominguez got last year and look how happy he made us. (grimly holds a survival knife onto Honeypaws’ throat)

Depending on whether he’s gonna kill it or get killed, our rotation will be one to drool over. If he gets killed, we still have semi-decent options. If anybody among our top 5 gets hurt, we will have Baldwin, Boda, Teasdale, even the chumps Webster and Carpenter in the quiver, and then there’s still another semi-decent guy in Cesar Lopez in AAA, and we have a very promising almost-20-year old in Ham Lake in righty Hector Santos, who was 5-11 with a 3.38 ERA in 22 starts last year, with 60 BB and 98 K in 133 IP. In A-ball, before that, he was 4-1 with a 2.15 ERA in nine starts, whiffing 66 against 20 walks.

We waived Yoshi Yamada to get Umberger onto the 40-man roster. Nobody wanted a piece of him. No surprise there.