Well, actually on the day before, the White Sox claimed Ryan Kohlmeier off waivers. Kohlmeier's availability on waivers comes as a bit of a surprise since Baltimore should have been able to acquire something in trade for their one-time closer. True, his closing adventures didn't really end well, but normally any pitcher with a half-dozen saves will garner some interest. If he's handled carefully and tutored under a good pitching coach, the White Sox could have a useful set-up man on their hands or at least some tasty trade bait.

The White Sox also reacquired Brian Simmons through waivers from Toronto and DFA'd Herbert Perry. Simmons went from Chicago to the Blue Jays in the six-player David Wells/Mike Sirotka deal last winter. He has a chance to make the team in the spring only if they move Chris Singleton. The outfielder played poorly for the Jays in 2001 and did not play at all in 2000 due to injury.

The Herbert Perry transaction stems from the fact that the Sox appear ready to start Joe Crede full time at third base. The White Sox have an enormous amount of talent in their club, but they need to improve their handling of it.

For example, Jose Valentin is a far superior SS to Royce Clayton, who although he turned it around in the second half of the season, started out wretchedly in 2001. Valentin's superiority comes in the form of not only his better offensive skills but from his exceptional fielding ability as well. Clayton has a higher fielding percentage, but that is because he gets to far fewer balls than Valentin. Jose helps the young White Sox pitchers a lot more than someone like Clayton since Valentin prevents many base hits; the Sox shouldn't pay much attention to his higher error totals. Given this, it weakened the team to add Clayton to the roster and move Valentin to the OF.

A much more intelligent action to take would have been to sign another outfielder, preferably a mid-level bat with above average defense in centerfield as Singleton does not belong playing full-time in the majors. Joe Borchard will arrive soon from the minor, and while he has the capacity to play centerfield, he fits better as a corner OF guy. Aaron Rowand was up at the end of 2001 and the organization would like it if he could learn to play center without running into too many walls. Since this probably won't occur, long term Rowand should probably wind up as a good 4th outfielder.

If they sign a quality centerfielder, they can have Magglio Ordonez in right and Borchard in left, Paul Konerko at 1B, Ray Durham at second for now (with some kind of interim until they know how well Tim Hummel will work), and Joe Crede at 3B. Everyone has heard of the amount of pitching talent the club has, and there's no reason for them not to win a pennant or two if they can improve their roster management skills.

Tuesday, the first day that free agents could "officially" speak to new clubs about money, St. Louis signed Mike DiFelice. The Cardinals already have two fairly good catchers in Eli Marrero and defensive wonder Mike Matheny. DiFelice, who had his major league debut with the Cardinals in 1996 before Tampa took him in the expansion draft, will likely be third in line at catcher. The backstop ran into some trouble with the law near the end of last season when he was involved in a nightclub brawl and was suspended by the Arizona Diamondbacks. The $800,000 one year contract seems more than a little high for a player with so little upside and so much risk.

The Cardinals also lost speedster Esix Snead on waivers to the Mets. The 25 year old AA outfielder is extremely fast running the bases, but lacks the skills necessary to get on base to demonstrate his speed. Unless their hitting coach can work some kind of magic with Snead, the best New York can likely hope for is a superb pinch runner.

Pittsburgh's Mike Fetters is demanding a trade after the Dodgers dealt him in the middle of his long-term deal. If the Pirates cannot or do not trade him, he will become a free agent. Fetters was the Pittsburgh closer for the first few weeks after he arrived, however Lloyd McClendon started using a committee by the end of the year. With his departure, the Pirates should look to sign or trade for a closer as their only internal options are injury-prone Jose Silva and soft-tossing Mike Lincoln. This decision will probably backfire for Fetters, as no clubs are expected to trade for a middle reliever making $2.4 million when pitchers of equivalent value (and less girth) are available for 5% of that as minor league free agents. Fetters will likely not receive anywhere close to his current salary as a free agent in the spring. He must just really loathe Pittsburgh.

Rick Reed has also requested a trade. In September, it seemed likely that Reed would choose to stay with the Twins after being traded from the Mets. He was unhappy about leaving New York and performed below his career standards as a Twin, but as the Mets had no desire to reverse this deal, rumors indicated that he might stay in Minnesota.

The pitcher maintains that the contraction situation in the Twin City area has nothing to do with his request, however that seems highly questionable. As a replacement player during the strike of 1994-95, he is ineligible to join the union and could be in a tighter spot than almost any other player if he were on a contracted team.

Reed is a solid starting pitcher with a few good years left in him, the Twins should not have much trouble trading him for a decent outfielder. Potential trade partners include Cincinnati, Colorado, Philadelphia and perhaps Texas. There are numerous teams looking for help with starting pitching, the trick will be to find one that can both afford Reed's contract and give Minnesota good value in return.