62.3- Chico, You Had ONE Job...

[chicoruiz]

It seemed like it was going to be so easy. What happened?

After Tyler Ober left, I had an opening at first base. Except, not really at first base, because last year's DH, Michael Pedarzolli, is more than capable of playing first, so really, all I needed was a bat; a big bat who could hit in the middle of the order and supply some much needed power. He could play any position. I had money and salary cap room. Should be a piece of cake, right?

Except it never quite came together.

The thing about big bats is, other teams like them too, so not many of them ever hit the open market. I made an offer to the one I liked, but was outbid. And what's left on the shelf is pretty much scratch and dent models, who still want to be paid like superstars.

So I checked in on the trade market. There are guys out there, but everyone rightly wants good prospects, and it's hard for me to surrender them... it's just not in my DNA.

So far, the best I've been able to do is to sign a guy named Joe Jackson. Not the British rocker, and not the patriarch of the Jackson family, this guy is a 26-year-old free agent who was most recently with Omaha. He's never had more than 276 plate appearance in a season, but he can hit .300, play a good first base or a decent OF, and even steal some bases. But if he's a middle-of-the-order bat I'm King George the Third.

I've managed to console myself for this failure by signing some decent bullpen help and a couple of teenaged shortstop phenoms from the international market, but my failure to land a cleanup hitter when I had everything lined up is still haunting me. So I'll keep perusing the available free agents and even dipping my toe into trade talks. Or maybe Joe Jackson will turn out to be a cleanup hitter, which I guess would mean I am, in fact, King George the Third. Those pesky colonies...

[JRamirez]

Who did you want?

[BaseClogger]

Ober should have been a third baseman. He was blocked by Rivera in San Fernando.