Dodger utility man Mike Kinkade, who didn't get enough chances against left-handed pitching early in 2003 and then couldn't hit right-handers well enough later to take advantage of injuries to Brian Jordan and Fred McGriff, signed an $800,000, one-year contract with Japan's Central League Champion Hanshin Tigers.

In other National League West news, the Giants resigned pitcher Dustin Hermanson, coincidentally to an $800,000, one-year contract. And the Rockies traded infielder Juan Uribe to the White Sox for infielder Aaron Miles.

Update: The Giants resigned Jeffrey Hammonds, he of the 37-game hitting streak for the 1990 Stanford Cardinal, to a one-year, $1 million contract with performance bonuses, according to The Associated Press, that could total an additional $825,000 - if he played 150 games and reached 550 plate appearances.

The rest of the baseball world always picks on Hammonds and the teams that sign him - you won't see me do that here.

National League West Rosters - Updated December 3, 5 p.m.

Though I don't expect Paul Lo Duca to be the Dodger opening day first baseman, given my operating philosophy of treating the rosters as if the season started today, I think you have to put him there until a new first baseman is found.