Brad Penny Signs with the Detroit Tigers

I have to believe Brad Penny didn’t have too many suitors in the National League.

That’s the only reason I can think of as to why he wouldn’t sign with a National League team.

Penny has always been, and is even more so today, a NL pitcher. So it pains me to see a guy not realize where his bread is buttered.

Penny signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Tigers on Tuesday. He can earn up to $3 million more in incentives according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney.

I don’t see this ending well.

Penny has pitched 11 years in the Major Leagues and 10 and a half of them have been in the NL. The half of a season that was spent in the AL was with the Boston Red Sox in 2009.

That season, Penny had a 5.61 ERA, the lowest Groundball Percentage of his career (40.8 percent), and the second highest HR/9 of his career (1.16) in just 24 starts.

He was released in August.

It wouldn’t shock me to see Penny suffer the same fate with the Tigers in 2011.

Penny has no business pitching in the AL. He is a NL pitcher at this stage of his career. In his last two stints in the NL with the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, Penny pitched to a 2.91 ERA and had a Groundball Percentage of over 53 percent.

I watched Penny pitch throughout his 2009 season and the difference between him in the AL and NL was like night and day.

In the AL, Penny was a nibbler; he constantly had runners on base and he was just painful to watch.

In the NL, Penny was far more aggressive and challenged hitters.

He was a completely different pitcher.

If he pitches with the Tigers like he did with the Red Sox, he will be unemployed again in August.

As for why the Tigers signed Penny in the first place? That is a good question.

Penny will presumably battle Armando Galarraga for the fifth spot in the Tigers rotation. Paying a guy $3 million guaranteed to battle for the No. 5 spot in your rotation seems very puzzling to me.

Then again, bringing in guys who are in the tail end of their careers seems to be the Tigers strategy this offseason.

With $70 million coming off the books this offseason, I thought they would get younger and faster. Instead, they have gotten older and more injury prone.

I haven’t been a fan of this offseason.

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