After weeks of speculation, the Detroit Tigers officially signed former Cardinals starter Brad Penny to a 1-year deal worth three Million. Best known for his time with the LA Dodgers (or for the fact that he's engaged to a woman who used to date Slater from Saved by the Bell—honest!), Penny marks the third significant newcomer added to the Tigers roster and potentially fills a need for a starter.
Penny is coming off a back injury that cost him most of his 2010 season with St. Louis and is attempting to pitch again in the American League after a short stint in Boston in 2009 that was largely disappointing.
Theoretically, Penny was brought in to be a back end rotation guy and I believe that will be the case rather than long relief. He has a lot of experience and was even an All-Star starter as recently as 2006. He should add a veteran presence to a young pitching staff.
You will hear criticisms that he won't be able to make the adjustment from National League to American League just as you heard about Max Sherzer last year. Since he wasn't signed to be a top of the rotation starter, however, he seems to be a good low risk/high reward type signing.
The interesting question going forward is how does this signing affect the rest of the pitching staff. It seems as if Armando Galarraga lost his starting job, but perhaps the signing means that the Tigers are having second thoughts about moving Phil Coke to the starting rotation. Jim Leyland has proved to be a huge believer in the situational lefty.
Before Coke last year, Bobby Seay and Jamie Walker both were excellent in that role and guys that Leyland had no problem turning to when lefties were up in late inning situations. If Coke actually moves to the starting rotation, that leaves journeyman Brad Thomas and Daniel Schlereth as the only lefties with a real shot at sticking in the bullpen. Thomas is purely a long relief guy and could be relied on heavily for that role with the loss of Eddie Bonine to the Phillies and Zack Miner to the Royals.
To this point Schlereth hasn't proved to be dependable enough. He may assume that role long term, but it wouldn't be like Leyland to turn it over to him immediately. Instead, it can't help but set up a possible return to the bullpen for Coke, which itself brings a question. Do they go into the season with five right handed starters or does the highly touted Andrew Oliver replace Galarraga in the rotation?
The lineup appears to be pretty well set with only left field and second base offering any questions at all, but both the rotation and bullpen have questions to be answered. It's only January and we're in the middle of a blizzard in Detroit, but I can already feel a Spring Training battle heating up and I'm looking forward to one of my favorite times of the year.
I encourage you to leave comments on how you think the Brad Penny signing will affect the pitching staff.
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