As expected, Pokey Reese's stay with the Colorado Rockies was very brief. He was acquired by the Rockies on Tuesday and traded to the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday for catcher Scott Hatteberg.

Colorado has been searching for a catcher to take playing time away from Ben Petrick, a potentially solid offensive player whose defensive failings have become unacceptable to the club. Hatteberg was a good candidate for that role. However, the two parties were unable to come to an agreement on a contract for 2002 during the approximately 36 hours available before the yearly deadline for teams to tender players' contracts, and GM Dan O'Dowd chose to non-tender the catcher, leaving them with nothing to show for the trade. The Rockies will still be able to negotiate with Hatteberg, but he is now a free agent and could just as easily return to Boston.

You would think that it would be easy to identify the winner in a trade where one side fails to hold onto the only player they receive in the deal, but you really shouldn't make hasty decisions. Let's first look at what Pokey brings to the Red Sox.

No one will quibble with the infielder's defense; his back-to-back Gold Gloves in 1999 and 2000 have established him as one of the top 2B defenders. He should provide a significant defensive improvement over Jose Offerman and Chris Stynes at 2B for the Sox. Pokey is also defensibly capable of playing SS, which would allow Nomar Garciaparra a bit of rest.

Reese also has earned a noteworthy base-stealing reputation. The overall number of bases stolen by Pokey decreased a little in 2001, but that appears to be the simple result of fewer opportunities as he has the third best career stolen base percentages of any active major leaguer. Boston manager Joe Kerrigan has already announced that the Red Sox will attempt an increased number of stolen bases next season.

However, as with all speedy players, Reese must first be on base before he can steal a base, and his other offensive skills are few and far between. The infielder's strike zone judgment, which has always been poor, continued to fall last season. Pokey's BA and OBP suffered corresponding hits. His power numbers held, but they never inspired excitement in the first place. Unless Reese can acquire some plate discipline, he will quickly become a sizable hole in the Sox's offense.

Teams had good reasons to reconsider their 2000 interest in Pokey, and while you probably can't argue that Colorado comes out on top in this deal, I wanted to begin my analysis with a statement that would be a severe contrast to the widely-held opinion that Dan Duquette just pulled off a steal of a deal. Although Reese does appear to merit a return greater than nothing, the salary he will most likely be awarded by arbiters enamored with his speed and defense will probably be far larger than he deserves.

In other Red Sox news, Boston agreed to a one-year deal with Tony Clark that will pay the first baseman a reported $5 million. Clark was picked up off waivers from Detroit in November and would have been eligible for arbitration if the two sides had failed to come to an agreement. Yesterday in Your Daily Fantasy Rx, Tim made several interesting points about Clark's offense and predicted he could have a very productive season in 2002. I tend to agree, although he will have to stay healthy to be worth this contract.

John Burkett's contract with the Sox was also announced on Thursday. The RHP signed a deal worth a reported $11 million over the next two years. Although there were numerous rumors predicting that Burkett would sign with Boston during the first few days of the winter meetings, many thought that any chance of a deal disappeared when the Sox traded for Dustin Hermanson. As recently as Wednesday the Red Sox were even denying the existence of a deal despite conflicting statements from Burkett's agent. Baseball Prospectus has an interesting article relating to that back and forth.

Now that he has signed, Burkett will pitch in the middle of the Boston rotation. While his presence is probably not strictly necessary for the success of the team, he will be a useful player to have available, especially in case of injury to one or more of the other starters.

Before I wrap up this section, I should also note that all of these wonderful players will soon be the property of a new ownership group lead by Florida Marlins owner John Henry and former San Diego Padres owner Tom Werner. Representatives of the Yawkey Trust, which currently owns the club, accepted the group's bid on Thursday, and the sale will be a done deal as soon as 75% of the owners vote in favor of it.

Henry is expected to sell the Marlins to Montreal Expos' owner Jeffery Loria. MLB would then purchase the Expos and either appoint a representative to run the club until such a time as an acceptable buyer could be found or contract the team.

