Padres signed veteran outfielder Ron Gant to a minor-league contract yesterday. This all but kills the Bubba Trammell to the Mets deal, which was pretty much dead anyway. Kevin Towers is still interested in Bruce Chen but it doesn’t sound like there’s a whole lot more to it than that right now. In light of Jeremy Fikac’s recent injury, the Pads are also close to signing right-handed reliever Steve Reed. That’d be a great pickup as far as I’m concerned. Reed is consistent, he’s durable, and he absolutely destroys right-handed hitters (.149/.192/.220 in 168 at-bats last year; the bad news is, lefties hit him to the tune of .519/.629/.904 in 52 at-bats).

Baseball Mogul 2002 just showed up this afternoon. I’m about to install it and probably be lost to the world for the next several days while I try to build a baseball empire. Haven’t played it in a few years. The last version I played was very, very cool. I’ll let you all know how this one is. Eventually.