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A couple rounds to get your Black Friday going…

• Well now, the Angels all surprised us now, didn’t they? Torii Hunter for 5 years, 90 million? All I have to say is, “wow!” In this day of media, a team rarely flies under the radar and lands a big name. Taking money out of the equation (hey it’s not my money!), this signing makes the Angels immediately better for next year. Five years from now may be a different story, but hopefully FCP can be around long enough to discuss it. With Mathews shifting to a corner spot, and Anderson (and occasionally Vlad) moving to DH, this strengthens the defense and gives another bat to a punchless lineup. As I’ve written before, I don’t think Hunter was the best center fielder available (Andruw Jones), but he does make this team better.

• The Hunter signing has huge ramifications on a potential deal for Miguel Cabrera. Now, after the Garland acquisition, the Angels have six major league quality pitchers and some outfield depth to deal with Reggie Willits (How perfect of a fit is he in Florida?) now out of a starting job. Of course, they could go in a different direction and deal for a shortstop. It’s thoughts like this that make the hot stove league so much fun.

• Apparently, Ken Williams (White Sox GM) doesn’t read FCP as he signed Scott Linebrink to a 4 year, 19 million dollar deal. The money doesn’t bother me, but if you read our feature on the 3 most common Free agency mistakes, you would know that one is signing overworked, free agent middle relievers to long term deals. Linebrink began his fade last year which led to his trade to the Brewers. Perhaps he gets a short-term boost with a move to the AL, but I don’t like this one at all.

• News out of Minnesota has the Twins talking with Johan Santana regarding a deal. Supposedly the Twins offered a 5 year, $93 million dollar offer, and Santana is rumored to have countered with a $125 million dollar offer. If true, the Twins should spend some of that revenue sharing money or open up the bank vault to sign that one. Johan will easily get close to $200 million dollars if he his the market. Remember, Barry Zito got $150 million last year.

• The Brewers did ink catcher Jason Kendall as we thought to a one year deal. For one year, that’s not a huge commitment, but it did look as if Kendall lost quite a bit last year, especially with throwing runners out.  So far, the Milwaukee Brewers are in the early lead for the “Worst Off season Award” with the acquisitions of Kendall and Guillermo Mota.

• The Royals rumored top priority is outfielder, Jose Guillen.  I could go into how bad of a fit this is, but I’ll spare you yet another rant. Guillen is talented and showed he still has something in the tank, but this smacks of a Reggie Sanders type signing. Evidently, the Royals don’t read FCP either.

• An interesting free agent available is Bartolo Colon. The portly righty is coming off surgery and a shaky performance during his comeback last year (although his last few starts were good). He was left off the playoff roster which raises some questions. However, a team should sign him for a year and see if Colon returns to form. If he does, he would currently be best starter on the market. Big risk, big reward, big pitcher (sorry, I had to do that).

That’s it for today. Enjoy the day and weekend. We’ll see ya on Monday.