Free Agent Pitcher Thread

[yount19.u]

piccione88 wrote:

 

I am concerned however about the market, there are still plenty of pitchers available, but the top pitchers have strong ties to other orginazations. Johnson is a california native, and is rumored to love the Giants, Derek Lowe is just about a lock to sign with the Red Sox, and John Smoltz with the Tigers, and Braves. If the Brewers fail to get any of those pitchers at a fair price, I think we would be better served going after a couple of cheaper pitchers like B.Penny, or maybe even P.Martinez. Anyone but Perez, or Garland.

I agree. The Brewers need to go after some mid level pitchers and save the money for next year's free agency crop, which should be better. There's not much to get exited about at the top due to extremely high price, old age and, as you stated, strong ties to other organizations. There's no point in the Brewers overpaying to get someone to come here, or giving too many years to land a pitcher in his 40's. As for Perez and Garland, their inconsistency comes at too high a price.

[bklynbrewcrew]

On mlbtraderumors.com it says the Brewers are close to signing Braden Looper. I really hope this doesnt happen because there are far better options out there.

[kramnoj]

I wonder what it will take to get Looper. He's probably not expecting huge money. Maybe a one year deal for about $7M and a team option for $9M? Even that is probably overpaying, but the Brewers probably need to sweeten the pot a little for Looper to sign right now.

[bando1234]

What about Freddy Garcia? I could see him & Mulder being signed to high incentive contracts.

[JohnBriggs12]

Let me throw a couple sleepers out there:

 

1. John Parrish. He's been mostly a reliever at the ML level, but started 6 games for the Jays after going 10-1 as a starter at AAA last season. He would be cheap, and if not able to make rotation, would be useful in the pen.

 

2. Odalis Perez. This guy had 4 more quality starts than Manny Parra in 2008, yet is far down everyone's list. He made $865,000 last year and it likely won't take much more than that to sign him.

[Invader3K]

Sounds like the Red Sox are close to signing Smoltz.

[Hate those Rodents]

Now that Hoffman is signed, I'd love to get Garland in these economic times of getting players actually quite a bit cheaper than they normally would be.

[fondybrewfan]

I think I would probably rather have Randy Wolf, but I wouldn't be terribly upset with Garland as long as the price is right and as long as it isn't more than 2-3 years.

 

I also wouldn't mind Looper or maybe even Tim Redding. Not a whole lot of good options out there anymore. Perhaps a trade is more likely

[Invader3K]

I don't get the fascination with Garland. He seems pretty "meh", to me. I too, would rather see the Brewers go after Wolf, but I think his performance with the Astros last season maybe priced him out of the Brewers' pocketbooks.

 

I think the best situation would be to trade for Peavy, but that is just a pipe dream at this point.

[fondybrewfan]

I don't get the fascination with Garland. He seems pretty "meh", to me. I too, would rather see the Brewers go after Wolf, but I think his performance with the Astros last season maybe priced him out of the Brewers' pocketbooks.

 

I think the best situation would be to trade for Peavy, but that is just a pipe dream at this point.

Yeah I don't think Peavy is a good fit. The Padres sound like the want to take almost no payroll back and the Brewers would probably have to get rid of some payroll to get Peavy. Unless it is a 3 way deal I don't see it happening. The Padres will want high level prospects and the Crew will want to get rid of some contracts like Bill Hall for example.

 

maybe you could work out something like this:

 

Brewers get:

Peavy

 

Padres get:

Angel Salome

Zack Braddock

Player from team C

Player from team C

 

Team C gets:

Bill Hall

Additional player from Padres

Additional player from Brewers

[endaround]

Team C is who exactly? No one wants Hall and dumping him kills the Brewers because Lamb isn't a full time palyer. Unless Hall is part of a trade for say Washburn/Beltre he isn't going anywhere.

[nate82]

maybe you could work out something like this:

 

Brewers get:

Peavy

 

Padres get:

Angel Salome

Zack Braddock

Player from team C

Player from team C

 

Team C gets:

Bill Hall

Additional player from Padres

Additional player from Brewers

A Hall trade will only get you another bad contract in return not the salary relief the Brewers would be looking for though to add Peavy. Cameron and Hall would have to be dealt in the same deal or in a different deal entirely.

 

I would trade Gamel and Brewer for Peavy straight up though but I'm guessing the Padres are looking for pitching prospects more than positional player prospects. Even though I think Brewer would be very attractive to the Padres. I just don't see the Brewers matching up with the Padres in a trade very well and if another team needs to be involved I don't see anyone on the Brewers roster that could be expendable without making another hole.

[fondybrewfan]

Team C is who exactly? No one wants Hall and dumping him kills the Brewers because Lamb isn't a full time palyer. Unless Hall is part of a trade for say Washburn/Beltre he isn't going anywhere.

