A Penny saved, a Penny earned??
Sorry again for the terrible title of this entry. I’m trying to get all of the puns out of my system before the season starts…
Anyhow…Brad Penny is officially a member of the Red Sox…official release below. Thoughts??
By the way, the boiler in our office still seems to be broken. Seriously, most of my co-workers are wearing jackets all day long. One very fragile co-worker has even been seen wearing his winter hat while at his cubicle.
It’s quite the scene here in the Front Office…
All the best from a very weekend-eager Front Office!
“The Voice of the Nation”
RED SOX SIGN FREE AGENT RIGHTHANDED PITCHER BRAD PENNY TO ONE-YEAR CONTRACT
BOSTON, MA–The Boston Red Sox today announced that the team has signed free agent righthanded pitcher Brad Penny to a one-year contract through the 2009 season. No further terms were disclosed.
The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.
Penny, 30, went 6-9 with a 6.27 ERA in 19 games/17 starts for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008. He struck out 51 and walked 42 over a career-low 94.2 innings after spending three separate stints on the disabled list with injuries to his right shoulder.
He began the season going 5-2 with a 3.19 ERA in his first seven starts through May 2 but lost each of his next seven decisions and was placed on the 15-day disabled list on June 17 with mild tendonitis in his right shoulder. Penny was limited to four games/two starts over the remainder of the season due to two more trips to the D.L., including a season-ending 60-day stint that began on September 24.
In 2007, he posted a 16-4 record in 33 starts and set a career-high with 208.0 innings pitched. The righthander led the majors with a .800 winning percentage, tied for second in the National League with 26 quality starts and ranked third with a 3.03 ERA. Penny was named to his second consecutive All-Star team after starting for the senior circuit in 2006 and finished third in 2007 N.L. Cy Young Award voting.
Penny is 94-75 with a 4.06 ERA in 249 games/245 starts over nine years in the major leagues with the Florida Marlins (2000-04) and Dodgers (2004-08). He tied for third in the N.L. with 32 total wins from 2006-07 and ranked eighth among N.L. qualifiers with a .600 winning percentage from 2004-07, and 10th during that span with a 3.61 ERA.
He has a 3-2 record and 6.26 ERA in eight career post-season appearances and joined Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell on the 2003 World Series Champion Marlins, going 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA in two starts against the New York Yankees in the Fall Classic.
Penny was originally selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fifth round of the 1996 First-Year Player Draft. He combined with lefthanded pitcher Luis Arroyo on the first no-hitter in Portland Sea Dogs history on August 8, 1999, his first game in the Marlins organization following a mid-season trade from the Diamondbacks.
The Red Sox today also outrighted righthanded pitcher Charlie Zink to Triple-A Pawtucket. Righthanded pitchers Virgil Vasquez and Dewon Day were claimed off waivers by the San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays respectively. With the addition of Penny, these moves put Boston’s major league roster at 39 players.
Red Sox Insider Blog 
Did you hear that Smoltz is such a good golfer that Golf Magazine (I think that one) ranked him #16 out of 250 professional athletes who are golfers.
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
Nice news, seems like a good move. Also, I was happy hear that Mark Kotsay will be a Red Sox for 2009…he definitely came through in the pinch in 2008!
So that just leaves the obvious hole: When are we going to sign Jason Varitek???
I am puzzled as to why it seems that Theo is trying to ruin Jason Varitek’s career. We ALL want him in Boston,true. Tek is only 36 years old, why would Theo only want to sign him for one year?? Who in baseball ends their career at age 37 when they are not injured? Our Captain is still young and strong and smart, he is an exceptional basebal player,and a prepared,professional leader in the clubhouse. He gave up his whole life for baseball, and only wants to play in Boston, so why is he not getting the respect he deserves from the front office by signing a multi-year contract? Theo just signed Smoltz, and he is a fossil. Tek needs to come back for serveral years,he is still young, and deserves our loyalty. Dragging the negotiations out undermines the confidence we as fans have in our ballclub and its management. WE WANT TEK ! WE WANT TEK !
P.S. Hopefully Penney will work out well & stay healthy too.
Hi Fruitgirl,
I agree completely we want and need Tek back in ’09! I’m not so sure “he gave his life up for baseball” is one of the reasons, though. 🙂 Tek pursued his desired career and has been very successful at it–and has been well compensated for his efforts.
At this point, I can only think there’s something private going on, some issue, some incident that happened, that we don’t know about and probably won’t find out about…Theo’s a smart guy and there must be a good reason (beyond a bad offensive season and Tek’s age) why he’s playing such hardball with Tek…and clearly he his playing hardball (offering arbitration, which I’m sure Theo knew Tek wouldn’t take, shrinks the market for Tek because of the draft pick issue).
I’d also really like to think there’s something more going on than business as usual…That is, I agree that Tek deserves a lot of consideration for his past efforts and past contributions…He’s got two WS rings for cryin’ out loud. So Theo’s behavior here is a bit puzzling–unless, as I’m guessing, we don’t know the whole story.
“Voice,” we haven’t heard anything from you on this (beyond a prediction that you’d get more “Sign Tek!”) comments in some time…can you add anything here at all?