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January 01, 2009

Turnbow Signed

Texas signed reliever DERRICK TURNBOW to a minor-league contract.

Turnbow will receive $925,000 if he makes the team plus $325,000 in incentives. After doing little for Anaheim, he was selected off waivers by Milwaukee in October 2004 and proceeded to save 57 games over the next season-and-a-half. Since then, he's been pretty terrible. After a rough July 2006, Milwaukee relieved him off his closing duties by acquiring Francisco Cordero from Texas. Turnbow deserved better than the 4.63 ERA posted in '07, but in '08 he fell off a cliff. Turnbow was outrighted in May, went unclaimed, and toiled for AAA Nasville in order to retain his $3.2 million salary.

Here's Turnbow's line since July 1, 2006, including the minors:

IP
H
HR
BB
SO
HB
WP
113
102
10
122
141
11
22

AVG
OBP
SLG
BB+HBP %
SO %
.239
.412
.364
23.4%
24.8%

Yes, Turnbow has walked or hit nearly one of every four batters faced during the past two-and-a-half years. Last year's rate was 36%. He also largely abandoned his breaking pitch (83% FB) and lost nearly three MPH off the velocity displayed during his heyday. That said, Turnbow may still be useful if he can pull his freebie rate out of the stratosphere. He generates plenty of ground balls and pop-ups (career .274 BABIP, .348 slugging percentage). Not a bad signing as long as his evaluators are clear-eyed and cold-blooded in assessing whether he has anything to offer.

Posted by Lucas at January 1, 2009 06:14 PM