Posted 9:37 AM by Sean
Some mildly interesting items on the newswire today: the Angels signed Rich Rodriguez to a minor league contract and put Lou Pote on waivers. Pote apparently is hoping to clear waivers and play in Japan after spending the second half of the 2002 season in Triple-A. I'm not sure what the knock on Pote is - in four seasons, he's compiled a career ERA of 3.49, but then again he's only pitched 216.7 innings over those four seasons and will turn 31 this year. Still, a guy who consistently gives you one and two-thirds innings of decent relief should be tempting to at least one of the 30 clubs in the majors (if only he were left-handed, he could write his own ticket). Pote made a comparatively paltry $255,000 last year, so I'm guessing there's some sort of arbitration exposure to whomever signs him (or at least to the Angels if they had kept him), but investigating that would violate my policy of knowing as little as possible about arbitration, waivers, the Rule V draft, or anything else that's done by the people who don't wear the name of their team across their chest when they go to work.

Other tidbits from the newswire include Steve Avery signing with the Tigers, which seems sad but can't really harm either Avery or the Tigers, and the Padres announcing that henceforth their stadium will be known as "Petco Park." Actually, that's not true; the name is actually "PETCO Park," which I hereby re-christen "Unnecessarily Shouting Kibble Merchant Park."