St. Louis agreed to a two-year, $4.2M contract with Julian Tavarez last week. Tavarez reportedly will receive $1.6M in 2004 and $2.6M in 2005. He's a groundball pitcher, so he should benefit from the Cardinals' defense, and he shouldn't hurt them with home runs. His splits indicate he could serve St. Louis well as a right-handed specialist, but I can't understand why they chose to sign him to such a large contract. His low strikeout rate should have allowed them to acquire him for much less.