The Pirates announced six minor league free agent signings: Jake Fox, Brandon Boggs, Kyle Cofield, Jose Diaz, Shairon Martis, and Stefan Welch. Fox, Boggs, and Martis received non-roster invites to spring training. The signings of Fox and Martis were first reported yesterday by Baseball America's Matt Eddy.
Fox, 29, has a line of .237/.288/.425 in 534 plate appearances across parts of four big league seasons with the Cubs, Athletics, and Orioles. He's spent time at catcher and the infield and outfield corners. Fox has some powerful minor league performances on his resume.
Boggs, 28, hit .241/.381/.419 for the Brewers' Triple-A team this year, playing the outfield corners. Most of his big league experience came with the Rangers in 2008. Martis, 24, had 106 1/3 Major League innings in the Nationals' rotation from 2008-09. He spent 2011 with the team's Double-A affiliate, posting a 3.05 ERA, 9.9 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, and 0.6 HR/9 in 133 innings.
Cofield, a 24-year-old minor league reliever, was acquired by the White Sox from the Braves for Scott Linebrink and cash a year ago. Diaz, a 27-year-old minor league reliever, posted a 1.41 ERA and 10.7 K/9 with 22 saves for the Orioles' Double-A club this year. Welch, a 23-year-old first baseman, hit 16 home runs in 514 plate appearances for the Mets' High-A team this year.
Some of those names were posted yesterday…
Yes, I wanted a separate post for them though and the press release added some info.
Good luck with Fox. He loves hitting fastballs, just dont throw anything else at him!
I’m not sure if it’s just me/ if it’s completely irrational, but for some reason I have some random desire to root hard for Jake Fox. Don’t know anything about him really, he’s never played for my team, I’ve never seen him play- I just want him to be a boss
I think it was the swinging at a 3-0 pitch during a blowout Spring Training game last year that turned me onto him. Something about that move made me root for him to get a job somewhere.
I propose we dub it the “Wily Mo Pena Effect”
wow… spot on. My favorite Sox player ever. I’ve never been so happy with a player. so many strikeouts and useless plays, but there’s nothing like a 420-foot bomb in the 7th inning of a blowout game haha. Maybe my favorite person to watch homer besides Beltre. Also, I was gonna rip on Peña’s stats, but check out his 2004 line with the Sox… Damn.
baseball-reference.com/players/p/penawi01.shtml
Good God, Jake Fox
I think these are some pretty nice minor league signings. Unfortunately, I don’t think Boggs will see the light of day in Pittsburgh with the glut of outfielders. However, I think it is nice to see him invited to Spring Training. As for the pitchers, Martis is a nice long forgotten choice. I hope he makes the team at some point this year and Fox finally gets a chance to showcase his skillset. Maybe at 3B as opposed to catcher? As an endnote, did you notice that the Pirates tend to get a lot of pitchers whose walk totals are almost equal to their strikeout totals.
I wish the Phils would have expressed some interest in Fox, as opposed to simply re-signing Schneider because he was still standing there…
Jake Fox will be 2012’s Jose Bautista for the Pirates, after Jose Bautista was himself with the Pirates — if that makes sense?
Didn’t Shairon Martis use to pitch for the Nats?
yes, and he was pretty good too. well, better than most of the garbage we started in ’09
Stefan Welch is young and has some considerable upside.
wait… will this work?