Fick Yeah!

Robert Fick and Joey Eischen were signed today (contract details will come later).

Fick is a left-handed batter who will come off the bench. He can play first, third, the outfield, and 'catch'. He's a brutal defensive catcher, and is pretty worthless in the outfield. Offensively, he's a good bench player. You could certainly do worse than Fick, but it does beg the question of how many bench players a team needs? Fick's signing probably ends any chance that Brendan Harris had of making the team, and probably completely closes the door on Carroll.

We know (and some love) Eischen. He's a useful middle reliever, made more useful because of the arm he throws with. If we can prevent him from doing his Flipper imperonation off the mound and breaking things, he'll be useful.

Rather than signing one of the mediocrities left as a backup catcher, Bowden did one better: he signed a bunch: Wiki Gonzalez, noted woman assaulter Mike DiFelice, Alberto Castillo and Brandon Harper.

They were all signed to minor league deals, and will have the opportunity to sort themselves into some sort of hierarchy in Spring Training. The rest could be stashed in New Orleans, giving some depth to the position for once. If the one in the majors stinks, there'll be a few in the minors to call up.

Depending on the salaries of the first two, it's not a bad haul by Bowden.