News Roundup: Mackowiak, Eckstein, Floyd Sign

-P- Kip Wells to the Rockies - now there's a match made in heaven.

-P- The Nats signed Rob Mackowiak and Willie Harris to big-league deals. Harris is exclusively an outfielder and Mackowiak has played outfield almost exclusively since leaving the Pirates, so I'm not sure where the Nationals are going with this - they've already got about twelve trillion outfielders, including about 18 who are better than Harris (who, last May and June, is pretty much worthless) and Mackowiak. Maybe the Nats are trying to send Ryan Langerhans to the Giants for Tim Lincecum or something.

-P- David Eckstein has signed with the Jays for - and I can't believe this - one year and $4.5 million. How is it possible that Eckstein and his clutchy fiery scrapiness (and, all snark aside, his good on-base skills and glove) can't get more than $4.5 million in a market like this? There aren't any good shortstops left on the market. The Orioles have Luis Hernandez and Freddie Bynum at the top of their depth chart. Adam Everett, a better fielder than Eckstein but a terrible hitter, just signed with the Twins. The Cardinals, for some reason, seem to be going with Cesar Izturis as their starter. The Giants are still trotting Omar Vizquel out there. What gives? If this weren't David Eckstein, I'd suspect steroid rumors.

-P- The Rays signed Cliff Floyd to a one-year deal. Floyd was decent in a part-time role with the Cubs last year, and I was kind of surprised to look at Tampa's roster and see that they're pretty thin on outfielders, but adding yet another guy who can't field probably won't help them much.

-P- The Bucs have signed several players to minor league contracts: catcher Raul Chavez, second baseman Luis Rivas, and shortstops Luis Cruz and Jorge Velandia. Cruz is relatively young but can't hit at all; Velandia was with Indianapolis a couple years ago and has done little to distinguish himself since then. The famous guys are Rivas, who was once the Twins' second baseman of the future but was so bad he earned the nickname "0-for-3vas," and Chavez, who backed up Brad Ausmus for several years and spent last year hitting .221 for the Yankees' AAA team in Scranton. Hey, these are just minor-league signings - you get was you pay for.