Houston avoided their last potential arbitration hearing this week, signing Julio Lugo to a one-year, $1.575M contract. Lugo is the Astros starting shortstop heading into Spring Training and will likely break camp in that capacity, though Luis Vizcaino and Adam Everett will have an opportunity to compete for the position.

A sore shoulder and bruised foot held Lugo back last spring, and a strained groin cost him a week in June before he went out for the season with a broken forearm in August. However, when he was healthy his plate discipline remained essentially unchanged from the previous season, he displayed better baserunning skills, and a little less power, though that could easily have been related to his injuries. The 27-year-old won't be a particularly good offensive player until he improves either his walk or contact rates, and I'd prefer to have a stronger starter and use him as a bench player, but he's acceptable as a starter. Lugo will have the chance to earn an additional $75,000 in incentives in 2003.

RHP Anthony Telford signed a minor league deal with Houston in early February. Telford spent last season with the Rangers, splitting the year between the majors and AAA. The 36-year-old reliever has displayed decent skills in the past, but he developed troubling command problems last season and won't deserve another extended stint in the majors until he's rebounded. However given his age, he seems more likely to fade towards retirement than to return to recover his missing skills, so I don't expect him to see significant time in Houston's pen.

Bruce Chen lost his arbitration case with Cincinnati, so he will make $700,000 in 2003 rather than the $830,000 he was seeking. As a reliever, Chen doesn't have the same earning power he'd possess if the Reds were using him in the rotation. He'll probably nominally be in the competition for a rotation spot this spring, but the 25-year-old will almost certainly return to the bullpen for the majority of the 2003 season. Chen retains the skills to start, but he may not receive another extended opportunity to use those skills until he hits free agency. Luckily, he should still be fairly young at that point. Until then, he'll provide Cincinnati with a solid left-handed reliever, though I wouldn't be surprised if he's traded again before the season ends.

Cincinnati has signed a few more players to minor league deals, including OF-L Jacob Cruz, LHP Jose Rosado, and RHP Wascar Serrano. Cruz was plagued by injury trouble last season and finally went out for the year in July after surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow. After dipping slightly in 2001, his plate discipline rebounded last year, while he also displayed some power improvement and better baserunning skills. If healthy the 30-year-old could be a very solid reserve outfielder, though I don't see a lot of openings for playing time on the Reds.

Jose Rosado missed all of last season with lingering arm problems. He underwent surgery in June of 2000 to repair a torn labrum and then again in May of 2001. Unfortunately, there's a good chance that if he continues to pitch the problem will recur, but he displayed sufficient promise prior to his arm troubles that teams will take chances on him for the next few years as long as he wants to try to keep pitching. However, I think if he breaks onto the Reds pitching staff he'll probably hit the DL shortly thereafter.

San Diego signed Serrano out of the Dominican Republic as a nondrafted free agent in 1995 and traded him to Seattle with Ben Davis and Alex Arias for Tom Lampkin, Brett Tomko, Ramon Vazquez and cash following the 2001 season. He hasn't been able to maintain decent command as a starter, so the 25-year-old should spend his career as a reliever. However even as a reliever he still needs to improve before he's ready to make a consistent contribution in the majors, so he should spend most of 2003 at the Reds AAA affiliate.

Both OF-R Charles Gipson and SS-S Felix Martinez have signed minor league contracts with the Cubs. Gipson has displayed solid plate discipline and decent speed during his time as a AAA outfielder, but he doesn't have any special skills to put him over the top in a competition for playing time. Consequently, the 30-year-old will likely spend the majority of the season in AAA and only receive a cup-of-coffee after the Cubs have run through a few other reserve outfielders.

Kansas City purchased Felix Martinez, a native of the Dominican Republic, from a Japanese team in 1993, but lost him on waivers to the Phillies after the 1999 season. Philadelphia in turn lost him to the Devil Rays in April of 2000. As a free agent last season, Martinez split the season between the Royals' AA affiliate and the Dodgers' AAA affiliate. At AA, he displays decent plate discipline and some speed skills. However as soon as he reaches even AAA his contact rate drops and he becomes an ineffective offensive player. I see no reason for him to spend any time on the Cubs roster in 2003 and suspect the 28-year-old probably won't see much time in the majors again barring a substantial improvement in his skills.