I think this is a sign of the players realizing the economy is not good right now and if they get a relatively reasonable offer now it would be best to sign early and leave money on the table potentially rather than hold out and hope for that bigger offer. It probably won’t affect the top FAs but these mid level guys and lower guys it will. Since that is apparantly the only level of guy we can look at we should get in on these now. Otherwise there may not be any guys who are desperate that we actually want in say January

His words on Affeldt:

Affeldt can bring it in the mid-90s, misses bats, throws strikes, and induces ground balls—which is the perfect recipe for a late-inning reliever—and unlike most potential free-agent targets he’s not yet on the wrong side of 30. Affeldt has a 3.73 career Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) as a reliever, including 3.52 in 2007 and 3.61 in 2008, which compares favorably to the FIPs posted by both Crain (3.81) and Guerrier (4.35) over the past three seasons. Offer: Three years, $9 million.

1 HR in the last two seasons. That’s pretty good. Even for a lefty situational reliever.

He would have been a nice upgrade for out bullpen… Short commitment, too

is very pleased with this one. Just a few days into FA and one of the better relievers signs a very reasonable deal, essentially setting the market for others of his ilk.

But ss bigsteve mentioned above, this could have been the case of a player/agent realizing the market is not shaping up as it has in the past due to a) the economic situation and b) a greater number of impact pitchers than is usually available via FA and they made the decision to sign early to avoid the January bargain bin.