I caught all but the first few moments of the anti-trust hearings held before the House Judiciary Committee. However while I will most likely comment upon those at length at a later time, I want to spend some time covering the recent flurry of activity after the arbitration articles.

Signings
Steve Karsay and the Yankees have agreed to a 4 year, $23 million deal with a club option for a 5th season. This move should work out very well for both parties.

Following their game 7 experience, New York made improving their bullpen depth an off-season priority. Karsay will be their new righty setup man. He has the skills to close or even start, giving him the appearance of being over-qualified. However, there are other factors to be considered.

Karsay, a native of New York, has suffered from some arm problems in the past. Although he was a candidate to close for other teams, that would most likely put more strain on his arm and could have led to the premature end of his career. Some teams were reported considering signing the righty to start, but his arm would have been a ticking time bomb as a starter.

The setup role he is likely to have with the Yankees is potentially the best possible scenario for maintaining the long-term health of his arm. So while one could write this off as the Yankees continuing to buy whatever bright shiny things they see in the window, it is actually a well-considered purchase. I wish Karsay well in front of his hometown crowd.

Relief pitcher Jason Isringhausen also landed on Friday, in his case with the St. Louis Cardinals. Isringhausen, who has been the A's closer for a little less than the last three years, will be handed the St. Louis closing duties with his 4 year, $27 million deal. Reportedly, the righty received a larger offer (somewhere around $30M/4) from the Texas Rangers, but chose to give the Cardinals a hometown discount. Although he is not from the city itself, Isringhausen grew up in a nearby Illinois town.

St. Louis has gone through a string of closers in the last few years and has not really been pleased with any of them. Hopefully this signing will satiate their desires for the time being, as they have amassed quite a collection of former closers during their search.

The third signing I want to cover today is that of Javy Lopez. Lopez and Atlanta reached a deal on Monday for the Braves to re-sign the catcher for next year at $6 million. I did not think that Javy would be back with the Braves because of new payroll restrictions in Atlanta. However, the short time span of the contract was most likely what made the signing possible for the team. The deal does include a player option for 2003 at $7 million.

This contract has made me curious as to whether or not we will see several players utilizing the Juan Gonzalez strategy of signing a one-year contract to give themselves some extra time to display their skills before they're right back on the market. Given the uncertainty hanging around everything this off-season while contraction is still being discussed and the owners and the players' union work out a new basic agreement, it might become a popular tactic. Of course if too many players jump in the same boat, it will sink next year when the market is flooded.

Trades
Reports of the trade of NY Met Robin Ventura for NY Yankee David Justice started coming in Thursday night. The trade for Ventura shouldn't affect the way in which the Yankees proceed with 3B prospect Drew Henson. Ventura is a gold glove caliber placeholder until Henson reaches the majors permanently sometime between opening day this year and opening day 2003. When his contract expires at the end of 2002, the Yankees can just let him go. Meanwhile, Justice is expendable to the Yankees as they want to improve the quality of their outfield play on offense and defense. His play in right field during the playoffs was atrocious and probably contributed to his departure from the team.

The Mets can use Justice to fill their rather unproductive left field hole. They suffered from a severe lack of offense last year and are hoping that the addition of Justice to the roster will help alleviate that ailment. Hopefully, the off-season will allow the small tear in Justice's groin that hampered him for much of last season to heal. If he's troubled by it again next season, the Mets' playoff chances could become slim to none, depending on their other off-season moves.

In the second trade of the day, Toronto traded closer Billy Koch to the Athletics for two prospects, SP Justin Miller and 3B Eric Hinske. Toronto has been looking to deal Koch for a couple weeks as they have a replacement ready in Kelvim Escobar. Justin Miller's star has fallen from when we observed scouts salivating over his performance in the 2000 Arizona Fall League. However, he should be able to compete for a job in the Toronto rotation next season.

Eric Hinske fits nicely with the rest of the Blue Jays infield prospects: 3B Felipe Lopez, 2B Orlando Hudson, and SS Cesar Izturis. I'd like to see Ricciardi start the four of them together at AAA for half a season before bringing the group as a whole up to the majors. However such coordination would be quite unconventional, so the four prospects will probably hit the majors at various intervals throughout the 2002 season. There is enough talent here just on the cusp of reaching its potential that the team will need to trade some of their currently rostered players to make room.

Koch will fill the closer role left open at the departure of free agent Jason Isringhausen, and the Athletics can afford to deal the prospects. There is a possibility that the team will turn around and trade Koch in a deal for Gary Sheffield, but that is still nothing more than a rumor.

I'm sure the relationship between Toronto's new GM J.P. Ricciardi, former Oakland director of player personnel, and Athletics' GM Billy Beane was useful in completing this deal. Ultimately, it should work well for both sides.

Today I tried to hit the news items at the top of the list. However, I'm not going to ignore the rest of the stories. I'll spend the next several days catching up and covering new events as they happen.