Red Sox Close To One-Year Deal With Penny

I have to say that as a Yankees fan I like my pitchers big, fat and grimey. Thats why I wanted CC for years and Penny for years as well. I dont want the Yanks to sign him just cause Boston's hot on his trail but its certainly a bonus. If they want to pay him thats fine with me because he's always hurt anyway. I think its a low risk-high reward signing for the Sox and I honestly hope he does okay (just not against the Yanks).

i guess this means no to lowe?

another colon? with better upside

"sophisticated system for dealing with pitching shoulders"

um how did that work out for matt clement? hasnt pitched since june 2006

Obviously it doesn't work on all pitchers Zack but Red Sox do have one of the best systems for dealing with injuries.

I love this for the Sox and I hope they sign him. I love low risk/high reward for the #5 spot. Remember that Penny can pitch like an ace when he's at his best. Hope this works out.

um how did that work out for matt clement? hasnt pitched since june 2006

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Or Curt Schilling..

against AL Teams: Red Sox, Tigers, Angels, Yankees, Twins, Mariners, Rays, Rangers his lowest ERA is 4.99 and up to 11.57

I've been wondering this all off season. Sheets was amazing last year. Yes he is an injury risk but for 2 years/30 million (which I'm sure is quite realistic...they might even be able to get him for 26) is not a bad deal at all. A rotation of:

Beckett
Lester
Matsuzaka
Sheets
Wakefield/Bucholz/Penny/Masterson

thats a very very sold rotatio

granted he has arm problems, but any one else remember the all star game where he came in throwing 99 for an inning...potential kerry wood style use him in the bullpen less taxing on the arm? maybe bowden to the rotation depth? just another idea if his arm doesnt hold up for starting low risk some potential nothing to lose plenty to cash to waste after missing out on tex.

penny did throw hard, but it didnt equal strikeouts. just 6Ks/9innings for his career

I don't really see Beckett or Wakefield as injury risks..

Maybe they haven't thrown out Colon's uniform yet. Bad move. Pitch the kids - Bowden/Bucholz/Masterson. Save the $

you dont see beckett as an injury risk? right and jd drew isnt injury prone either right?

Is there anyone who would take Beckett, Lester, DiceK, Penny, Wakefield over CC, Burnett, Wang, Pettite/Hughes, Joba anyway?

Tim, anyway you can get a poll up choosing the best roto between bos, nyy and tb?

This means the Mets are a little closer to Derek Lowe.

Has Beckett missed more than half a season in his career?

I wonder which team will avoid the dl bug this year. I'm betting Boston will fair better than NY, simply because of AJ and Joba's injury history. Should be interesting to see if Hughes will be able to stay healthy as well.

i wasnt aware this was about the yankees staff now??

I didn't know "missing half a season" means that your injury prone. being on the DL 10 times in a 8 year career equals injury prone.

I believe that C.C. is the regular season ace and Beckett is the post season ace.

Brad Penny career ERA+: 106
AJ Burnett career ERA+: 111

Beckett is one of the greatest postseason pitchers over the last few decades I agree, especially if you exclude his performances this past year. All this talk about the signing being a win win however, none of us even know what the guy is going to make???

Yeah, it's a risk, but it could work out well for the Red Sox. Penny is not that far removed from his dominant period....

Yeah, we all have to keep in mind that it's not like they are signing him expecting him to be the staff ace. He might not even make the staff. As long as they got him cheap then it doesn't really matter.

Remember that Penny can pitch like an ace when he's at his best. Hope this works out.
Posted by: Umair

you guys should read the whole convo before you put your opinion in. that's who i was responding too about the "Ace" comment

Exactly '78...every big market team can do this. Afford to take a risk.

Agree with Zach overhere. Besides if hes so good why are all the sox fans on this board calling him a great number 5? Surely if hes got anything in the tank at all hes going to beat out a guy whose well over 40 and went 10-11 last year for the number 4 spot no?

I hope he winds up rehabbing in Pawtucket until September. He's not-so-solid.

The Red Sox also have more starting pitching depth, with Buchholz and Bowden ready, so they are much better prepared to deal with an injury. Who do the Yankees have when Burnett decides he needs a couple weeks off?

You guys really think this is a good signing? The guy is 31 years old, he's coming off an injury last season, he's 260 pounds which means he may be falling downhill fast. Looking at the 2007 signing, the numbers are pretty flawed to me. He had a 1.31 WHIP, Randy Johnson on the other hand had a 1.29 WHIP and he had a 4.0 ERA. Penny walked 73 people, and gave up 199 hits in 208 innings, do the math that's almost 9 hits per 9 innings. He only struck out 135 which isn't that great. He pitches in a pitchers park, and he pitched in a weak division, he should have good numbers. He never pitched more then 200 innings, only twice he did that in like 8 seasons. I would have went after Lowe if I were the Sox and not someone like Penny.

bowden has pitched 1 game in the majors and did you watch Buchholz pitch last year or just going off the no-hitter from 2 years ago?

I would rather have the Japs Kawa-whats his face.

Zack, way to blow that out of perportion and cherry pick the numbers. If you look at his numbers pitching against AL teams, he's only pitched 23 games in his entire career against an AL opponent. Compared to 245 games started total and that is about 9% of his total career starts.

And you just so happened to leave out the numbers from when he pitched against some other teams, such as the Athletics where his ERA was 1.29.

Overall, very small sample size to look at.

I hope he winds up rehabbing in Pawtucket until September. He's not-so-solid.

