On Tuesday, Colorado gave Randy Dorame the Christmas present of which every Rockies' pitcher dreams when they traded him to San Diego for cash. As a soft tossing lefty, he should be particularly happy to leave the service of the Rockies. Dorame was somewhat of a prospect with LA before he was traded to Colorado in the Tom Goodwin deal. He was on loan to a team in the Mexican League for a portion of his time with the Dodgers, and the Padres are expected to work out a similar deal with a Mexican League team. At 23-years old, he still has a little time left to resurrect his potential, and if he can perform well in the Mexican league, his left-handedness alone might be able to secure him a major league job. However, I think that he has more upside than your average lefty out of the pen, and with only a little bit of instruction, he could still turn into a quality lefty starter.

Pittsburgh traded Gary Matthews, Jr. to the New York Mets for cash on Friday. Matthews, who the Pirates picked up off waivers from the Chicago Cubs last season, gives New York yet another option in the outfield. It's almost as though GM Steve Phillips thinks that if he can add enough fourth outfielders together, he can build his own superstar. Under some circumstances, he might be able to put together a platoon that would equal an above average player but not with the players currently in his collection.

Roger Cedeno is the current cream of the crop and should be a fine starter as long as he returns to the form of his first stint in NY; if he repeats his 2001 performance, he'll be no better than the others. Of the rest of the options, Benny Agbayani is the closest to deserving his starting role. Jay Payton might be able to put together a worthy performance if he could stay healthy but that possibility seems to grow more remote each year.

Matthews would be significantly more useful if one of these guys had a platoon split against lefties, but his own performance against right-handed pitching currently stands between him and more playing time. Matthews can play centerfield, so the team might be best off using him to rest Payton in an effort to avoid another injury this season. Joe McEwing ranks near the top of this group, but his ability to play the infield casts him as a utilityman. Timo Perez has had the least success in the majors, but is also the youngest of the group and so might warrant a larger commitment by the team. Phillips really needs to break down and sign or trade for a top-of-the-line outfielder.

On Thursday, the San Diego Padres signed free agent Alan Embree to a one-year, $500,000 deal. The Padres needed to sign Embree, who has established himself as a good lefty out of the pen, because their primary lefty, Kevin Walker is out for the season due to Tommy John Surgery in early September. Jose Nunez, a 2001 Rule Five pick, is their best current option, so Embree adds balance to a very right-handed staff.

Ruben Sierra signed a one-year contract with the Seattle Mariners worth a reported $1.9 million on Thursday. The switch-hitter demonstrated a good amount of power last year with the Rangers, and the Mariners are looking to play him in LF with Mark McLemore in order to squeeze a little more production out of the position. He should be acceptable in that role, but given his age, I think it wise that Seattle didn't give him a longer contract.

This signing makes it all the more likely that the Mariners will be looking to find a new home for David Bell, who wisely accepted Seattle's offer of arbitration. Bell's traditional home at 3B has been filled by the recently acquired Jeff Cirillo, and LF is well covered with the McLemore/Sierra platoon.

Most feel that Bell will ultimately be traded to Colorado, where his father is the manager and the position at 3B has recently been vacated by Cirillo's departure. However, I'm not sure that would be the best move for the Rockies. Bell is going to have an arbitration-inflated one-year contract, and I can't see any reason for the team to pursue an expensive short-term patch.

Tim and I have been watching the Colorado catching situation closely since Ben Petrick broke into the majors. Given his skills and location, we thought that he should quickly establish himself as one of the best offensive catchers in the league. What we didn't take into consideration was that his defensive skills behind the plate as a catcher would be so poor that the Rockies wouldn't give him enough playing time to demonstrate his gifts in front of the dish.

Since Colorado is actively looking for another catcher to take the majority of time behind the plate, it might be time to consider a change of positions for Petrick, which brings me back to why I started this tangent.

The Rockies need a third baseman. Petrick's bat, especially in the thin air, should provide enough production for him to fill the opening, and it would be an opportunity for him to show off his stuff without the pressure of catching.

In STATS 2000 Minor League Scouting Notebook, John Sickels comments that Petrick "moves like a shortstop behind the plate and has a strong arm." His main defensive problems as a catcher seem to stem from an inability to catch a pitched ball and some inaccuracy when attempting to throw out runners, so it seems that he should be able to handle third base defensively. I don't know how successful the experiment would be long-term, but it has to be a better option than giving up anything to acquire an overpaid David Bell.