Brad Penny has bad timing. After posting All-Star campaigns in 2006 and 2007, he seemed to be just a season away from signing a monster multi-year deal. And then 2008 happened. As Pat Lackey pointed out over the weekend, Penny was simply miserable last year, pitching through shoulder and side issues for most of the season while posting a 6.27 ERA and 1.63 WHIP.
This winter, instead of sorting through long-term contracts, he's been forced to settle on a one-year, make-good deal with the Red Sox. It's not official until he passes a physical later today, but Penny confirmed the details of his contract to Boston radio statio WEEI over the weekend: he'll earn a base salary of $5 million but can earn as much as $3 million more through incentives based on innings pitched.
"There were a lot of teams involved," said Penny in a phone conversation, "but I wanted to go somewhere where I knew we had a great chance at winning and Boston is that place."It's basically a no-lose situation. He has the talent to be a team's first or second starter, but in a rotation already loaded with the likes of Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka (not to mention an extremely capable bullpen), he doesn't have the pressure to carry the team or pitch deep into every start. Plus, with Boston's offense, even a mediocre performance this year guarantees a gaudy win-loss record, which will only help him in his quest to finally get that long-term deal.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-29-2008 @ 1:33PM
KEVIN said...
wow the redsox signed someone ,oh it's just brad i suck or am hurt penny .
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12-29-2008 @ 1:59PM
ralphgmiami said...
The post in the near future on here by Red Sox fans should be interesting. They said that Sabathia, Burnett, and Teixera would be injury prone for the Yankees so that they'd throw all their money away. Let's see what they say about injury prone Brad Penny. You know how Red Sox fans blow everything out of proportion like 26 world championships are nothing and 2 (in 2004, 2007) are everything. I guess this means that Bartolo "the Blimp" Colon won't be back with the Red Sox in 2009. Penny by the way was married to Kara Spahn, the daughter of the late hall of fame pitcher Warren Spahn. I thought she was too good looking for grunge looking Penny. The goatee makes him look like a 90s garage trash metal band rocker.
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12-29-2008 @ 2:03PM
TheHulk said...
Are you kidding me....This is a horrible signing
Why not Ben Sheets.....
Brad Penny Bl*ws...At best he was an avg pitcher in the (WEAK) National League (in a weak division).
He is going to get blown away in the (TOUGH) American league East (which is the toughest division in baseball)
The #'s
W L
2000 - 8 7
2001 10 10
2002 8 7
2004 9 10
2005 7 9
2008 6 9
Total 48-52
His best years (remember this is in one of the worst divisions in all of baseball)
2003 14 10
2006 16 9
2007 16 4
GO RAYS
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12-31-2008 @ 3:24PM
Goldie said...
Ralphie baby: there is quite a huge difference between (hopefully) 8 mill and nearly 1/2 a BILL!!!!(and Tex's contract 8 YEARS!!!!!) That's quite an expensive crap shoot and frankly I like Boston's chances better, especially with some of those nice looking, much less costly young prospects currently in Boston's farm system. Yes indeedy Ralphie.....quite an expensive crap shoot for the Yankees.
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1-03-2009 @ 9:08AM
TheHulk said...
Goldie your a dope.... If the red sox in 2008 could only win 9 games out of 18 played with the yankees ,with the yankees having no hitting (Posada, Matsui out for the season) and no pitching (Losing Wang their number 1 in early June),how are they going to do it this year (with no Manny to make David O a good hitter, can you say David O with the Twins), sorry but the partys over and your pity party starts now.
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