Saarloos, 30 in May, spent most of ’08 posting mediocre numbers in Triple A as a member of the A’s organization.  Aquino, 31, pitched well at Triple A but his brief time with the Orioles did not go well.  He missed time with a hamstring strain.  Both players were designated for assignment by their teams in April but cleared waivers.

• The weekly chat has been moved to Wednesday at 2pm CST this time.
• I’ll be on Seth Stohs’ radio show tonight around 8pm CST.
• From NPB Tracker: Kenshin Kawakami has switched to Dan Evans as his agent, while Koji Uehara wants a rotation spot and multiple years.
• Ken Griffey Jr.’s agent, Brian Goldberg, has been in contact with nine teams (six AL, three NL).  The Mariners were one of the AL teams.
• It’s been over a decade since the White Sox signed a free agent from another team for more than $20MM.
• Justin Morneau would like the Twins to add one more bat.
• East Windup Chronicle has scouting reports on Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel.
• Things are quiet with the Dodgers – no recent talks for Manny Ramirez, "no real movement" on C.C. Sabathia.
• Rany Jazayerli questions the Royals’ nonchalance toward signing Zack Greinke.
• Nothing is close with the Tigers and Joe Beimel, and the team will not make an offer to Junichi Tazawa (partially to preserve their relationships in Japan).
• The Brewers signed Jason Bourgeois to a minor league deal. Bourgeois, 27 in January, hit .286/.335/.404 in Triple A this year.
• Quietly, the Indians signed reliever Greg Aquino.  He pitched well in Triple A this year but missed time with a hamstring strain.

Corey, 34, has decent big league stats in 53 career innings but could never hold a job.  Aquino, 30, has been done in by home runs, walks, and injuries in his career.    He did manage to close for the D’Backs in ’04.

• Pitcher C.J. Nitkowski writes a semi-defense of Brian McNamee.  Nitkowski has his own blog and recently finished up a season in Japan.
• According to Andrew Baggarly, the Giants have been in touch with Scott Boras regarding free agent corner infielder Dallas McPherson.  He missed the ’07 season with back surgery, but recently appeared in the Arizona Instructional League.  The 27 year-old has a career line of .247/.294/.461 in 360 ABs, including 121 strikeouts in those 117 games.  The 30 HR power may remain but he’ll need to show more than just that. 
• Peter Abraham has a funny comment regarding the appearance of Rich Garces on the phony steroid list that circulated Thursday morning.  That bogus list actually hit my inbox the night before and it was an obvious delete.  I shouldn’t throw stones, because I have definitely put up a few bad trade rumors in my day.  But it was very surprising to see an NBC affiliate running with that crap on Thursday.
• Andy MacPhail continues to leave the door open for an Erik Bedard contract extension.  That same article mentions the Orioles’ claim of 30 year-old reliever Greg Aquino.  Fantasy geeks recall Aquino’s stint as D’Backs closer in 2004, when they were the worst team in baseball.  Aquino supplanted Mike Koplove that summer.