Back home: What did I miss this week?

Back from a week in Jamaica. It really was great. The weather was great, people were nice, we did some fun things and drank a bit. And read. Holidays have become my chance to get some reading in. I read Michael Lewis' Boomerang (scarier than any Stephen King novel) and Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Stories (a fun quick read, if you are a music fan), as well as half of the newest Discworld book.

What happened while I was gone?

Well, like Woodman said, we had our best month ever for visits, a nice end to the best year ever. As well as having the most visits we ever had in a month, we also had the most page views ever at just over 580,000. Hard to believe we could have our best month in the middle of the off-season, when we didn't have all that for news. By the time the season starts, things should be jumping around here.

Other than that, Alex filled the 2 wants he had for the bullpen, a lefty Darren Oliver and a righty Jason Frasor. Oliver signed for a year plus a club option. Oliver is 41, but then LOOGYs can go on forever. Oliver hasn't had an ERA over 3.00 since 2007. His 2.29 from last year was the best ERA of his career. I think he'll be a fine addition to the team.

Jason Frasor, well, we all know what he can do. I'm glad to have him back.

Getting these older guys might squeeze out a couple of younger pitchers.We really don't seem to have a lefty that's ready to step in to a major role, but I was hoping there would be a spot in the pen for Joel Carreno. It might be tough to find him meaningful innings. For right-handers, you have to figure that Santos, Frasor, Janssen, Litsch and Villanueva will be ahead of him in the pecking order, but then odds are that there will be some injuries.

Not much else happened while I was gone. We picked up Aaron Laffey to fill out innings in Vegas, no big deal.

Alex still has a starting pitcher, and maybe a bat, on his want list. I'd be surprised if he doesn't come up with the starter before the end of the month.

I also came home to a couple of nice little packages in the mail. I got the Bluebird Banter shirt I ordered, looks great, I'll wear it with pride. And, be prepared to be green with envy, I have a preview copy of Dirk Hayhurst's next book. We'll try to get a review up next week. I got home at 1:00 in the morning (after a very long day of travel) and still had to read the first three chapters before going to bed.

Anything else important happen while I was away?