The Nationals officially signed Tyler Walker to a one-year deal that will pay the reliever $650K if he's in the majors and $120K if he's in the minors. They also added lefty Chuck James on a minor league deal.
Walker, 34 in May, posted a 3.06 ERA, 6.9 K/9, and 2.3 BB/9 in 35.3 innings for the Phillies last year. He tossed an additional strong 19.3 innings in the minors. Despite Walker's efforts, the Phillies outrighted him in November and he elected free agency.
James, 28, had rotator cuff and labrum surgery in November of '08 and was subsequently non-tendered by the Braves. He missed all of 2009, but Rosenthal says Nats assistant GM Roy Clark saw James throwing 88-90 on Saturday. James was once serviceable, logging a 4.05 ERA over 280.3 innings for the Braves in 2006-07.
Walker and James join a long list of Nationals pitching acquisitions this winter: Jason Marquis, Matt Capps, Brian Bruney, Eddie Guardado, Doug Slaten, Ryan Speier, and Joel Peralta.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported the two deals and MLB.com's Bill Ladson and CBS Sports added the value of Walker's contract.
How about the Nats? Another expierenced reliever…
When James was with Atlanta he had a great half rookie campaign in ’06 which helped those numbers a good bit, best i remember around 11-4 with a 3.60ERA. After that he was still solid, but only for 75 pitches. That was his big problem, his splits for pre/post 75 pitches were drastic. I think as a long reliever he could return to being a solid pitcher.
To paraphrase Thomas Edison, “Tyler Walker’s genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”
BTW, I love the guy. Despite some ill-fated performances, he never made excuses and was a terrific Giant. Good Luck Tyler!
Bravo, your absolutely right. was a big fan of James. he was really frustrating to watch though. as you said after 75 it was like flipping a switch. he would also reach those 75 in about 4 innings. always seemed to run the count full. If he was a 1-2 inning guy i think that would be his best bet
Right you are Bravoboy.
He was pretty dominant in the minors and came on strong to begin his MLB career. He reminded me a lot of Glavine as a kid, and as I recall Tommy was far from great his first few years in the bigs.
In James defense he could have been already suffering from the effects of the damaged shoulder at that point, and we both know Cox is too quick to pull young pitchers at the first sign of trouble, so we’ll see (I hope).
I wish Chuck success in his comeback bid. He always seemed like a nice guy while in Atlanta.
Fat N’ Sweaty got ANOTHER job????
i always said chuck james would be a decent middle reliever. i have no idea how the braves couldnt understand that. he has two pitches and doesnt really strike guys out.
im really looking forward to being on the opposing end of a chuck james meatball, though.
Yep Walker pitched well for the Phils, glad to see he got a job.
The dude DOES have a serious sweat issue though
Seems like decent pickups low risk high reward type. rizzo is making some good deals this off season. im so glad hes the opposite of jim bowden who would only sign garbage bin, “comeback from injury/legal issues”, or former reds players. glad to see rizzo researching on players like these to see that they could have a huge upside but if it doesnt work out than nothing is lost. im excited for the season. Baseball needs to hurry up and start haha
Yeah, i got to like these moves, like what has already been said, Rizzo and the Nats are making a lot of low risk, high reward type moves, which can only help them in the end. When you go and sign all of these types of players, eventually you are going to find something worth holding on to, bravo!