In the past, the Sox FO has shown an interest in signing starting pitcher reclamation projects in the off-season (Wade Miller, Bartolo Colon). I went through the list of current free agent pitchers and selected a few that seem to meet the criteria of a projecty guy. Add your own if there's a better one missing. There will likely be even more options after the non-tender deadline has passed.

Assuming it will be the case again this year, whom should the Sox pursue?

If the risk/reward no longer makes sense or it's not worth the effort to pursue another pitcher of this type, why?

Would the FO consider Schilling as a reclamation project? The money may be an obstacle but an incentive laden deal for the second half of the season my be a possibility.

How about Pedro Martinez?

Who knows if his pride would allow him to come back here for short money, but I think it would be interesting. The thing that separates Pedro from the guys you listed, though, is that 45 may just be too old at this point, and those listed probably still have at least a solid season of contribution left in them.

Here's the full list of free agent starting pitchers from mlbtraderumors.

The obnoxious side of me wants a "Clay Buchholz" option.

I chose Penny. While at first I leaned towards Mulder because of his AL experience, Penny was good as recently as last year, unlike Mulder who hasn't been good/healthy for 3 years. Penny's age is appealing as well; I'd personally rather not see the club get any older than they already are.

Mark Prior will probably draw a lot of interest as a reclamation project, but his price might get too steep for the scrap heap of spare parts he has become.

I picked Mark Mulder. Why? Because he's going to be good or healthy? No. He's just one of the only realistic options that fits the bill.

What is a reclamation project and what should Boston pursue?

The Red Sox have Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka, and Wakefield penciled into the rotation. They have Buchholz, Masterson, and Bowden to fill the 5th spot and/or sit on the shuttle.

Should they sign a gamble for the 5th spot? I can see them going for a upper tier guy like CC, but the guy son this list are not that. When thinking about this in the Colon context you want someone who will sign short and cheap (incentives) that will either immediately be a boom/bust off the bat or can start the year in the minors.

Brad Penny is not that. He is not going to take a junk contract to rot in the minors. He shouldn't at least. If he can't get a real contract then he should hook up with a team that has an open spot for him that he can step into and reestablish himself for his next deal. I would say most all those guys will definitely get immediate slots (Byrd, for example) and others (Freddy Garcia) should generate legit interest where they're getting something more secure than what Boston should offer.

So it's someone like Mulder, a guy that will hardly be thought of as a ML contract that will probably be taking anything he can get, and most definitely is willing to stick in the minors on a Colon type deal (promote me after I am healthy).

Now if any of them would take that type of situation, then I go with Penny as well.

IMO, the answer is dependent on whether the Sox get another healthy starter via trade or free agency or stand pat with their current resources.

If the Sox stand pat then it certainly makes sense to acquire a reclamation project.

If the Sox add a free agent like Lowe, I don't see the need for a reclamation project. In the past the Sox did not have the depth of MLB-ready or near-ready talent in the minors in case one of the 5 SP went down. IMO, a Colon-type of guy was necessary insurance when the Sox did not have MLB-ready or near-ready talent like Masterson, Bowden and Buchholz. Now, the Sox the have the depth they need. If the Sox get a Lowe-type of player via FA, then a reclamation project would block the use of these young guys.

If the Sox trade for Peavy or trade for a catcher and lose Buchholz and/or Bowden, then a reclamation project would make sense.

Also, I see no way that Brad Penny would ever consider such a contract offer or relationship with a club. I may be missing information about his injury, but I would bet he is expecting more of a guaranteed spot on someone's roster. Further, guys like Byrd should not be considered reclamation projects in my opinion. I can't see Byrd taking a minor league deal from any team.

Yeah, I like Penny as well, but don't know if he can be defined as a classical "reclamation project", given his age and high upside in recent seasons. While he probably can't get anywhere near a 4 year deal, I think he will want at least 2, and somewhere he knows he has a sure spot, so seems like tough fit given our needs/wants in other areas (and not knowing what the FO will do vis a vis either free agents or giving Buchholz/Masterson a shot). Garcia is probably the most interesting as far as guys who probably can be had on a one year deal. Almost shot coffee out my nose when I saw Pavano on that list. I think we should just be glad we lost the bidding for "glass Carl" the first time around and not even cast a second glance his way....

The thought of reclamation projects with pitchers is irrelevant this winter. This was done when the sox needed time for the talented young pitchers to develop in the minor league system. These pitchers are maturing and some are ready for the Show. So there is no need to bring in an overpriced older pitcher these days.

Lurker brs3:

Hasn't the front office shown past interest in Jason Jennings? Not knowing that they currently do. There still could be some life in his arm after surgery.

I picked Randy Johnson. He's not really a reclamation project, but he had something left in the tank this year and would be a pretty good wildcard to be a dominant 5th starter. I see no reason for him to sign here for anything below $10m, but if he sucks, a $12m contract isn't the biggest thing this ownership group's had to swallow in the past few years.

If Russell Martin is available and costs us taking a bad contract without giving up a top-tier prospect, I'd give Jason Schmidt a shot at $12M for '09. Worst case scenario is we replace 'Tek with Martin at around 'Tek's '08 salary and let Schmidt walk after an injury-plagued, ineffective '09. Best case scenario is we get Martin to replace El Crapitan and Schmidt reverts back to '03-'04 form.

Johnson isn't going anywhere. He's one of the few reasons the Dbacks' fans still go to games and the AZ FO knows it. Plus, the FO doesn't want to break up a rotation of Webb-Haren-Johnson-Scherzer-Davis; that's one of the few things that's right with AZ.

I decided to give this some more thought after originally voting for Penny.

First, I'm not at all certain it would take a guaranteed two years to get him. At the outset of last year's off-season, Dave Cameron said this about Bartolo Colon:


In late February, Colon signed a minor league deal with a $1.2MM MLB roster bonus and incentives.

I like Cameron's writing a lot, so it's not meant as a knock on him. And, of course, Penny and Colon aren't directly comparable. But it's an interesting data point.

Anyways, I immediately voted for Penny. Then I started to poke around and thought this was interesting:

K/BB by season:



WHIP by age:



http://www.fangraphs.com/

And for the people whose sabermetric sensibilities are offended by looking at K/BB and WHIP:


http://www.hardballtimes.com/

All of which is not to say that Odalis Perez will have a better season next year than Penny. It's just that after immediately voting for Penny without a second thought, with the hype and cost that conventional wisdom now seems to be placing upon him, now I just don't know.

Mark Prior

Hasn't pitched since 2006. Has been a wreck for the past three seasons.

If his velocity even shows a hint of coming back, I'd be all over him.

His arm certianly has a lot of pitches left in it- just not sure if it'll be at 88 mph or 93-95 mph.

If past performance is to be used as any indicator of future performance than the fact that Mark Prior has been a wreck for the past 3 seasons does not in any way indicate that his arm has a lot of pitches left in it.

If Mark Prior wants to sign for the major league minimum and accept an assignment to Pawtucket then Theo should consider kicking the tires. Even then, the $300,000 is probably better spent on a personal trainer to figure out what the hell is wrong with Clay Buchholz or even donating 4 seats to every game to poor inner city kids. Both of those options would probably give the Red Sox more bang for their buck than signing Prior.

Mark Prior is fool's gold.

I picked Pavano. He's a guy the Sox were once interested in, he looked fairly good in his late season return, he's a native New-Englander (from the half of Connecticutt that is actually part of New England) and it would be fairly awesome to get some good production out of a guy who fleeced the MFYs for three years.