TUESDAY, 7:30am: The Tigers are on the verge of signing Penny to a one-year, $3MM deal, reports Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. The hard-throwing righty will be able to earn more through incentives in his second American League stint.
MONDAY, 8:22pm: ESPN's Buster Olney hears that the Tigers are the frontrunner for Penny's services (Twitter link). He would step in as their number five starter.
6:55pm: Brad Penny has drawn interest from a few teams this offseason, most notably the Tigers, and it appears he's close to making a decision about where he'll spend the 2011 season. The right-hander said he was "[g]etting close to finding [his] new home" on his Twitter account, and that he "[s]hould know by the end of the day."
The 32-year-old Penny missed the final four-plus months of the 2010 season with a shoulder strain, but he had pitched to a 3.23 ERA with 5.7 K/9, 1.5 BB/9, and a career high 52.8% ground ball rate in 55 2/3 innings with the Cardinals before the injury. If we remove his ugly 2009 stint with the Red Sox (5.61 ERA in 131 2/3 innings), Penny has pitched to a 3.82 ERA in over 900 innings since 2004.
Penny's injury did not require surgery, which is always good news, but the Cardinals still have "little enthusiasm" in re-signing him. Their front three was already stacked with Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, and Jaime Garcia, but they then added Jake Westbrook to the mix at the trade deadline and have since re-signed him. The Yankees, Mets, Orioles, Indians, Nationals, and Rockies are known to be seeking rotation help, though none have been connected to Penny in recent weeks.
Japan.
I sent this in!
Unfortunately its probably going to be the Tigers.
He be a heckuva closer.
“The 32-year-old Penny missed the final four-plus months of the 2011 season with a shoulder strain, but he had pitched to a 3.23 ERA with 5.7 K/9, 1.5 BB/9, and a career high 52.8% ground ball rate in 55 2/3 innings with the Cardinals before the injury. ”
MLBTR: Seeing the future since 2006.
Signing Penny would not only provide Galarraga some competition, but would provide insurance in the extremely possible event that Phil Coke does not transition well to the rotation.
Get ready for the terminology- “incentive laden”
No harm in signing Penny I suppose. Give galaragga some competition, and add some depth to the rotation as well.
I’d be cool with Penny being signed. Give Gally some competition and provide some depth if Coke doesn’t work out as a starter. As long as its low guaranteed money and incentive laden, nothing wrong with it…except that he’s another righty, LOL.
How is Coke going to start, he didn’t throw that many innings last year. I guess they see him as another CJ Wilson.
I guess they will try stretching him out in Spring training. He should be able to go at least 5 to 6 innings for the first year. Bullpen gonna have to be on high alert on those days though.
Coke as a starter- Joba rules come to MO town
That might be the case if any other team was as dumb as the Yankees. Clyde 2.0 (but obviously different ways).
As a RED SOX fan, I liked Penny for the first 2 months of the season…after that he totally fell apart.
It comes down to him being a NL pitcher. He’ll fail in the AL Central too if that’s where he ends up.
Too bad because I always liked him and had real high hopes for him in Boston.
Why aren’t the Nationals in on Penny?
I would sign Penny, still can pitch and would make a good #5 for the Tigers. I wouldn’t worry about his poor pitching Boston, it means nothing. Look at Vasquez last year he pitched horrible for the Yanks and the year before he almost won the Cy Young for the Braves. Pitching is very unpredictable unless your a Verlander type. I would go with Penny over Coke for two reasons: one already a starter with experience and upside, and two Coke only threw 64 innings last year, plus Coke has done the job in relief.
You just supported the argument of why he makes more sense for an NL club rather than the Tigers. Vasquez “pitched horrible” in the AL after doing well in the NL. Penny seems to have the same history at this point. If someone can give me Penny’s stats with Boston that somehow show his worst games were always against the Yankees and Rays then I’ll reconsider but I think NL is his best chance for success. Except now he’ll sign in Detroit and be amazing so yeah I don’t think anyone can say for sure. Just a trend.
Any pitcher would do better in the NL. His season in Boston was the outlier, not necessarily attributable to the league.
it would be interesting if the Blue Jays took a flyer out on him. He could replace Marcum’s innings if he stays healthy. I would be happier with Penny over Litsch. Maybe AA can pull off a one year incentive based contract?