Elsewhere on Thursday, Red Sox free agent Hideo Nomo signed a two-year, $13 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nomo spent most of the first four years of his career with LA, before the Mets traded for him in 1998. He put up his best numbers during his Dodger years, and although his effectiveness fluctuated for a few years after the trade as he bounced around, he returned to his peak levels in 2001.

I expect him to maintain his current level of proficiency, while pitching as the Dodgers' likely #2 starter. He seems to be very comfortable with the return to his old team, and Dodger Stadium does good things for almost all pitchers. LA should easily receive their money's worth, and with Darren Dreifort out for the year, the staff can definitely use another solid veteran since they have very little depth.

Jeff D'Amico was among several pitchers signing new contracts on Thursday. The Brewers gave him a $1.84 million one-year deal. If healthy, he should pitch at the top of the Milwaukee rotation in 2002. D'Amico should be completely recovered from last season's surgery, but health has always been a serious issue for the righty, so a new problem could crop up at any time.

We now come to what is by far Thursday's worst signing and the latest in a string of bad decisions that have put Atlanta in the lead for this off-season's Cam Bonifay Trophy. Albie Lopez signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the Braves. While I will admit that Lopez pitched better than a cursory look at last year's numbers will show and that Atlanta did have some use for established starter, their $4M should have been spent elsewhere.

What the Braves really could have used was an inexpensive bottom of the rotation starter to eat some innings and take up any slack caused by the growing pains of young starters Jason Marquis and Odalis Perez. At this price and with his recognizable potential, Lopez will likely force one of those two pitchers to the bullpen. It never makes sense to prioritize the development of a 30-year-old above that of players several years younger.

The Braves should have spent this money and the cash wasted on Vinny Castilla to sign a real first baseman. Instead their best 1B option will be Julio Franco, who the club recently signed to a minor league deal and invited to spring training.

Free agent Eddie Perez was also signed to a minor league deal and invited to spring training. He will be lucky to see any playing time above AA, unless Atlanta trades Paul Bako or suffers an injury to one of the three catchers currently on the 40-man roster.

I should probably devote an entire article to arbitration-related items, but for now I'm just going to comment upon the decisions of Barry Bonds, Bret Boone, and David Bell to accept arbitration. When I make my recommendations after 2002 as to the players to which clubs should offer arbitration, I will definitely have to take into consideration the number of B's in a player's name while calculating the risk in a player accepting the offer.

Just to give you some background information before we start, players that have declined arbitration still have until January 8th to negotiate with their club whose offer they have declined. Players that have accepted arbitration will not go immediately before an arbiter. Free agent arbitration hearings normally start sometime in February and some don't take place until the middle of Spring Training, so players and teams still have over a month to try to negotiate a contract before a hearing takes place.

I strongly believe that Bonds and the Giants will be able to work out a multi-year deal before they have to go to arbitration. Both parties have a vested interest in working something out. Even if they do go to arbitration, I'm not sure that Bonds will stick it to them. After one of the top few offensive seasons of all time, there is little doubt that Bonds will win in arbitration. He doesn't want to stick the club with an enormous one-year deal that will force them to weaken the team by making payroll cuts to accommodate its size. Winning is still his top priority. With this in mind, I doubt that Barry will ask for anything more than $20M. However, if I was San Francisco, I would be very careful not to say anything that might upset him and lead to a higher award.

The Seattle Mariners had both Bret Boone and David Bell accept arbitration. Bret Boone's acceptance is not all that big a problem. They never really intended him to sign with another team. His career year will probably inspire the arbitration panel to award him a very pricey one-year deal, but the Mariners should be able to afford it.

Bell's decision is the real problem for Seattle. Not only did they have no intention to re-sign Bell, they have already acquired his replacement in the superior Jeff Cirillo. Given the number of All-Star votes Bell was able to garner, he also should be able to talk an arbitration board into granting him large sums of money. The only thing the Mariners can really do to salvage the situation would be to stick Bell in LF to start the season and then shop him around to whatever club will take on his salary.