Hey Everybody! Vicente's Back!

The Dodgers announced today that they have resigned Vicente Padilla to a one year contract worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million.

Now, I'm having trouble deciding how I feel about this.

For one, I don't care much for Vicente Padilla, the man. And that's not just me, lest we forget his Rangers teammates threw a small party when they learned he was let go from the team last year. But this is also the guy who mysteriously got shot in the leg this offseason. Seriously, did we ever get the straight story about what went down? The article on Dodgers.com said he did it, but until I just read that, I was pretty sure his bodyguard did it. Look, this has obviously nothing to do with his pitching skills. I'm just saying that this guy seems to have trouble follow him around wherever he goes.

Also, is it Vincente or Vicente? That always messes me up.

But personal feelings aside, Vicente Padilla the pitcher is a bit of a question mark.

Which Padilla is going to show up for us in 2010? Is it going to be the one who posted a 4.92 ERA in Texas for the good part of 2009, or the one who showed up in Los Angeles and had a 3.20 ERA over seven starts and made two excellent starts in the playoffs?

Also, how many innings can we get out of Padilla? In his last six seasons, Padilla only made over 30 starts and cracked 200 innings just once, in 2006.

To be honest, I was hoping to fill the #4 starter spot with Jon Garland (or someone like him, though, really, I'm too lazy to think of a comparable name on the Free Agent market). Garland is someone who has made 30+ starts in each of his last eight seasons and has gone 200+ innings in five of those (the other three ending with him in the 190 inning range). Garland's ERA, though similar to Padilla's over that stretch, seems to be slightly lower. Oh, and, in each of those eight seasons, Garland was never run out of a city, nor has he been shot or shot somebody (or both, at the same time).

But, I guess you go into the 2010 season with the team you have, not the team you want. Look, Padilla isn't horrible. He isn't good, but he'll probably give us 20 something starts and a 4.00 ERA, which for a #4 starter at $5 million isn't horrendous.

It's just, after Milton Bradley, Jeff Kent, and Manny, you start to get a little tired of the headcases.