wednesday news

It seems that Keith Foulke will join the Cleveland Indians next season. Foulke has struggled because of injuries but in 2006 his ERA+ was of 106 in 49 innings. The AL Central may quickly be taking over as the dominant division of the American League. They have the past two ALCS winners and have four legitimate contenders. They've lost Brown and Kouzmanoff in the trade for Josh Barfield, and they've also signed four above average relievers Joe Borowski (2006: 115 ERA+), Aaron Fultz (2006: 102 ERA+) and Roberto Hernandez (2006: 143 ERA+) . They added 3 relievers with closing experience to help out a bullpen that had to suffer through 3 blown saves (and 4 losses) from Fausto Carmona in one week after trading Bob Wickman.

The other addition they made to their offense, along with 2B Barfield, was outfielder David Dellucci, who is a left-handed hitter who specializes against righties and last year had an OPS+ of 125+. It looks like they'll live with Victor Martinez's defensive deficiencies at catcher to make room for Ryan Garko at 1st base. I actully received Dealing: The Cleveland Indians New Ballgame for Christmas to read all about Mark Shapiro, I'll let everyone know how good it is.

The Angels may be pulling out of the Helton negotiations now that they've agreed to a deal with Shea Hillenbrand, possibly for $6.5 million. This guy put up a total VORP of 5.1 last season! 5.1! And he's mostly a DH! He had an OPS+ of 93! If you look at last year's stats it easily makes him one of the worse signings of an already bad off-season, but at least it's only a one year commitment. Remember when I mentioned the bad luck of Juan Rivera's injury? Well, they mention that it's one of the reasons they picked up Hillenbrand. Not sure how this works out though because they're essentially taking at-bats away from some good young players like Quinlan and Kotchman and giving them to Hillenbrand. And of course, the clubhouse chemistry will be so much better now...

• Verducci on SI has his list of 10 players that should breakout this year, good read...has one name from the past for Jays fans...Chad Gaudin.