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As talks have heated up and Simulation teams across the league make their moves, the Simulation Twins held their focus on the starting rotation. This afternoon they are happy to announce signings for Scott Baker, Carlos Villanueva, and Manny Parra.
"We're happy with what we were able to accomplish in the last 24 hours," said Interim GM Jesse Lund as he sat down with absolutely no media this afternoon. He went on to complain about the market for starting pitching, giving the following examples of just how off-the-charts some offers were.
- Joe Blanton to Boston for 2 years and $18 million
- Shaun Marcum to the Astros for 5 years and $52 million
- Brandon McCarthy to the Rockies for 4 years and $55 million
- Jair Jurrjens to the Astros for 2 years and $11.5 million
- Zack Greinke to the Blue Jays for 6 years and $175 million
- Ryan Dempster to the Royals for 3 years and $42 million
- Anibal Sanchez to the Brewers for 6 years and $90 million
"To be honest we were in, at some point, on most of those," said Lund. "But we are very happy with what we came out with." Below are the details of each signing.
Scott Baker: 3 years, $24 million
Lund: "It was a bit more than what we wanted to pay, but the market was shaking out against us with all of the pitchers we liked. Instead of paying more for a guy like Blanton or Jurrjens, if we were going to go longer on years and more on dollars we wanted to be as smart about it as we could be. Baker is still on the young side and has the stuff to be a solid pitcher for us over the next three years. We need to keep him healthy, but you can say that about all of our players."
Ervin Santana: 2 years, $16 million
Lund: "Santana was the last pitcher we signed today. We felt we needed one more guy who was more than filler material, and although his fastball wasn't quite where it was in years past we think there's a lot of good baseball left in Ervin. He's just 30 this year, and he's going to be a guy who can help anchor this rotation over the next couple season."
Carlos Villanueva: 2 years, $8 million
Lund: "We really like this deal. Villanueva was flying a little under the radar, but he's able to miss some bats and we wanted to reward him for that a little bit. Again, this is a guy we need to keep healthy, but the potential is there for Carlos to be a very good pitcher for us."
Manny Parra: 1 year, $800,000
Lund: "He's a bit of a wild card, but again he brings something to the table that we've been struggling to find in recent years: pitchers who can miss bats. We're not sure if he'll end up in the rotation or if he'll be helping us out of the bullpen, but Manny is a guy who slots well into any role. We'll have to see him work with Rick Anderson a bit to see if we can do some mechanical things to improve his command, but there's upside here with very little risk."
As of today, Lund envisions the Simulation Twins to have a rotation of Scott Diamond, Baker, Santana, Villanueva, and Jeurys Familia.