Ned Colletti might have officially made his first low risk, high upside signing (I've come to dislike the Randy Wolf signing). The Dodgers picked up Chin-Hui Tsao, former savior of the Colorado Rockies. After making numerous minor league All Star teams and quickly ascending to the majors, Tsao's career has been derailed by injuries, resulting in him only throwing 58 innings since the end of 2003.
Tsao's numbers in the majors are pretty awful, mainly because he has a 2.26 home run per nine rate, but this is only in the small sample size of 63 innings. In the minors, Tsao is a different beast, striking out over 10 per nine with a 4.63 K/BB ratio and a .62 home run per nine rate. At only 26 years old, Tsao is still young enough to live up to the potential he showed in the minors.
With all the injuries Tsao has suffered throughout his career, there's a good chance that he's finished. But at the cost of a minor league contract, or a 420 thousand dollar major league contract, who cares? If he stinks, then the Dodgers lose nothing. If he bounces back, then the Dodgers have a young pitcher who they control until 2009, and we come that much closer to booting Beimel and Hendrickson off the roster. While I'm not sure why Tsao would have taken the Dodgers low ball offer if nine teams were gunning for him, I'm not complaining.