Ruth Conference FAB, Round 1

Well then. That went better than I'd hoped. The Bees managed to land some pitching to help this year (and mostly just this year). Here's who we landed:

• Francis, J. COL SP $5.0M/1Y
• Meche, G. KCA SP $3.0M/1Y
• Valverde, J. HOU RP $4.5M/1Y
• Soria, J. KCA RP $4.0M/2Y
• Kuroda, H. LAN SP $2.5M/2Y
  

Jeff Francis surprised me most - I was in yellow 1 hell from start to finish - but I'll take him. If the folks at Baseball Prospectus are right (PECOTA don't fail me now), he'll make a damned fine 1-2 punch with Dan Haren. And let's face it, when the Starting Pitcher Matchup option is enabled (as it is in the Ruth Conference) you have to have a good 1-2 punch. I'm pretty confident that was a big part of my losing record last year.

My bullpen filled out nicely, too. I was a little surprised that no one challenged me for Valverde. I know he's... kooky... but still, it's not like by taking over for Lidge in Houston he also immediately assumes Lidge's... troubles.

I lost out on a couple of folks I was interested in, of course. Dustin McGowan and Takashi Saito most notably. But hey, you can't win 'em all.

In the end I managed to do what I felt I really needed to do in the first round. You can't ask for much more than that when you're up against the best of the best.