And it’s a minor league deal. This isn’t bank-breaking by any stretch of the imagination.

Charlie Zink for Cy 2010!

just as I had heard of Thurston, and Clement before we signed them.

I think it’s unreasonable to say that just because a guy hasn’t made it as a productive major league player they’re a “nobody”. We can’t just got out and sign nothing but productive, full-time stars, because (it may have escaped your attention) we’re not the MF Yankees. Taking a risk on a player like Zink is, well, no risk, really.

They’re just filler to pad out the AAA staff, and we’d have had to employ someone to do that anyway (we have maybe at the most 6 actual “prospects” who could start the season in the Memphis rotation, and some of those guys will need to fill in for injuries in the big club, or, like Boggs and Ottavino, may get moved into the pen for the benefit of the MLB team). So we’re not using any money at all – Zink is effectively “free” (or the mlb equivalent) as he’s paid a pro-rated portion of the league minimum for any games he plays in St Louis (i.e. – exactly the same as any of our prospects would get).

Just looking at a couple of these sort of players we’ve signed who’ve failed and saying “we’re not using our money wisely” is missing the point. Ryan Ludwick was signed as one of these sort of players a couple of years ago – and look where he’s turned out.

If it takes signing 10 Clements to yield one Ludwick, realistically, it’s probably worth it. These sort of guys just aren’t paid any money at all in MLB terms.