Brewers land free agent Matt Garza

The Milwaukee Brewers have signed free agent starting pitcher Matt Garza to a four-year contract. Garza's contract is worth $50 million. The deal includes a vesting $13 million option for a fifth year. He can earn an additional $1 million in each year in incentives, if they are reached. So the deal could be up being $67 million for Garza. He was one of the top free agent starting pitchers on the market. Teams pretty much didn't sign him earlier in free agency because he's had injury problems in the past couple of seasons.

Garza, 30, was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the first round of the 2005 MLB draft. He was picked 25th overall in the draft. He spent two seasons with the Twins, 2006 and 2007. The Twins traded Garza to the Tampa Bay Rays after the 2007 season. He stayed with the Rays from 2008-2010. While with the Rays, he helped lead them to the 2008 World Series. He also lead the American League in shutouts in 2008 with two. In 2010 against the Detroit Tigers, he threw a no-hitter. That became the Tampa Bay Rays' first no-hitter thrown in franchise history. After 2010, the Rays traded him to the Chicago Cubs.

He spent two and a half seasons with the Cubs. The Cubs traded him to the Texas Rangers in the middle of the 2013 season for third baseman Mike Olt, starting pitcher Justin Grimm, starting pitcher C. J. Edwards, and pitcher Neil Ramirez.

Garza's career stats in eight seasons are: 194 games played, 191 starts, 67 wins, 67 losses, 3.84 era, 1182.1 innings pitched, and 1,001 strikeouts, with a whip of 1.28. His best season was in 2010, when he went 15-10 with an era of 3.91.

The Brewers have good team built, and pretty much needed pitching. If Garza is healthy, he should be able to help out their starting rotation. Their rotation already includes: Kyle Lohse, Yovani Gallardo, Wily Peralta, and Marco Estrada. I like the move by the Brewers. They added someone who they needed. Not all teams not named the Cardinals in the NL Central have tried to improve their team. But the Brewers have tried to improve with the likes of Garza, and signing Mark Reynolds.

Ryan Reaves lands four-year extension with Blues

The Blues have signed forward Ryan Reaves to a four-year contract extension. The deal is worth $4.5 million. That's a nice deal for a player like Reaves is. Reaves, 26, was drafted in the 2005 NHL draft by the Blues. He was picked in the fifth round, and was picked 156th overall. He's worked hard to improve himself as a player in the NHL. While he's best known for fighting, he's improved his game on offense. And he can score little. You don't think of fighters who can score in the NHL, but Reaves can. He's proven to be a big part of the Blues team off and on the ice.

He's played 157 games in the NHL, scoring 11 goals, with 8 assists, and 19 points. Reaves is a plus 9 for his career. And he has 346 penalty minutes.

Right now this season in his fourth NHL season, Reaves is having one of his best seasons in his career. He is a plus seven and has 5 points. He just needs two more points for a new career high. At this time he has 2 goals and 3 assists. He's become a fan favorite ever since he got a chance to play in the NHL.

Ryan Reaves kind of reminds me of a younger former Blue,
Jamal Mayers. I think for Reaves, he'll take his contract extension as an early birthday present. He'll be 27 a week from Monday. I'm glad the Blues rewarded Reaves with a new contract. It's another good example that the Blues ownership likes to wait for their players to earn contracts, rather than just giving them out to any player.

Breaking down St. Louis Blues first half of 2013-2014 season

How would you say the Blues first half has been this season? I'm sure lots might see it differently at time, because of injuries happening. But even with the injuries that have happened this season, they've been able to step up and keep pace with the rest of the league. A lot of that is because the Blues have depth down in the AHL who could be ready for the NHL soon. One of those players is Dmitrij Jaskin, who was up earlier in the season and played in four games. During that period of time, he scored his first NHL goal of his career. Players on the Blues noticed that he could be ready soon to take someone's job away.

Heading into tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers, the Blues are 29-7-5. That's their best record in franchise history for the first half of any season. As a team the Blues have scored 150 goals, and that ranks them second in the NHL for most goals scored. The team leading in goals scored as a team are the Chicago Blackhawks, with 167. The Blues have beat the Blackhawks three times this season and are 3-0 against them. What do I like best about this years team from the first half? There's lots of things I like about this years team from the first half, and if I had to pick one of them it would be that they have a lot of players who can score. It's not just one player scoring all the goals, it's pretty much every player scoring goals.

Just think about how much better this team will be once both forward Alexander Steen and defenseman Roman Polak get back from their injuries and the whole team is fully healthy. This team looks like they are getting healthy at the right time and are starting to come together as a team, after having their top players out of the line up. I don't think the Blues will do much of anything at the trade deadline, there's no reason to ruin the team chemistry. The Blues seem to be fine with goalies Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak. I only see the Blues making a move, if one of those goalies get hurt. That's assuming the Blues don't feel Jake Allen would be fully ready to go into the playoffs.

Which players could step up in the second half of the season? Patrik Berglund (if he stays playing left wing, he seems better playing left wing), and maybe Magnus Paajarvi. While, Paajarvi hasn't scored much yet, he has shown flashes that he can score. I know Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock credits him a lot of the time for the way he plays and has been improving since he came to the Blues. That may not show fully yet in scoring though.

Blues center Maxim Lapierre will be playing in his 500th career game tonight.

Out of the Blues free agent signings during the offseason, I'd say center Derek Roy has proven to be the Blues best free agent signing, second best forward Brenden Morrow, and third best center Maxim Lapierre. I like how Lapierre has improved his game after being suspended earlier in the season. I think a lot of that has been Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock helping him improve his game.

Lastly, the Blues have a great chance to win the West if they can pick up their start from the first half. And come playoff time, the Blues should be a lot of fun to watch. I'm even glad defenseman Ian Cole is playing well, when people thought he couldn't play once Jordan Leopold got hurt. Cole has proved lots of people wrong.

On a side note, the Blues have ten Olympians. That ties them the with Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings for the most players.