White Sox? They need another starter until Peavy. Once he is back, move Penny to the pen, where we know Kenny likes flamethrowers.
sox are set, he’s going to motown
I think it us a good sign for Detroit Gallaraga stinks ( unless he’s facing the indians)
The tigers would be better off letting turner or Oliver fight for the 5th spot
Penny would be a waste of money
Yeah Turner’s got a whopping 115 innings of pro ball under his belt, and got as high as A-Ball last season. Time for him to get the call.
That is a terrible idea. Turner needs at least another year of seasoning, and Oliver showed in his stint last season he needs more time in the minors. Why throw them to the wolves so soon?
Penny will be signed somewhere on a 1 yr, incentive laden deal. 1 yr deals are hardly a waste of money for an instance like this, Penny provides depth, competition for the 5th spot, and if he can recover from his injury, he can be more than serviceable as a 5th starter.
Nationals, Yankees, Orieles are missing out!
I don’t understand why people think gallaragga isnt fit for the 5th man. He won 15 games just a few years ago and his era was no different than Jake peaveys this year. He has a decent number of quality starts and has flashed brilliance in more than just his perfecto. He is as solid of a 5 man as anyone else and it’s not his fault he gets no run support. He’s thrown 2 one hitters for losses in his career for gods sakes…
I really wish you were the Tigers’ GM instead of Dave Dombrowski.
I wouldn’t mind him as a Met honestly.
I could see the Mets signing him. Only to a 1 yr incentive laden deal. the Mets clearly has the biggest need for a SP of any contending team.
You’re very kind to consider the Mets contenders.
When you have been exposed to Oliver Perez, you wouldn’t mind Mark Eaton either. In seriousness though, Penny isn’t the worst option in the world as your #5 for Detroit. I wasn’t a big fan of his ‘tude in LA towards the end, but at the end of ’08 he did kind of get screwed by Torre when he got bombed in a post-rehab mop-up appearance prior to the playoffs… I think he had a week or two to take another stab at it but got sent home. Anyway, water under the bridge on that one.
Nor would I.
Penny is another Mark Prior or Mark Mulder. Good when they pitch, but they average about a good six starts per year. They have spent the majority of their careers on various disabled lists. But, teams keep taking the gamble. Last year the Cards spent 7 million gambling on Penny. This year they raised the bet and went 8 million on Berkman. Some teams just don’t learn that just because a player has the talent, doesn’t mean he makes a good major league player. Some bodies just don’t hold up over the long haul. Penny is an example.
Penny made 30 starts as recently as 09…just sayin’.
He has 30+ starts in 5 of his 10 season and 29+ in 6. Prior and Mulder combined have 5. Not even close.
Ok… initially I thought the Tigers were the slight favorites for the division. Now I’m going with the White Sox.
2 things on Penny, first he only had one season in the AL with the redsox, where he faces the AL East teams where there is only one for sure win and that is the O’s. If he signs with Detroit he will have the opportunity to face the Royals and Indians which are considerably worse than any O’s. Second he is a former Leyland and Dombrowski guy from the Marlin days. I’m sure he will fit in nicely in Detroit.
At least you won’t have to worry about him injuring himself on hitting grand slams.
It’s the Tigers. On Twitter a fan (GLBaseBalling25) wrote “2011’s the year of the Tiger!” and Penny wrote back “@GLBaseBalling25 I hope”
Penny was killed by the AL league. I don’t expect to see a different result because he’s playing in Detroit. At least, Detroit’s long relief will be able to earn their paychecks…
This guy is fools gold. Can’t stay healthy and a streaky pitcher. Have fun in Detroit Brad and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Its a good thing Tigers are gonna use him a #5 starter and not a 2 or 3 and have a bit of depth with Andy Oliver and Galaraga because the chances of him staying off the DL is somewhere between 1 and 10 percent.
Rotation depth is rarely a bad thing. If he isn’t anything more than competion for your fifth starters then Penny is a good add.
$3 mil for 1 year is a great deal for the Tigers.
Also, for those who say Penny was terrible in his short stint in the AL, consider that his BABIP was .336. In fact his FIP with the Sox was 4.49.
As a Brewer fan, I for one am glad the Cardinals aren’t bringing back Penny. That means Lohse, on the basis of a “Jeff Suppan like” contract, is by default their 5th starter and who, PJ Walters? behind them, they are really dependent on 35 year old Chris Carpenter not regressing and staying healthy all season and Jaime Garcia not having a sophomore slump.
If it is $3 million, then I totally called that one a few weeks ago.