Pirates Sign Pitcher Tavarez

[GaryMrMets]

Pirates Sign Pitcher Tavarez

PITTSBURGH -- Julian Tavarez, who won 10 games last season for the Florida Marlins, signed a minor league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Tavarez made $2.725 million with the Marlins last year.

The 29-year-old Tavarez was 10-12 with a 5.39 ERA in 29 games. He should have a shot at making the Pirates' rotation, which features Kris Benson, Josh Fogg and Kip Wells.

An eight-year veteran, Tavarez has a career record of 60-45 with a 4.61 ERA in 427 games, including 79 starts. The hard-throwing righthander went 10-2 with a 2.44 ERA for the American League champion Cleveland Indians as a rookie in 1995.

Tavarez also has spent time with San Francisco, Colorado and the Chicago Cubs.

[GiveHyzduashot]

My goodness. Any other pitchers on the market who aren't signed? Let's invite them too! Sooner or later, we'll have enough arms for a second major league team.

Minor league deal, nothing to lose I suppose. DL is certain to catch lightning in a bottle with one of these 2,763 arms invited to camp.

[BPBlueSox]

This guy can throw some nice games...

He can also throw some horrible ones...

Not bad I guess...

[Greymire]

What are we? The poor mans Yankees? We are signing anyone with an arm to contracts in hopes of landing a solid rotation. Well, too many arms is better than not enough. Lets hope a few pan out. This guy is kind of like D'Amico in that he COULD be good.

[imgreat95]

I am quite surprised that you guys have not been more supportive of these signings of late. Especially considering that these are the same types of deals which landed us guys like Brian Boehringer... and Solomon Torres.

What this does, is create competition. Something which this organization has been seriously lacking in the spring. Last season, that competition actually found us a #5 starter, who is now our #3. Considering that we still need a #4 and #5, this gives us a number of options. Torres, Williams, Tavarez, Mahomes, Arrojo, Meadows, Arroyo. Guerrier.... and I know I am forgetting some will now all be competing for those two spots. That is really not a bad spot to be in. Not to mention that should some unforseen injury occur, look at what we now have as possible replacements. I'll take some guy with major league experioence over some rookie almost any day. Especially if we find ourselves challenging for a division title come August.

[Greymire]

Dont get me wrong here. I do not have a problem with these deals. D'Amico and Tavarez could be excellent. I just find it amusing that the Buc and the Yanks are both signing away at oposite sides of the spectrum. I think it is great to have extra arms in the system.

[GiveHyzduashot]

I don't have a problem with signing these players to minor league deals. Tavarez could excel under Spin Williams, who seems to be a very good pitching coach. I just take humor in all of the arms we're signing, that's all.

To what you said about competition, at least this will mean the 12 best pitchers come north to start the season.

[imgreat95]

I am sitting here thinking about who those 12 pitchers will be. Here are my bets as of right now, barring injury.


Starters

Benson
Wells
Fogg
D'Amico
Torres

Pen

Arrojo
Beimel
Boehringer
Saurbeck
Herges
Williams


And, as I think about it, I am cutting the staff off at 11 this season.

[Greymire]

I think that could very well be it. Meadows fans will argue though. I think Dave Willians will be the dark horse though. He was actually starting to pitch well with the injury befroe he went out and they will mant to add a lefty if they can.

[imgreat95]

I wouldn't mind seeing Williams as the #5. However, I just don't think that he will be ready by the start of the season, for some reason.

IF, they should go to a 12 man staff, look for Tavarez to grab the final spot.

[BPBlueSox]

I always like Williams too. I think he's got a pretty decent shot of making it back into the rotation...

[imgreat95]

Sorry Solomon... you just got pushed to Nashville.


We just signed Jeff Suppan to a 1 year/$1million deal. He is now inthe rotation..

[BPBlueSox]

We just signed Jeff Suppan to a 1 year/$1million deal. He is now inthe rotation

F YEAH!!! :D

[Greymire]

Suppan blows chucks!!!! Why would we waste that kind of money on him when we have guys that are just as good in D'Amico, Meadows, Torres, Vogelsong in the waiting? For crying out lous! I saw this guy pitch 3 or 4 times and he is HORRIBLE. He has a career era over 5 and is what? 49-64 lifetime? Plus he is over 30. This ranks up there with Derek Bell in my opinion. I hope he can prove me wrong, but I watched the Devil Rays hammer him. We do not need another right hander at this point. Arrojo has better career stats and we signed him to a minor league deal.

[imgreat95]

uhh.. Ralph.. Suppan has won 39 games over the last 3 seasons playing on the 2nd worst team in all of baseball. Considering that it is only a one year deal, and we signed another team's #1 starter for a measly $1million, I think it is a pretty darn good signing.

Not to mention the fact that you want your #5 guy to be a guy who can be an inning eater for you. He has thrown at least 208 innings every season since 1999. Only one guy on our entire staff has even hit 200 innings in a season, and that was before his elbow surgery. Throw in the fact that he had more complete games last year than our ENTIRE STAFF. yes.. that's right, the ENTIRE STAFF, and I think you end up with a pretty good signing for a #5 starter.

Oh.. and as for the ERA over 5, with the exception of last season, that ERA was still over .5 runs better than theleague average. I'll take that for my 5th guy.

