Giants Sign Bob Howry

As much as I wanted Furcal I would much rather have Affeldt, Howry, and Renteria for Furcal money. I think the Giants should sign what they need and not settle for whats left even if they have to wait till next year to spend the free'd up money they have.

Lou didn't overwork him, the problem is his velocity was down by about 5mph over his previous couple seasons.

Well his numbers should improve. He gets a fresh start and a chance to pitch in more friendly pitcher parks. I wish him the best, he was a good guy in chicago he just didnt pitch very well at times, but when he gets rolling hes usually pretty solid. I think as a 7th inning guy he would be very effective.

Like this signing a lot for the Giants, he's a decent enough middle relief arm. They're starting to build a pretty decent pen.

Thank god for Sabean !

At least he's trying to do something to make this offseason more interesting if nothing else.

He was a good guy, but man did he regress the past couple years. I wish him the best.

"Howry just fell apart last season."

Howry's BABIP last season was .352. He was unlucky. He'll do decently in AT&T Park.

By the way...a pitcher with one pitch and no movement is bound to have a BABIP around .350. There is zero deception.

lol@the NL west fan trying to look down on the NL central? How many teams in the west had a 500 season? 1?

"lol@the NL west fan trying to look down on the NL central? How many teams in the west had a 500 season? 1?"

I believe the # of teams over .500 in the NL West was 1 more than the number of championships that the cubs have won in the last 90 years. Clown the NL west all you want, but the Cubs are the biggest joke of a franchise in all of sports...so keep the jokes comin funny man.

I'm speechless at some of these comments.

Did a fan from the NL West just call the NL Central weak?? LOL. You can't blame Cub fans for being happy the guy is gone. He was very solid his first 2 years here but last year, my God was he awful. Aduncaroo is right, he's a one pitch guy and the fastball lost substantial steam last year. He used to sit at 93-95 pretty consistently and last year was around 90-91 most of the time. When you only throw a 4-seamer, that's not going to get it done. He's good guy ( I actually ran into him at Chipotle on an off day last year and he was really nice), but he's a power pitcher on the wrong side of 35, which means the velocity dip is likely going to continue.

Oh, and to the guy who called the Cubs a joke...your franchise gave $126 million dollars to Barry Zito.

One a one year deal, for that money, this is a good signing.

I'm guessing an ERA+ of 110 next year.

Sorry for the accidental double-post there guys, anyone know how to delete a post? :)

Gotta love when a SF Giants fan wants to talk trash about championships. You do know that the San Francisco Giants have never won a World Series right? You do also know that the Giants currently hold the third longest championship-less streak in the MLB... and the two teams with longer streaks have far superior teams right now and much greater chances of ending their streaks right? The last time the Giants won a World Series, Willie Mays was 23 and had his breakout season that year. While 100 years is extremely pathetic... 55 years isn't much better.

Oh, and that "weak" NL Central had 4 teams 10 games over .500 last season (compared to 2 teams combining for a total of 8 games over). 5th place Cincy would have finished 3rd in your division just by their final record... and probably would have been competitive with a .500 or better season... considering they had a better winning percentage against the division than all but LA, ARI, and SF as it was. The NL Central vs the NL West in 2008: 112-88.

Now, the Astros, Cardinals, and Reds will all improve on this past season. The Cubs, at the very least, will remain about the same. The Brewers will probably slip a bit, but will remain competitive. The Pirates could either go forward or backward at this point. The Dodgers will fall back if they don't re-sign Manny and can't replace Lowe. The D-Backs should improve. The Padres will free-fall... again. The Rockies have taken quite a few steps back. The Giants can either move forward or slip backward a couple of steps depending on a couple of possible upgrades.

Howry, while he probably won't be as bad as he was this past season... he's still not going to be anywhere near good. Overworked? The guy barely pitched at all in August and September! Remember, Howry was terrible until a remarkable September in 2007... when he was lighting the radar up at 96 quite frequently. He never hit 95 all of 2008... and rarely hit 94. For a 1-pitch, former flame-thrower... that's not a sign of good things to come. Plus, his 4-seamer has lost almost every bit of movement it ever had. How many MLBers can't hit a low 90s, straight fastball... and drive it for 400+ feet with regularity? For that matter, how many collegiate benchers can't?

However, for a team trying to rebuild through youth... he's a good guy to have at a cheap cost to eat innings, since the Giants aren't even dreaming of competing in the next 2 maybe 3 years. If the Giants were looking at competing this year, it would be a questionable (at best) signing.

LOL, buh-bye Batting Practice Bob. He was great his first year in Chicago, but last year he was pathetic. I get the impression many here have not watched him pitch a lot. He has ONE pitch. He throws it OVER and OVER and OVER. It has NO MOVEMENT. And it's no longer very fast.

You can get big league hitters out for an inning if you can dial it up 95+. Howry made a career of it. But when it drops to the low 90s or worse? If there's no movement, it is OVUH.

I like the Affeldt pick-up, but good luck with this signing, Giants will regret it.

Cubs fans do die hard.

Umm, maybe Minaya is waiting for Burgos and J. Lima as bullpen help??

haha. I hear that Ugeth Urbina's getting out of prison soon. Maybe he can be the 8th inning LOCDOWN guy!

And Bleacher bum SF,

did you really just reference a NY Giants world series? that's hysterical. I'll bet 99% of the fans on here weren't alive for that.