Randomblings

I just googled the word "ramblings" and there are 4 boobs and a vagina in the first 20 or so results.  You can't explain that.

The Blue Jays have signed 41-year-old lefty specialist Darren Oliver to a 1 year deal with a club option for 2013.  Terms have yet to be disclosed, but he made $3.25MM last year, so draw whatever conclusions you'd like from that.  Oliver has been pretty goddamned solid over the last few years, more or less since becoming a full-time reliever.  He personifies LOOGY, but he has been worth 5.5fWAR over the last 4 seasons, or ~260 innings, most of which being pretty high leverage.  I, for one, didn't really think there was a big need for any real additions to the Jays' bullpen, but this does address the possibility of needing a lefty, with Luis Perez being the only one in there (though Brett Cecil might find himself in the pen as well).

Other than that, slow news day.  That Oliver contract won't be finalized until after the new year, what with the 41-years old and needing a physical, plus stuff like holidaze, but I don't really fear much here.  Beyond that, I'll probably do another fantasy draft, this time with MVP 2005 for the XBOX entertainment console over the next few days, though I plan on getting obliterated drunk on New Years' Day and probably won't do much until after my girlfriend's vacation time is over.

By then, I'm sure something will happen on the free agency frenzy, as it typically does right around the new year, which Dave at Fangraphs examines here.  Beyond the Prince Fielder stuff, which probably won't be done for quite some time, and the Yu Darvish stuff, which should go right down to the January 18th deadline, we're going to see a lot of 1- and 2-year deals with teams paying variable amounts for pitchers of similar awesomeness.  And of course, we'll look back at these signings in a few months time and regale about how right we were about some guys, and how wrong we were about some others, forgetting that a single-season sample is nowhere enough to truly evaluate how good or bad some contracts were, but hey, what else is the internet for?