MLB.com's Alyson Footer spoke with Astros GM Ed Wade and has the latest on the club. The Astros made "11th-hour" offers to Randy Wolf and Braden Looper before they signed elsewhere. They offered Wolf a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2010. The offers to Wolf and Looper were both for...

Braden Looper signed a one year deal yesterday to be part of the Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation in 2009. In his first season as a starting pitcher (2007), Braden Looper was awful. He struck out only 4.5 batters per nine innings and walked 2.7, while inducing 42.2% groundballs. That's barely maj...

Colorado Rockies: Signed pitcher Randy Flores to a minor league contract. The lefty was 1-0 with a 5.26 ERA in 43 games for the Cards in '08. Houston Astros: Agreed to terms with pitcher Chris Sampson, infielder Drew Sutton and catcher J.R. Towles on one-year contracts. Sampson pitched in 54 games f...

Pitchers Braden Looper and Brian Shouse have new homes, Looper signing with the Brewers after spending last season with the Cardinals, and Shouse leaving the Brewers for the Rays. Looper, 12-14 with a 4.16 ERA in St. Louise in 2008, signed a 1-year deal with Milwaukee worth $5.5 million in 2009 with...

THURSDAY, 6:18pm: Tom Haudricourt writes that the Brewers have designated Vinny Rottino for assignment to make room for Looper on the 40-man roster.  Rottino, a 28-year-old catcher, was stuck behind Jason Kendall, Mike Rivera and Angel Salome on the organizational depth chart. 5:16pm: Troy Renc...

2:55pm: Haudricourt talked to Brewers GM Doug Melvin, who is "optimistic" about signing Looper. 1:56pm: Haudricourt keeps the updates coming.  He's "pretty sure" Looper has reached an agreement with the Brewers. 12:59pm: Haudricourt  has now heard from two more sources ...

THURSDAY, 10:06am: Despite O'Dowd's comments, Renck says Beimel remains interested in joining the Rockies.  However, Beimel doesn't think much of the Rockies' offer. WEDNESDAY, 7:47pm: According to Troy Renck of the Denver Post, the Rockies are no longer pursuing free agent left-hander Joe Beim...

9:41pm: Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun has more on the Orioles trading for Cubs pitcher Rich Hill. The deal would be for a player to be named later, Zrebiec writes, and it could be announced as early as Monday. Hill will be reunited with pitching coach Rick Kranitz and bullpen coach Alan Dunn, wh...

Reputations are interesting in the sense that they can alter our perception of a player. For instance, Jon Garland, who just signed a questionable deal with the Diamondbacks, has the reputation of a durable, grounder-inducing pitcher. This reputation is sound given that he routinely logs 200+ IP in ...

Yesterday, we did a write-up on a Gammons post that said Randy Wolf, Jon Garland and Braden Looper were all receiving similar offers in the $5MM-a-year range. A report this evening conflicts with that notion. Tony Jackson of the L.A. Daily News says Garland does not fit the Dodgers' budget, but Wolf...