A few days ago, the Diamondbacks added a little bit of bullpen help when they signed Bob Wickman.

We remember that the Braves designated Wickman for assignment because of his attitude. It’s a strange signing for the Dbacks though, because Wickman doesn’t like to pitch on days when it’s not a save situation. Well, for Arizona he isn’t even the closer so why did he sign?

Wickman probably just wants to pitch. A lot of people around baseball thought he was going to retire but apparently Wickman decided against that.  For the Dbacks, you really can’t have too much pitching can you?

The Astros ownership has finally come to it’s senses. Ken Rosenthal reports that the Astros’ manager and GM were both fired last Monday.

The manager, Phil Garner never impressed me and after looking at his career record as a manager, I can see why. Garner’s record is 985-1,054. That’s more losses than wins. That’s not good for a manager. Granted most of Garner’s losses were accumulated during stints with really bad teams a la the 90’s Brewers and the early 2000 Tigers.

Purpura, the GM on the other hand, made some good and questionable moves during his tenure- just like any GM would. Sometimes being a GM is a crapshoot, but if you’re a GM for a team with a big payroll, it’s a better crapshoot than the rest. Purpura engineered the Clemens and Pettitte signings. More recently, he convinced Carlos Lee to become an Astro.

The bad signings and acquisitions? High up on that list would be the Woody Williams signing and the Jason Jennings acquisition. The Jennings trade leaves a bad taste in the mouths of Astros fans, particularly because a lot was given up for a guy who posted decent numbers in Coors Field. It just goes to show that numbers lie sometimes. Another bad move? Preston Wilson. That’s all I can think of right now.

The Astros are a good team. It’s just that they are in dire need of some starting pitching. They have a decent offense that’s headed by Berkman, Lee and the rookie Pence. They just need to push harder and get some pitching.

In a bit of old news, Ken Rosenthal reports that the Dodgers have claimed Esteban Loaiza off waivers from the A’s. As Rosenthal rightly puts it, no trade was made. The A’s basically gave Loaiza to the Dodgers, with the latter assuming the remainder of Loaiza’s contract.

All of the people who tout Beane as a great GM should remember the Loaiza move for years to come. When Billy Beane first signed Loaiza, I thought it was a bad move for the A’s, and a particularly bad move for a low budget team. A 3-year $21.4 million deal for an average pitcher? Sure Loaiza was coming off a great year, but he played in the NL with the Nationals- a team that didn’t really have any goals, thus it was a no-pressure situation.

Beane redeems himself with this “move” to an extent. Why are the Dodgers accumulating average pitchers? I don’t know. Whoever said you can’t have too much starting pitching was hopefully talking about good pitchers.