Monday, December 29, 2008

Sox Sign Penny and Bard

Rod Bradford is reporting that the Red Sox have signed Brad Penny to a one-year deal with a base salary of $5 million. Penny could make up to 8$ million with bonuses.

In an injury-filled season last year with the Dodgers Penny went 6-9 with a 6.27 ERA. For his career he's 94-75 with a 4.06 ERA. And as SI.com and MLB Trade Rumors points out he has struggled in interleague play, going 7-11 with a 5.08 ERA in 24 appearances.

They also re-acquired catcher Josh Bard to a $1.6 million nonguaranteed major league deal.

11 Comments:

Anonymous said...

A devasting return fire by the Red Sox. Should appease Sox fans.

(sarcasm, in case it wasn't clear enough)

I wonder if they plan on having Bard catch Wakefield again haha.

Greg Cohen said...

LOL, I know. I'm shaking in my boots at the the newest Boston savior.

And yes Bard will probably catch Wakefield.

Anonymous said...

Btw, do they still have Paul Byrd or was he a free agent?

Greg Cohen said...

He is a free agent.

Anonymous said...

We all laugh, but it's not a horrible deal for the BoSox. It allows for Masterson to stay in the pen and puts a potential 15 game winner in their 5 slot. Granted it's not a blockbuster signing, but if he stays healthy, he makes their rotation that much more difficult.

Greg Cohen said...

Nah, it's not horrible, but it's hardly scary. He's never been good against the AL, and he's coming off a terrible injury-plagued year.

This could be Matt Clement two. But I guess they could say that Burnett is Pavano part two. Either way, I'm not worried by this signing at all.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm not worried. But for the money, it's a decent gamble.

Anonymous said...

How is Penny a potential 15 game winner? Maybe if this was still 2002.

The guy has a career 1.34 WHIP and 4.28 ERA, all of which took place in the NL in two of the best pitchers parks in all of baseball. To think that he'll have WHIP under 1.3 is an incredibly long stretch, and more likely you're looking at a 5.0 ERA and a 1.4 WHIP minimum, based simply on transfer from NL to AL East. That's not even looking at the transfer from pitcher's parks to Fenway.

He doesn't strike many guys out, his K/BB rate last year was 1.2, he gave up more fly balls than ground balls (bad news at Fenway), and has pitched 200 innings just once since 2001.

This move makes their rotation about as "difficult" as Ponson being added to the Yankees was last season.

Mike B. said...

I'm s-h-a-k-i-n-g in my b-o-o-t-s....

Mike

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