Moonshiners Monitor, Vol. 1.10: Greenville adds two SPs

[lchronister]

Though the Greenville bullpen was the team's biggest pitching issue last year, the Moonshiners front office also felt it needed one more starter behind Jay Lee and Corey Haim.

In attempting to make sure the team got one addition to the rotation, Greenville ended up with two.

The Moonshiners signed starters Israel Martinez and Hipolito Pichardo to mutli-year deals earlier this month, committing more than $15 million this year to the pair.

"We didn't expect to sign both pitchers," Greenville general manager Levi Chronister said, "but we were in a bidding war for Israel, and since no one was offering any sort of contract to HP we figured we'd throw out a cheap offer and see what he'd say. We didn't expect him to take it."

Martinez went 12-11 with a 3.57 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 183 strikeouts and 86 walks in 231.2 innings for Hawaii last season, starting 33 games and finishing six of them. The 6-foot-7 Dominican throws gas (97-99 mph), can go deep into games, keeps the ball on the ground and does a great job holding runners on base. He has four pitches, three of which (fastball, curveball and changeup) are very solid.

Pichardo, who was looking for more than $12 million a year when free agency started, signed a two-year deal worth a total of $12.5 million, with $7.5 million coming this year and $5 million next. He went 16-10 with a 3.32 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 164 strikeouts and 74 walks in 233 innings. Like Martinez, he started 33 games and finished six. The 27-year-old isn't the hardest thrower (89-90 mph), but he can go deep in games, keeps the ball on the ground, holds runners on base and is a Diamond Glove winner, as well.

Signing both pitchers means the Moonshiners will have to move either Ray Weighill or Kenneth Logan to the bullpen. It looks like Weighill is the leading candidate to stay in the rotation at the moment, but both pitchers are tentatively on the trade block to see if there's interest in either of them. If no one bites, though, moving Logan to the bullpen can only help improve the team's chances later in games.

[lynchy34]

I couldn't go that high on Martinez. He should be a pretty nice addition.

[lchronister]

I couldn't go that high on Martinez. He should be a pretty nice addition.

I wasn't crazy about going that high, but it was still a bit below my breaking point, and I would have been OK with you or someone else paying him more. After Louisville destroyed my offer to Doherty I needed to find someone. Martinez's ratings aren't as high as some, but he pitched well last year and I like him having 3 completely developed, high-quality pitches.

[ronzonie7]

Interesting. SP was definitely the area the Shiners lacked. Logan frustrated the crap out of me.

[lchronister]

Interesting. SP was definitely the area the Shiners lacked. Logan frustrated the crap out of me.

Yeah, his numbers seemed a lot worse than they should have been based on his talents. He looks a lot better as a reliever, though I'm not sure how pissed he's going to be about being in the 'pen.