Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Pirates sign the wrong fat pitcher
Neal Huntington signed a notoriously overweight pitcher Wednesday, but it was not Shawn
“Blimpie” Chacon, the pleasantly plump pitcher who could play a solid role with the Pirates if Opie would just sign him already. Instead, he signed Jaret Wright who was paid $7 million for three starts last year with the Baltimore Orioles and is coming off of severe shoulder soreness, albeit not surgery. Wright, who was given a minor league contract and a nonroster invitation to spring training, should be expected to compete for the ace job in Indianapolis or the John Wasdin role in Pittsburgh.
Wright is known more for being overpaid than for being obese, as he signed a ginormous contract with the Yankees prior to the 2005 season after Leo Mazzone rebuilt his career in 2004. Since signing that contract, however, Wright has been terrible, following the career paths of such notables as Cal Eldred, James Baldwin, Scott Elarton, and Darren Oliver according to Baseball Reference.
The fact that Wright did not have surgery also concerns me, as he did nothing to fix the potential problem, but instead has it still going on. If he throws too hard or tweaks something, he could exacerbate it again and then the Pirates would be stuck with having to deal with his drawn out rehabilitation.
Outside of his season with Atlanta, where he posted an excellent 3.28 ERA, Wright has never posted an ERA below 4.38 (that is even more impressive when his third lowest total is 4.49 . . . and he only came at or near that in the three seasons here). Those are not good numbers and not part of that “culture of winning” that Huntington and Frank Coonelly are so fond of speaking about.
Wright is just a terrible pitcher who is a right-handed Zach Duke if Duke’s worst case scenario comes true. That is not an image that Pirate fans should want to see standing on the mound at PNC Park next season after Duke has been pulled with one out in the third inning after giving up his fifth and sixth runs of the night.
And that is just ugly.
1 Comment
January 24th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I wish we had Chacon back too but he costs a lot more this year than Jaret Wright does. Wright stinks, but he is a nonroster invitee to camp, if he pitches lights out this spring he will get a shot with the big club for very little money, this is a low risk signing by the Bucs.
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