2012 Baseball Winter Meetings Day #3: It’s the little deals that matter most

Josh Hamilton, Zack Greinke, and Justin Upton are three pieces of three monster deals that could be on verge of either getting done at any moment, or fall apart at the last minute.  That’s all fine and dandy, but there are plenty of other players, serviceable players that are available that no one talks about.  Look at Randy Choate for example. According to Jon Morosi’s twitter account, a source confirmed Choate signed a three-year deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.    He is strictly a left-handed specialist, a LOOGY (Lefty One-Out GuY) and as evidenced by his stats in 2012, he’s one of the best. As a member of the Dodgers/Marlins, Choate appeared in 80 games yet tallied only 38.2 innings, and held opponents to a .206 batting average. In 2011 he held batters to a .149 average in 24.2 innings.  When teams are looking for that extra push to the playoffs, it’s not the earth-shattering deal that takes them to the next level it’s the fill-in piece that no one pays attention to...