1. Hired Salomon Torres as a scout and minor league pitching coach.

More than anything, this is just here to let you know his active career
appears over.



2. Signed OF/PH Derrick May to a minor league contract with a spring training
NRI. [1/6]

The Expos are in desperate need of a corner outfielder who can hit. Derrick
May isn't it, and would be hard-pressed to earn playing time in AAA.



3. Signed PH Scott Livingstone and INF Mike Mordecai to minor-league contracts
with spring training NRIs. [1/16]

Signed RHP Mike Maddux and CF Lee Tinsley to minor-league contracts with
spring training NRIs. [1/19]

Livingstone and Mordecai are conceivably a platoon at third, if les 'Spos
don't go with Jose Vidro. Tinsley could very well be the Expos' starting LF,
since his major competition are such greats as nepo-scrub Derrick May, one of
Ryan McGuire and Brad Fullmer (whichever isn't starting at first), and DaRond
Stovall. Jim Beattie has said Jon Saffer will not be invited to the major
league camp. Let's just say this isn't the year to be saying Felipe Alou will
do more with less. Mike Maddux is still trying to recover from Kevin
Kennedy's slagging, and with Montreal, he's in the right place to try to make
a comeback. Of course, that would be 15 good starts, after which he'll be
peddled to Milwaukee or somebody who thinks they're one pitcher away from
being a wild-card team.



4. Named LHP Denis Boucher to public affairs for the marketing and
communications department as well as video coordinator for the baseball
operations department. [1/27]

Uncannily timed with the Expos' drive to get a new stadium. If it is built,
here's a vote for the three men who may best represent the history of
baseball in Montreal over the past fifty years: Jackie Robinson, Bill
Stoneman, and Denis Boucher.



5. Signed RHPs Shawn Boskie and Mike Campbell and CF Chuck Carr to minor-league
contracts with spring training NRIs, and invited RHP Antonio Armas to spring
training. [2/3]

Boskie can be fun if you like dodging his frequent mistakes in the bleachers,
and Campbell is coming off of arm woes in a failed Japanese excursion.
Neither are representative of the Expos' old habit of resurrecting struggling
veterans, because people like Pascual Perez or Dennis Martinez or even Jeff
Juden had some track records of success, whereas Campbell and Boskie have
failed to achieve consistent mediocrity. Chuck Carr's agent deserves a
commendation for putting his man in the right place: with luck, he could wind
up as remarkably fortunate as Otis Nixon.




6. Signed C Chris Widger to a four-year contract with a club option for 2002.
[3/1]

As I've been reminded by an Expos fan, the organization has, to date, still
only developed one catcher of any value (some fella named Carter), so this
could be a case of overreaction to secure a handy catcher. Since he's going
to be pushed by Bob Henley at some point in the next two years, there's a
good chance that Widger's multi-year commitment will have value to shopping
GMs.




7.