The Hot Stove So Far

The offseason so far:

• Indians sign Japanese reliever Masahide Kobayashi. The price was right ($6 million for 2 years with a club option for a third). If it works, great. If it doesn't, we haven't lost much money.
• Indians pick up options for Byrd, Fultz, Borowski. Again, the price was right.
• Eric Wedge - manager of the year. Well-deserved
• Grady Sizemore wins Gold Glove. Good thing they don't parse the outfield awards by position. He's good, but Torii Hunter wins a centerfield GG.
• Mark Shapiro, Executive of the Year. Also well-deserved.
• Juan Lara injured in car accident. Extremely sad. How fast must that motorcycle have been going. Best wishes for recovery, Juan.
• Indians protect Adam Miller, Reid Santos, Wyatt Torregas, Scott Lewis and Tony Sipp from Rule 5 draft by placing them on 40-man roster. No surprises here.
• White Sox overpay reliever Scott Linebrink and trade Jon Garland for Orlando Cabrera. Seriously, how does Kenny Williams keep his job? These are awful moves. However, as long as the White Sox are under the delusion that they don't have to blow the team up and rebuild, they're likely to post 7o win seasons, and that's fine with me.
• Detroit Tigers send good young pitching to Atlanta for Edgar Renteria. Sure, this allows them to move Carlos Guillen to first base where he won't be hurting the team (or himself, for that matter) defensively, they're going to miss that good young pitching sooner than they think. Kenny Rogers might not be back and Zumaya is already out. I'm not saying the Tigers are old, but the new team motto is "Hey, you, get off our lawn!"
• A-Rod resigns with Yankees. Yawn.
• Lowell resigns with Red Sox. Yawn
• Francisco Cordero signs with Reds. Great, now they're poised to make a run at fourth in the NL Central. Who pitches the 6th, 7th and 8th?
• Kerry Wood resigns with Cubs. Yawn.
• Brewers sign Jason Kendall after trading Jonny Estrada for Guillermo Mota. Estrada must really have been awful for a team to be excited about putting Kendall behind the plate. He's a shadow of his former self. Good think he's back playing in AAAA ball.
• Phillies acquire Brad Lidge and Eric Bruntlett for Michael Bourne and a couple prospects. I'm hard pressed to see how this makes Houston any better. I think they could have got more for Lidge if they'd held out a little longer.

In other sports:

• Holy cow, the Browns are 7-4, and if their season ended today they'd make the playoffs. Someone check Hades for snow. I have to admit that I'm really surprised. The offensive line has gelled, Derek Anderson made the Great Leap Forward, and Jamal Lewis still has something left in the tank.
• In what alternate universe does Anderson Verajao make $10 million/year? Now he wants traded. Who would give him the money he seeks. Sorry, Sideshow Bob. At least he gets to sit out the season in Brazil.
• How 'bout them Blue Jackets? They might actually be playoff contenders this year. It's about time. If anyone had doubts that Ken Hitchcock is a miracle worker, this may put them to rest.