Posted by: KingOfTheBritons | December 28, 2008 at 05:22 PM

+

The Red Sox also have more starting pitching depth, with Buchholz and Bowden ready, so they are much better prepared to deal with an injury. Who do the Yankees have when Burnett decides he needs a couple weeks off?

Posted by: drchstrpunk | December 28, 2008 at 05:24 PM
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sad that every post about a yankee or red sox deal ends like this...

i'm unapologetic regarding my hatred for all things boston, but c'mon already.

I suppose it's just a coincidence he failed against the eventual World Champions the last two years he was in the playoffs. Of course we should discount that the games he played before that he showed no fatigue what so ever.

Everything is a "negligible amount" when compared to the NY's payroll.

fausto carmona and john lackey and kelvim escobar also pitched bad against the red sox in 2007.

carmona: 19-8, 215ip, 3.06erea
lackey: 19-9, 224ip, 3.01 era
escobar: 18-7, 195ip, 3.40 era

so it wasnt just CC who pitched bad, maybe boston was good??

"I suppose it's just a coincidence he failed against the eventual World Champions the last two years he was in the playoffs. Of course we should discount that the games he played before that he showed no fatigue what so ever."

Again, he'd already pitched 240 and 250 innings by the time he got to the playoffs. Yes, it is a coincidence that he lost to the eventual World Champs. He didn't really pitch that well against the Yankees in the 2007 ALDS either. If you don't think there's fatigue after pitching on 3 days rest for 3 straight games, I don't know what to tell you. As for no fatigue... he gave up 4 runs to the Cubs, 4 runs to the Reds, 1 run to a bad Pirates team and 1 run to a AAA Cubs team.
And in 2007 the one time he faced the Red Sox during the season in July he allowed 1 run in 7 innings.

Again, fatigue. Believe it or don't. There's a reason the Rays don't want their young pitchers picking up a ball all off season and want them to delay their off season training. Sabathia threw over 500 innings the past two years.

teagarden straight up for buchholz?? please, buchholz lost all his value last year. add bowden and 2 other prospects and then the rangers would deal you teag or salty

Now that the Sox's 5 man rotation is set I would make the deal for Salty. He'd be a nice fit for Boston.

He pitched at least 7 innnings with a low 3 era that entire sept 2007 season prior to the playoffs. He also pitched in his regular rotation with extra days off before the Boston series. I think Boston and Philly had more to do with his failures than "pitching fatigue". I don't think you should easily dismiss his playoff history. Though there is a chance that you may be right that NY's superstars...Arod..etc might take the pressure off him in the playoffs. I doubt it though.

enough about CC vs RedSox in 2007

just scroll up and read my post how Boston beat Lackey, Escobar, CC, and Carmona.

Don't bother arguing with them Zack. That's the only argument they can use to bash the Yankees signing CC at 160/8. If some other team had signed him, like, Boston, then you wouldn't see any comments like that.

Of course the point above is moot since NY would just overbid Boston again to get C.C.

Zack:
you really like to run your mouth dont you? why dont you sit back take a break with all your stats and wait for the season to start. you seem like the kind of yankees fan who thinks they've already won it all. stats change every year. no year is the same. look at volquez last year. came out of his shell. lester had a bad season just like buchholz did. he came back and torched every1 last year. sit back and keep your espn stats to yourself.

Bucholz wont get traded even after this signing, if it happens.

no risk signing, really.
plus the sox are good with "rehab" projects. (not including chad fox). and jo(h)n farrell is one of the best pitching coaches in the majors.

this move more, or less, just adds depth to the the rotation, which is now 6-7 deep.

and i'm gonna come out and say it...

curt schilling is going for a "clemens like pro-rated" deal. if, or when the sox need another pitcher after june/july, he could be the man.

and, big mouth or not, i'd take "big game" schilling in my rotation any day of the week.

and i forgot to mention..........

FRIGGIN' jets!!!

also have to mention they give up no draft picks to make the signing.

Cherry picking era numbers is fun. CC Sabathia career ERA in Yankee Stadium 8.61. You guys better hope they changed the dimensions a lot I guess.

12 million is negligible? For a player the team does not even have an open spot at their position? You must make more money than I do.

Zack, I love how you talk about Buchholz being useless going forward and yet think that Hughes has some sort of value. Buchholz was named the #7 prospect by mlb.com, #2 by Baseball America, and given an "A" from John Sickels last season, while Hughes was ranked lower on all of those. Both has miserable 2008 seasons and for some reason Buchholz has gone from being universally regarded as a top 3 pitching prospect, and, a better prospect than Hughes, to having no value. Whereas Hughes still has value. Care to explain this seemingly Yankee-bias based discrepancy?

Posted by: gnick55 | December 28, 2008 at 06:18 PM

Hughes didn't qualify as a prospect last season, so I'd love to see where he was ranked lower than Buchholz on a 2008 prospect projection... And Zack didn't say he'd be amazing, he responded to someone saying the Yanks have no depth IF AJ gets hurt to give a laundry list of players that had Hughes included.

I'm really surprised at the venom of the responses to Zack here. Yeah, sure, he may be showing a little bit of bias, but do you really think he's "cherry-picking" stats when he shows what Penny's ERA against the teams of the AL East are? Can't someone be critical of the pickup - let alone an overweight SP with a bloated ERA last season (yeah, because of injury. Because of SHOULDER INJURY, aka stay away) in the worst offensive division in baseball...

That said, I personally think it's a smart low-risk/high-upside signing for a potential #5. But seriously, after all the hate on the boards saying signing CC and Tex was awful, you'd think a man could claim Penny's not a great addition with everyone blowing a gasket.