Omar of the Hill People

Well we've landed a Shortstop. He's 37. We signed him for 3 years.

Huh.

New Sabean goal: get an entire lineup of 35+ year-olds.

I mean hey, Bonds is a stud at 40, so obviously, the older a player, the better he is, right?

Isolated, this may not be the disaster it at first appears. The terms of Omar's deal.

2005 2.5 mil
2006 4 mil
2007 4 mil
2008 1 mil deferred
2009 .75 mil deferred

So OK, we're paying 2.5 million this year for a defensive whiz who has a knack of getting on base from time to time. (Career OBP of around.340)

That's not bad.

The big question is ging to be: is he just gonna get old? If the answer is no, then this is a fine deal. Sure, we're all suffering from sticker shock, but would you rather be the Cubs, who inked Neifi for an other tour of duty? (Even as a back-up)

At least we know, now, that Sabean was being totally honest when he said he wanted to improve on our defense. This does just that. It also ensures Code-E Ransom will not see the light of Pac Bell any time soon.

So now there's every indication that we're gonna resign Hermanson to be our closer. That can't be THAT expensive, not like a Percival or Benitez would be.

So maybe, just maybe, we have some money to spend for that outfielder we're hoping for. Or maybe we pull a Yankee and spend some money to get some reliable bullpen help outside of Hermanson (Kline?).

Basically, if this is the sum total of our off-season moves, we're sunk. If it's the beginning of the movement, this might be a decent off-season after all.

We can dream, right?