As Frank Drebin would say, “Very impressive, yes.”

Oh, and people who saw the other guy throw off a mound said he looked pretty good too.

Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News reports that the Rockies are close to re-signing veteran LHP Mark Redman and are trying to finalize a deal for veteran RHP Steve Trachsel.

Redman, 33, signed on with the Rockies last season in August after starting the season with Atlanta and spending time in both the Rangers and Blue Jays minor league systems. In 5 games (3 starts), Redman went 2-0 with a 3.19 ERA for the Rockies in September.

Trachsel, 37, signed with the Orioles after former Mets teammate Kris Benson went down with rotator cuff surgery. He was traded to the Cubs on August 31st for two minor leaguers. Trachsel went 6-8 with a 4.48 ERA for the Orioles, however did not fare well with the Cubs as he went 1-3 with an 8.31 ERA in just 4 starts for Chicago. In 9 starts at Coors Field, Trachsel is 4-1 lifetime with a 6.44 ERA.

Considering the landscape of this free agent market, this year could be the biggest off-season of trades in quite some time.

Johan Santana, Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, Scott Rolen, and Miguel Tejada are among those who could be seeing a change in scenery this winter.

In terms of Santana, Jayson Stark on ESPN writes that the Mets might be the team most willing to give up the prospects needed to get him.

One NL executive says: Watch out for the Mets, given the pressure on GM Omar Minaya to win now.

“Omar seems determined to make a huge splash,” the exec says. “And I think that’s the guy they’ve had earmarked all along.”

The Dodgers, Angels, Yankees, and Mets would appear to be the top teams in the running for Santana.

The Yankees don’t appear willing to deal Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, or Phillip Hughes, which would likely put they out of the running for Santana.

The Dodgers would need to make a choice on who to use their prospects on, Cabrera or Santana. Buster Olney on ESPN cites a NL source who said that the Dodgers and Marlins are ‘pretty far apart’ on Cabrera. Olney writes that ‘there is growing expectation around the game is that the Angels will land Cabrera’.

However Rosenthal believes the Angels no longer are the front-runners for Cabrera.

Rosenthal cites major-league sources who say, if the Dodgers are willing to part with outfielder Matt Kemp along with third baseman Andy LaRoche and Class AA left-hander Clayton Kershaw, they would likely be able to land the Marlins All-Star third baseman.

If the Dodgers fail to land Cabrera, they are rumored to have interest in Scott Rolen as well.

Jayson Stark believes it will take two young players to get Dontrelle Willis. The Mets, Mariners and Diamondbacks are believed to have interest.

The Orioles want to get rid of the $26 million left on Miguel Tejada’s contract which does not leave many suitors. The Dodgers and Angels may use Tejada as plan B if they lose out on Cabrera. The O’s are also rumored to be shopping Erik Bedard.

The Reds may make Ryan Freel or Scott Hamilton available due to the emergence of minor league player of the year Jay Bruce.

The Pirates could offer 26-year old Ian Snell who has more quality starts (22) than Santana or Roy Oswalt and a better strikeout rate (7.66 per 9 innings) than Carlos Zambrano or Ben Sheets.

The Phillies are looking at Randy Wolf, Matt Clement, Kris Benson, Mike Wood, and Japanese free agent Hiroki Kuroda.

Buster Olney, on his ESPN blog, gives a list of 10 free agents who could be good value signings.

Tony Clark, Matt Clement, David Eckstein, Kenny Lofton, Mike Lamb, Reggie Sanders, Jeremy Affeldt, Kris Benson, Shannon Stewart, and David Wells are the players that Olney believes could be the best bang for any team’s buck.

Olney thinks Tony Clark could fit on the Mets as a bench player. He also points out that Clark has the third highest home run rate, behind Alex Rodriguez and, wait for it…Ramon Castro. Clark had a .563 slugging percentage in 32 at-bats last season.

The Mets have been reported to have some interest in David Eckstein,  whose batting average in each of his last three seasons is .294, .292 and .309.

Affeldt might be a good pick up for the Mets, who need to upgrade their bullpen. Right-handers hit .211 against him last season, left-handers .250.

The Baltimore Orioles have declined their $7.5 million club option for 2008 on former Met RHP Kris Benson. Benson missed the 2007 season with shoulder surgery.

Benson, 32, signed a three-year, $22.5 million contract while with the Mets prior to the 2005 season. He was traded to the Orioles for current Mets pitcher John Maine and relief pitcher Jorge Julio, who was again traded away by the Mets to Arizona for pitcher Orlando Hernandez.

Benson last pitched in 2006 going 11-12 with a 4.82 ERA for the Orioles.

Roughly two weeks ago, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald pointed out that Benson could be among one of the free agent targets for the Marlins in the offseason as his price will come down tremendously after missing the 2007 season due to an arm injury.

As our pitching questions continue throughout the spring, what better time than a slow weekend to take a look at how some of our former pitching Mets are doing so far.  All stats are courtesy of mlb.com.

In Baltimore, Chad Bradford is struggling. In his appearance Friday vs the Twins, he hit three batters and gave up a homerun, and a total of 7 earned runs.  The loss for the day however, was credited to former Met Steve Traschel, who has a 8.18 ERA for spring. Kris Benson as mentioned earlier in the week, is mostly out for the season.

Over with the Royals, Brian Bannister has been able to start strong, but then struggles late. In his last appearance he went two scoreless innings and still gave up 6 earned runs for the day.

Darren Oliver on the other hand, is doing well in Anaheim (or Los Angelos of Anaheim I guess), throwing 2 scoreless innings earlier today, walking one and striking out one.

I know there's been a lot of talk lately about some of the pitching decisions made so far, but with the exception of Oliver for the most part would we really be better off had we held on to Bannister or Bradford? So far Omar's move that brought in John Maine and move out Kris Benson seems to have been incredible smart. And while some of the more recent pitching aquisitions, such as Chan Ho Park, have not yet proved similiar results it looks like we'd be in the same boat we are now if we'd held on to some of the players we lost this offseason.

Former Met and current Baltimore Oriole, Kris Benson will miss the season due to a partially torn rotator cuff, reports Ken Rosenthal on Fox Sports. The injury surfaced
after he began throwing in off-season workouts and will require surgery.

The Orioles could look to sign Steve Trachsel, who still remains a free agent, to take Benson's place.

Thats awful news, I always liked Kris. I wish him the best, and a speedy recovery. At least he's got Anna to keep him company.