Corey Brock delivers the news early again. So those of you who wanted pitching, you now have pitching. Freely available, super cheap, not-sure-if-he-can-throw-hard-anymore pitching.  With the way KT operates, the more random bodies with upside he can throw against the wall, the more likely one or two of them are to stick.

If he prove that his velocity hasn't really fallen off (which is why the Mets released him), he'll be a really nice addition to the bullpen. He's never missed a ton of bats, but if he can continue to strike out 4/5 of a batter per inning he can help, although his LD rate blew up to 25% last year, which does lend some validity to the "he can't throw hard anymore" rumors.

This from MLB's Corey Brock, Towers has signed outfielder Chris Snelling to a minor league contract.

The guy is made of glass, but he was (and still is) a fan favorite on Mariner blogs who called him Doyle (his middle name, apparently speaking his normal name breaks random bones on his body).

My reactions:

1. He absolutely raked for the Aussie's in the WBC, and I personally feel like he's worth a shot. If only in a late inning pinch hitting role against righties. And hell, if he doesn't make the team I'll get to watch him play in Portland.

2. Towers again signed a guy with decent upside but huge risk of injury. Do we get to see Pedro in the rotation this year? Are there any more injury prone players to be signed and who?

3. If we do keep signing these guys, we're going to need to hire more trainers.

The Softbank Hawks have agreed to the signing of major league
right-handers Kameron Loe and Justin Germano, the team said Friday.

Loe's deal is worth 190 million yen over two years, while
Germano will ink a one-year deal for 50 million yen, team sources
said.

JapanBall.com: Right-handers Loe, Germano agree to sign with Softbank.

Good luck, Justin. May your weak fastball do you better on the other side of the Pacific...we're rooting for you.

I have the sudden urge to watch "Mr. Baseball" now.

So here goes. I'll try to do some bad amateur reports from watching our AAA Beavers in Portland. Think of me (and madding and anyone else who posts these) as resident scouts...except without any of the fancy training.

Wade LeBlanc is considered the #4 prospect in the Padres system, and he showed his pedigree last night. He only allowed one run on four hits through six innings and he struck out 11. He looked good. Anyone know how many pitches he's supposed to have? I'll sit closer in his next start.

Now, there's a pretty good chance that the Rivercats (Oakland's AAA team) are gutted now that Billy Beane is running out an A's lineup of really young guys, but the PCL is also considered a hitter's league. So take the performance with a grain of salt, but not with a very large one.

The Beavers ended up winning 9-1, 5 of those runs came from a 10-batter 7th inning.

The only thing I found worrisome from the performance was Nick Hundley's catching. His throwing wasn't great (base runners went 1/1) and he was dropping a lot of pitches. Some of this could have been due to LeBlanc's breaking stuff if he has any, but wow. His worst mistakes were during warmup throws (ball right between the legs one time, a throw back to pitcher that goes over his head another). I'll definitely keep an eye on his defense, because I have a feeling after another year or two of Bard we're going to be wanting a catcher that can throw out a base stealer occasionally. Hundley was drafted in the second-round back in '05.

Headley is off to a slow start at AAA at the plate, but his fielding looked passable. However, I'd be crazy to equate PGE Park with Petco as far as the range a fielder needs in left. Antonelli is hitting leadoff and he looks very comfortable at the plate.

Fun fact: The Beavers' Edgar Gonzalez is Adrian's brother. He's almost 30, so the chances of the two taking the field together is pretty slim.

Any other GLBers in the Portland area? I thought it would be fun to do a "wisdom of the masses" type amateur scouting gig watching some AAA ball at PGE Park this year. At any rate, it'll be a lot of fun to watch Chase Headley mash in the PCL before he gets called up.

Reading a lot of Mariners blogs, those guys have their fingers on the pulse watching prospects AAA in Tacoma and low A ball in Everett. Would be nice if the Padres blogosphere could do something the same.