Penny for your thoughts

at least there’s a high reward to that high risk.

adding another question mark just doesn’t seem desirable at this point.

Just not on Penny. I live in LA and I have seen Penny pitch a lot, and for whatever reason I really don’t like him. He has a great fastball, but it is straight and he pitches it up in the zone, therefore any drop in his velocity would lead to a big rise in his BAA and HR ratio.

… mostly because Mo could do a lot worse. upside signings that are sure to be relatively cheap and on short terms. it’s doubtful that either will reach their past peaks, but it isn’t hard to imagine both being solid contributors that don’t break the bank. since we missed on RJ, i think i’d be cool with either.

But if I think about it, I might like it less, so I’m not gonna.

I’m on vacation here, gimme a break.

My expectation is that after the Clement, Mulder, Carpenter Extension, etc. etc. Mo will not take a chance on potentially sunk costs on another injury risk.

If he does take that chance on Penny, however, I will be duly impressed. It’s interesting that a guy who is in his 30s can still be discussed like a guy in his early 20s… “Hell of a fastball” “Could be a legit No. 2”, but…. You would think that after X years of not really establishing yourself people would slot you in somewhere and move on but Penny is a guy that you can still dream on a bit.

If signing him costs us $4M and the opportunity to give $6M to the Braden Looper’s of the world I say do it and screw it?! We all can see that free agents are not knocking on the Cards door. We have to get em in, treat em good, and extend them before they hit the free market….

Is that he signed with the Red Sox for EXACTLY the kind of deal the Cards would have / should have offered. $5 Million for one year, with $3 Million in incentives if he pitches 160 innings? Even with a slightly risky pitcher, that’s a pretty good bet. The Cardinals didn’t have an offer like that available?

or do I have him confused with someone else? Even if, I don’t know that that would have been a big negative. The Cards in general and Dunc in particular seem to do well with malcontents {the dream Weaver, Floppy, e.g}… maybe not so good with the nice guys {Anthony Reyes, WonderBrad, e.g}
The latter allows me to pile on re my distemper with not offering Looper arby. Seems to me, if the Loop had done for say the Cleveland Indians the same as he did for us the last two years, we would have been pleased to have picked him up as an FA,,, a solid # 4 guy at the very least: avg 6.0 innings per start, usually gives you a chance to win, injury free and the WAY he pitches not likely to hurt himself, mechanically simple and methodical.