Jays sign Chad Cordero

[YogiStewart]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/01/b ... um=twitter

i love players named "Chad"

[J Dilla]

WORLD SERIERSSS

How has he done since his 35 save season?

[Skin Blues]

Another good signing from AA. Big upside, little risk. A la Joaquin Benoit and JJ Putz from last year. I have no doubt that between the additions of Dotel, Villanueva and Cordero, the bullpen will be just as good if not better than last year, all while getting comp picks and trade deadline bait/more comp picks after these short and cheap contracts are over.

[Nolan]

I like the signing. Low risk high reward.

[Michael Bradley]

Cordero prior to his injury was consistently good (never had a bad season). I believe he had shoulder surgery, which makes him a pretty big question mark moving forward, but on a minor league deal it is a very solid risk.

Since a free agent types are determined on two years worth of data, even if Cordero has a great season in 2011 I don't know if he will qualify as a Type B, so if the intent was to get a compensation pick for a short-term investment, it would be wise if AA added a 2nd year option.

Either way, pretty low risk here.

[luvtheteam]

My goodness. What a pile of scrap AA has accumulated for bullpen duty next year! I think he's using the 'sign 'em and pray' strategy. I think i'm gonna pray too because this group is scaring me.

[hyper316]

nice, so now there's a couple of guys fighting for the closer spot?

[Schad]

Most bullpens are, or were, piles of scrap. Scott Downs was on his way out of the majors when JP picked him up (5.41 ERA and 1.67 WHIP through age 28), and he turned into one of the best relievers in the bigs. Shawn Camp was notable largely for being too awful for the consistently terrible 'pens of Kansas City and Tampa...now he's a very solid seven-inning guy (though only with a good infield defense behind him). Frasor was an overage minor leaguer tossed our way for a guy (Jason Werth) who was out of options and on his way out.

This is how you build a bullpen...you take fliers on the 'does one thing' guys, where that one thing can be velocity, control, ability to induce grounders, ability to throw with their left hand, whatever. Then you try and add or refine a second thing, because having two things in the plus column is pretty much all that's necessary to be a pretty solid reliever.

[CapeCrusader]

Nice signing. Any word on the type of deal he got?

[Avenger]

his FIP seems to be under 3 over the last three years if you look at his minor and major league numbers, problem is he's only thrown 50 innings over that time period.

[Jatt]

Torn labrum, isn't that what did in Mike Sirotka's career (brilliant trade btw), but apparently coming back from that type of injury a pitcher's chance of being effective at the major league level is slim to none.

[LBJSeizedMyID]

It's a relief arm on a minor league deal. No biggie, but if he's truly healthy, could pay dividends. Only thing is he's a flyball pitcher.

[wlujaysfan55]

Nice signing. Any word on the type of deal he got?

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/ar ... r&c_id=tor


minor league deal as Michael Bradley noted above and has an invitation to spring training. Limited risk move who has the potential to be decent value.

[Hoopstarr]

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/ ... id=5987649

I always thought great bullpens were an under-appreciated market inefficiency and this article backs that up. The Os turned surplus relief arms into Reynolds and Hardy, the left side of an infield. The Padres have had great pens the last few years, all homegrown and cheap, and used some surplus to grab Cameron Maybin to roam CF in Petco. The ChiSox are doing well with Thornton, Sale, and Santos. The Giants won the WS on the backs of their rotation mostly but also their pen, all despite their poor hitting. It's a very unsexy but cheap way to add wins. The Jays had the 5th best bullpen WAR over 06-09 (http://www.fangraphs.com/teams.aspx?pos ... ason1=2006). You better believe that made up for some **** in the back end of the rotation.

[luvtheteam]

Yeah...the 4 big pillars are HItting, Defense, Starting Pitching and Relief Pitching, and all are very important. For those of us that witnessed the 92/93 world series teams, they had awesome bullpens on both teams. The guys use to say that if they could get the lead by the 7th inning the game was over. That's a huge comment if you think about it. Took a lot of pressure off the starters as they knew they didn't have to go 8 or 9 all the time. As well, the hitters would come out banging early and could relax and cruise towards the end of games.

When your bullpen is unreliable, the opposite happens. The Pitchers feel they need to go deep into games to get wins, and the hitters can never relax as they never feel they have enough of a lead. It's also demoralizing to the fans when you lose games in the late innings. Even as a fan you can never relax.

Hopefully a couple of these guys come thru bigtime. I've got my fingers crossed that AA's midas touch will continue, otherwise it's going to be a looooooooong season.

[Brinbe]

Yep, love these signings by AA. Shows you can intelligently build a bullpen through low-risk/relatively low-cost shrewd moves such as this and Dotel.

[kelso]

Torn labrum, isn't that what did in Mike Sirotka's career (brilliant trade btw), but apparently coming back from that type of injury a pitcher's chance of being effective at the major league level is slim to none.

OMG....you brought back shivers remembering that trade. Ken Williams is a dirt bag IMO and totally knew what he was doing. I blame Ash for not making the deal conditional, but we got screwed by the Sox and MLB when Selig basically turned his back on the deal. Another dirtbag.

[Blade_Runner]

Seems like AA is putting together a crew of misfits - a crew that just might stick together and push each other. Gotta love this idea, but it only works out in the movies.

[baulderdash77]

If Codero can get back his form, it's a great buy low signing. Otherwise he can sit in AAA or be released.

It's a good signing by AA.