[Greymire]

The inning part is well taken, but I still can not stand the guy. Like I said, I will support the guy because he is a Bucco, but he was on the worst team in baseball for a reason. There are plenty of teams that need pitching that would have signed him by now if he was that great. So basically we have a guy that will pitch the whole game to save our pen (which is good) but will give up 5 runs and the other team will hit over .280 against him. Oh, and he gives up around 30 home runs a year as well. Only Josh Fogg approached that number last year. I will support him once the season starts, but I am not happy about this signing. And I do not get upset about signings often. So far DL has done well for us, so I will bow to his judgement for now. Maybe he sees something I didnt when I saw him pitch. All I saw were balls hit hard in play, and that may not be good for our current defense witht he exception of the middle infield. I just hope he isnt a pitchers Derek Bell. Suppan lost seven starts in a row and was replaced in the Royals rotation on Aug 27th last year by some guy named Shawn Sedlacek.

[imgreat95]

Before last season's all-star game, Suppan had an ERA of 4.26, I believe. Post all-star, he did have some trouble, but i bet if you could find some inherited runner stats, you would also find that a lot of the "earned runs" he gave up actualyl occured while he was out of the game due to the fact that the Royals had one of the worst bullpens in baseball.

As for the homerun numbers, you have to consider the fact that Kaufman Stadium faces the North, thus baseballs fly out of there in the wind at a lot higher rate what they would at PNC. Heck, I remember seeing Kirby Puckett hit a SOFTBALL out of Kaufman Stadium.

As for teams not wanting him, teams have not really wanted ANYONE this offseason. Heck, no one even made an attempt to sign the top 3 pitchers of the entire last decade.

To me, Suppan is exactly the pitcher who we all had wanted Jimmy Anderson to be for the past 3 seasons. If you can get even 10 wins out of your #5 guy, you have yourself a good deal. LIke I said, Suppan is, in reality, only an above average pitcher. Which is exactly what you want out of a fifth.


Oh.... and he is only 28... Which isnt over 30...;)

[Greymire]

You are right about his age. This is not that old and, if he can do well is a plus. I could swear that the article I read said he was 30 something. Anyway, here is a link to his stats for those interested:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/players/3277/

By the way, rumor has it that he was once a decent hitter. I guess we will have to see on that one.

Edit note: It was on the Buccos home page in the report that they said he was 33.
http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/pit/homepage/pit_homepage.jsp

Heh! I think they need to look at the stats on CNNSI...lol!

[3-2 Changeup]

This board and our team have to be the Rodney Dangerfield of baseball. Now we're suspect of players when they sign with the Bucs like there's something very, very wrong with us....

All these vets are great. Just hope guys like Mike Lincoln, who never should have been demoted last year but were, don't get lost in the crowd given their age and recent performance.

[GiveHyzduashot]

If we had waited another week, week and a half, we could have signed Suppan to a minor league deal. I don't see any reason he should have been given a guaranteed $1 million deal. I'm also not seeing what he can give you that some other players we signed couldn't.

Maybe I'm the only person that thinks Meadows can pitch decently this year, but I would have preferred Meadows over Suppan.

If he pitches like his 1999 and 2001 forms, he'll be worth it. But if he pitches like he did in 2000 and 2002, I think we would have wasted money that could have been spent better. Only time will tell.

[imgreat95]

I may be one of the few people on the boards who was not all too impressed with his performance last season. Yes, he did have a low ERA, but that does not take into account the fact that he allowed a large number of inherited runners to score. He had the 3rd lowest WHIP on the entire team. Not exactly what you want from a relief pitcher.

[Greymire]

I wasn't overly impressed with Lincoln at seasons end either, but I looked at it from a different point of view. When he was pitching well he gets sent down and we keep guys like Lowe and Villone who were pitching horribly. Especially Villone (who just signed with the D'Backs by the way). As for Meadows, I am one of the only guys who isn't overly impressed with him. Yes, he pitched very well near the end, but he didn't have anywhere near teh velocity and movement Torres did. Yes, his control is better and that is a plus, and if we hadn't had Torres as well I would have jumped on his bandwagon too, but I think the potential for Torres to succeed is better than Meadows despite Torres age. Guys like Meadows and Fogg need to have Greg Maddux type control to excell in the bigs, I would have liked to see Meadows and Torres start in the rotation, but all the signings have virtually eliminated both from making the team (unless it is the pen and that will be tough as well). Suppan is going to make it becasue of his salary, that leaves Dave Williams, Torres, Meadows, and D'Amico (and maybe Arrojo) to fight after the one remaining slot. If D'Amico is healthy I think he is a lock since Williams will probably start in AAA in my opinion, on a rehab. The plus to this is if all of them pitch well we have guys in case of injury, or for trades. Also, lets see if Fogg can repeat (I think he can). If anyone pitches poorly they will be gone quickly in my opinion.

[imgreat95]

See, the thing about Lincoln was that even when he was sent down, everyone complained about it. I remember having a conversation with Rob Neyer at the time. He agreed with me that Lincoln was not pitching nearly as well as the general perception of his performance.

[Giles_b_rippin]

How cool would it be to have a 9-man rotation?