Picking Up The Pieces

I'm big on picking up players for small money. Especially pitchers. You can never have enough arms, amiright?

That said, there's a couple of arms out there that couldn't hurt to pick up (provided they come cheap).

When the Nationals signed Joe Beimel, to make room for him on the 40-man roster, they released Shawn Hill.

Hill had a pretty good year in 2007, but he's got some health questions. His 2008 wasn't too good, but that's likely due to the aforementioned health questions.

Still though, he's supposedly healthy now, and if he is, I'd guess he'd probably be better than our other options at 5th starter right now. I think it's worth a shot if he comes cheap.

Speaking of Joe Beimel, he would've taken our spot as situational lefty out of the pen had he signed with us. Obviously, he didn't, so we find ourselves down a lefty specialist.

Well, Kansas City just released Jimmy Gobble. Keeping with the trend, he was pretty good in 2007 as Kansas City's left handed specialist.

And continuing with another trend, he didn't play in too many games last year and was pretty bad.

Anyway, he probably wouldn't cost too much, so maybe let's give him a shot. (Plus, his last name sounds like the sound a turkey makes. Hehehe.)

Finally, Chuck James is still on the free agent market.

He had a good year in 2006, and an ok year in 2007. ...and in 2008, he was injured and not so good.

Still though, he's young, he's left handed, and he's a starter. That's a good combination of qualities.

He hasn't been picked up yet, so he can't be too expensive, right?

Oh, and Pedro Martinez is still on the market ...just keeping that in mind.

EDIT: Gobble was picked up by Texas. Will Ohman is still on the market, as far as lefty relievers go. Kinda tough to get a reliever with the name "Oh man!" though. Maybe that's just me.

EDIT 2: Gobble was the only Ranger to not surrender a run against the Dodgers Sunday. Hmmm... not bad...

EDIT 3: Hill was picked up by the Padres.