Designated LHP Tyler Lumsden for assignment. [11/20]
Traded LHP Tyler Lumsden to the Astros for a PTBNL or cash. [11/24]
Re-signed LHP Tim Hamulack and signed 1B/3B-R Corey Smith and SS-R Luis Hernandez to minor league contracts with spring training NRIs; returned RHP Jairo Cuevas to the Braves via a subsequent waivers (re)claim. [11/26]
Re-signed C-L Matt Tupman and signed RHP Franquelis Osoria and 1B/C-R J.R. House to minor league contracts with spring training NRIs. [11/29]

Plenty of wee bits of fun to be found here. Corey Smith's name might be familiar to some of you, particularly if you're an Indians fan retroactively grumpy over the Tribe's selecting him late in the first round of the 2000 draft when Adam Wainwright and Xavier Nady were still on the board. (Of course, just from today's players in motion, so were Tagg Bozied and Scott Thorman, and the Cubs took Bobby Hill in the supplemental phase. Insert your draft-as-crapshoot metaphor here.) Smith still can't really play third, and he's probably never going to be anything more than a minor league slugger of some merit, and he's coming off of a big year at Double-A Arkansas (.271/.321/.495). There are worse guys to put in front of the good folks in Omaha, certainly, and he'll be coming into his age-27 season, so expect souvenirs if you get bleacher seats.

House is another interesting addition, in that while he's also probably more a first baseman than a catcher, he at least might have major league applications as a platoon partner for Mike Jacobs and second or third catcher on the roster. As space-savers go, having a guy who can hit lefties and catch and stand around at first has its uses, and while I see House as more John Wockenfuss (or Chris Coste) than Jim Leyritz, that's still a handy use of a roster spot. Of course, it would shut the door on Ryan Shealy's chances, but Jacobs' acquisition really reduces Shealy to either a part-timer's future as a Royal or a hero's welcome in a PCL venue to be named later.

As for Hernandez, there's no accounting for taste, and I fail to see what repeating the Tony Pena Jr. experience with an even worse player of Pena's type is supposed to achieve. If Pena's the shortstop you break glass and play in case of emergency when you're in dire need, what's Hernandez? The spare in case of additional emergency for the day after the apocalypse? There's no accounting for taste, I suppose.