The Dodgers continued their trend of bringing back local boys who once pitched for the Dodgers by signing Jeff Weaver to a minor league deal.
Weaver made 34 starts for the Dodgers in both 2004 and 2005 and went 27-24 over that span and posting ERAs of 4.01 and 4.22 respectively.
Since then, however, not so good. He's only posted a sub-6.00 ERA once since then (15 games in 2006 with St. Louis).
Here's the worst part. He didn't even pitch in the majors in 2008. Not a good sign. What's worse? In nine games for Milwaukee's AAA team, he posted a 6.22 ERA. He was released by Milwaukee and ended up on Cleveland's AAA team. He posted a 6.07 ERA in 13 games there.
When you are getting lit up in AAA, your future in the majors doesn't look good.
So... uh... welcome back Jeff!(?)
EDIT: The Dodgers also signed Eric Milton to a minor league deal. Milton also didn't pitch in the majors in 2008, partly because he was recovering from Tommy John surgery and partly because he's not good. In any case, he's cheap enough, might as well give it a shot.
Just a quick post to say Happy Trails to Andruw Jones. He was, of course, released by the Dodgers earlier in the off-season, however, he's now found a home in Texas.
On a side note, good luck to the Texas Rangers.
The Dodgers added an arm to their rotation Thursday, by signing Randy Wolf to a one year deal worth $5 million.
This is Wolf's second stint with the Dodgers. He went 9-6 in 18 starts in 2007 for the Dodgers.
I'm all for this signing for a few reasons. For one, it ends the constant speculation that we will sign Randy Wolf. We signed him, now the speculation can end. That works well...
Also, it gives us a good set of arms at the top of our rotation. It means (at least as long as Wolf is healthy) that we have four bona fide starters in the rotation and we won't have to rely on Shawn Estes or Claudio Vargas that much.
Finally, it's a cheap and short term contract. If Wolf pans out, good, we can resign him next offseason. If he gets hurt though, or pitches badly, we aren't paying him that much, and his contract will be done by the end of the season.
Either way, it's a pretty good signing.
Wow. The last player profile. I thought this idea might stretch out my material for a while, but it almost brought me up to spring training. Anyway, here's the last one, and it's well worth it.
Player: Yhency Brazoban
2008 Stats: 0-0, 6.00 ERA (2 games)
2008 Analysis: Wow. Remember when Brazoban was our closer of the future? Me neither. Brazoban has been a mix of injured and not good over the past several seasons. His stats show that I mean that literally.
2006: 5 games, 5.40 ERA
2007: 4 games, 16.20 ERA
2008: 2 games, 6.00 ERA
This season, he gave up two earned runs on three walks and four hits in three innings off work. And then he got hurt. Good microcosm, though.
2009 Outlook: The Dodgers signed Brazoban to a minor league contract and gave him an invitation to Spring Training earlier in the offseason. Honestly though, I'm not holding many high hopes.
Player: Tanyon Sturtze
2008 Stats: 0-0, 0.00 ERA (3 games)
2008 Analysis: Tanyon Sturtze pitched 2.1 innings for us. Three games. Actually, to be honest, I remember him better as the pitching coach during the last game of the season when Nomar Garciaparra acted as manager for the day.
Sturtze is the guy who was signed by us, came up, pitched a little, then got Designated for Assignment, and instead of leaving, just asked to hang out with the team. And Joe Torre let him. So Sturtze was part reliver/part roadie for us in 2008.
2009 Outlook: Up until a few weeks ago, I would have guess retirement for Sturtze, but the Dodgers signed him to a minor league deal a few days ago. Why? I have no idea. All I can say is, I hope we don't end up using him. That being said, knowing Joe Torre, he'll be in our bullpen by July.
Weaver made 34 starts for the Dodgers in both 2004 and 2005 and went 27-24 over that span and posting ERAs of 4.01 and 4.22 respectively.
