I like this signing. Nice and safe, especially considering the murky situation surrounding Anderson Machado. If Aurilia makes the team, he makes a modest $600,000. His career season in 2001 is four season behind him, and I’m not expecting a return to the 11.2 Wins Above Replacement Value he garnered that year. But if he could match his 2003 season, where he went .277/.325/.440, I’d be pretty happy.

It’s always funny (weird funny, not funny ha-ha) how things work out. Last year here in Detroit, the Tigers were all over Aurilia. He ended up signing with the Mariners instead, so the Tigers settled for a trade with the M’s that brought Carlos Guillen and his MVP caliber season here to Detroit. It doesn’t happen too often, but chalk one up for the Tigers.

My personal feel is the Reds just signed their opening day shortstop. Machado might not even make back to the U.S. by then, and even if he does, he could have a bum knee. Felipe Lopez has more strikeouts (269) in his career then hits (216), and I could live without his career OPS+ of 79.

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