As they had planned, Colorado has added another possibility for a lefthanded bullpen arm in Tom Martin, signed to a minor-league deal. I would love to analyze this further but I've honestly never heard of this guy. Also, Sunny Kim and Yorvit Torrelba will be the only Rockies going into salary arbitration. Neither have requested figures that will exactly break the bank. Let's see, Martin...is a 35-year-old who has bounced between Atlanta and Los Angeles the last several years. He was reasonably good for a stretch there but totally cratered in 2005. He's worth a minor league deal. He stands a chance to be better than Jaime Cerda, and he's certainly cheaper than Alan Embree. His stats suggest he's not a straight-up platoon lefty, which would certainly be a nice asset to have.

Well hey, all this and Keiichi Yabu too. Get excited, Denver baseball fans! Yabu's the venerable Japanese righty starter to whom the A's gave a shot in the bullpen last year. He got hit pretty hard last but there's nothing wrong with stockpiling a bunch of cheap old guys in the hope that one or two of them will flash out. It worked pretty well for the bullpen last season. It would be an easy knee-jerk reponse to criticize Dan O'Dowd for spending no real money this offseason, but Yabu's outlook for 2006 is probably no better or worse than Elmer Dessens's or Shawn Estes's, and the monetary risk is way, way less.

Someone named Carlos Rivera is coming on board as well. I guess we're filling out the spring rosters in anticipation of Matt Holliday's long run with Team USA.