I wouldn't say that no one wants Bill Hall, I am sure their is some team out there that thinks he can play like 2006 again and will gamble with that contract. You are right about our potential 3rd base problem though. It wouldn't necessarily have to be Bill Hall, but obviously someone with a substantial salary would have to get traded in order for a trade for Peavy to work. I guess it would probably have to be one of the young arby guys thats getting a big pay raise, but then the deal probably gets much more complicated because the Brewers would need more in return.

[JohnBriggs12]

I don't get the fascination with Garland. He seems pretty "meh", to me. I too, would rather see the Brewers go after Wolf, but I think his performance with the Astros last season maybe priced him out of the Brewers' pocketbooks.

 

I think the best situation would be to trade for Peavy, but that is just a pipe dream at this point.

Garland is 106-89 and hasn't reached his 30th birthday. He has never been on the DL and has pitched at least 190 innings since 2002. He's won 18 games twice. He's never had an ERA over 5 in a full seasons, all in the AL where pitchers don't hit. He's 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in 2 postseason starts.

 

Now I understand he's coming off a year where he gave up a lot of hits, and had his worst WHIP since 2001.

 

Now he's no Ben Sheets, but he is younger, has more wins (in the same amount of ML time), has more starts, more innings, a better winning percentage, and 2 more postseason wins than Ben Sheets has postseason starts.

 

That's the fascination with Jon Garland.

[dpapo]

According to John Heyman, Tim Redding is close to signing a 1 year deal with the Mets for $2.25 million. Newsday has it at $2.50 Million.
As far as Jon Garland, there was a Brewers.com article where it states that Melvin isn't particular interested in Garland. Melvin also doesn't seem interested in Lowe or Perez, so I'm starting to wonder if the Brewers will sign another starter for the rotation or just end up signing a starter for depth as a potential 6th or 7th guy in case of injury.
As far as free agent starting pitching, probably the best that would be left would be Brandon Looper, Paul Bryd and Randy Wolf. Pedro Martinez has said that he's willing to play for any team, if you want to take a wild card chance on someone. Other pitchers like that could include Mulder and Freddy Garcia.
After that you get into the Chuck James, Odalis Perez, Livian Hernandez type of pitchers.

[Invader3K]

I thought I remembered Melvin saying he wouldn't be pursuing Lowe at all...I think it was due to Lowe not being interested in coming here.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Now he's no Ben Sheets, but he is younger, has more wins (in the same amount of ML time), has more starts, more innings, a better winning percentage, and 2 more postseason wins than Ben Sheets has postseason starts.

That's the fascination with Jon Garland.

 

People were raving about Jeff Suppan's post season studliness when we signed him, and now people are clamoring for him to go to the bullpen because he sucks. There's any number of quantifiable stats out there to measure a pitchers performance, and almost every single one of them are better than wins, winning % and post season experience.

[Ennder]

So what you are saying basically is Garland happened to get a lot of wins so he must be good?

 

He has a career ERA of 4.47 and his peripherals are trending the wrong way. If it wasn't for 2005 which wasa product of BABIP and LOB% people would think he is just another Jeff Suppan which basically is what he is. I mean I'm fine with Garland if he doesn't get paid a whole lot but we already have one Suppan, don't really need a second one at that price. I'd rather get Looper for fewer years, fewer dollars and probably pretty close to the same production.

[DuWayne Steurer]

So what you are saying basically is Garland happened to get a lot of wins so he must be good?

 

 

I'm not saying that. I'm saying wins is about the worst stat to measure a pitcher's value. Ok, not "about" the worst, "the" worst.

[MNBrew]

As far as Jon Garland, there was a Brewers.com article where it states that Melvin isn't particular interested in Garland. Melvin also doesn't seem interested in Lowe or Perez...

Funny thing is, as of a month ago, Melvin was interested in Wood & Fuentes but not really in Hoffman. Then Hoffman became the best option after the calendar turned to January and Melvin's preferences changed.

 

In other words, as the winter progresses, things can easily change and often do. As the prices drop, that's not necessarily bad.

[Ennder]

I'm not saying that. I'm saying wins is about the worst stat to measure a pitcher's value. Ok, not "about" the worst, "the" worst.

Sorry, I was responding to JB's post, I just hadn't refreshed my window since I originally opened it..

[zzzmanwitz]

News from Tom H. Doesn't look like Lowe or Perez is an option. I just hope it doesn't rule out Sheets.

 

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/37387909.html

[PeaveyFury]

I just hope it doesn't rule out Sheets.

 

From the bottom of that same Tom H post:

 

So, that shows you where I'm going with my lead item tomorrow. There's also a segment on Ben Sheets and the possibility of him eventually coming back to the Brewers.

[zzzmanwitz]

Thanks, I read the post from MLB traderumors, not from Tom H. So I never got through the whole article http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif.