More boom or bust, IMO.

Francis never relied on his velocity and could get by on lefty junk and guile. As such, even if he never returned to his pre-injury form, he could still get some outs here and there and scrape together a moderately useful season (which is exactly what happened).

Broxton's always been nothing but bluster and heat. If his velocity doesn't come back, he has no guile, he has no plan B. Either his velocity returns and he becomes a premium reliever or he is still throwing 91 mph with no command in the strike zone. At that point he either throws 4 wide and walks the batter, or he throws it right in the middle of the zone and it gets blistered.

With Broxton, I don't think you're going to have a middle ground. You're not going to end the season thinking "eh, that signing was okay"; he's going to be good, or he's going to be really really bad.

Really hope his arm aint ****ered up.

He only threw 12 innings last year and was averaging over 95 MPH in 2010.

Yes it will suck if he's still hurt, but I have to imagine that the Royals are not stupid and did the proper due diligence on his arm. Smart teams like the Rays and Rangers were also in on him.

I agree he's boom or bust. At his best he is one of the best relievers in baseball, and would be an amazing bridge to Soria. If his arm is shot we will just plug in one of our good young relievers, so it's not like our season rests on him.

Nice low risk, high reward move by Moore.

Exactly. We can still move Crowe, and Holland was a stud and really took over the setup role for most of the second half of the season. With Herrera also coming, the bullpen isn't depending on Broxton to be good. If he is, watch out. Best collection of bullpen arms in the majors.

He averaged 95 in 2010 because he threw 98 in the first half of the year and 92 in the second half.

There's no 'due dilligence' to be done right now; the surgery just happened. He's not even throwing yet so there's no way to know how he'll bounce back. The Rangers were 'in on' Brandon Webb as well. 'Smart teams' chased Ben Sheets. You simply can't know how these off-season arm surgeries will work out...ever.

It's a $4 million lottery ticket. I don't know that I'd call that 'low risk', but there's some upside there.

Actually there's plenty of due diligence that could be done. The guy didn't tear his f'n labrum. He had surgery to remove a bone spur.

So teams could research 1) what is the typical recovery time on this type of surgery; 2) how do players typically recover; 3) do players in their prime recover faster; 4) how much does this injury impact velocity....etc etc etc.

It seems like you are trying to be an ass for no reason here. Broxton is basically a year removed from being one of the best closers in baseball and he is still only 27. No one is saying this signing will lead us to the World Series, but if he's healthy it certainly makes the team better.

Sure he could flame out, but he could also bounce back in a big way. It is a worthwhile gamble.

Good risk imo... hopefully he's able to perform again and really adds to the club. If not, we didn't totally brake the bank. Gotta hand it to DM... the effort is being made. It's nice to see after all these years as sellers.

The payoff could be quite good. And as of right now, the $4 a year salary is top 2 on the team, so we certainly have the room to float a few high-reward chances such as this.

Honestly, wouldn't you rather have a significant surgery here? If it's really only bone spurs, why did it take 1.5 years to diagnose it and what damage may have been done in the meantime? If it wasn't just bone spurs, what led to the fact that his velocity and his command absolutely cratered during the 2nd half of the 2010 season. At least a fraying elbow can pointed to as a concrete cause for his decline. Bone spurs? That sounds like a last ditch effort to me. I remember the Cardinals discussing 'bone spurs' as the reason for Matt Morris losing his velocity in 2004; Morris was never the same pitcher again.

By the same token, Chris Carpenter had some bone spurs removed 4 years ago and he has led the league in innings pitched over the last 2 seasons. That said, Carpenter hasn't regained the velocity he had pre-'spurs'. Additionally, bone spurs don't just happen, they're the result of something (usually an unstable ligament or an arthritic condition). The cleanup procedure rarely solves the problem; just masks it for a bit. For Carpenter? He had Tommy John surgery within weeks of the cleanup.

And quit being a ****ing baby. I'm not being an ass at all, I'm just not sucking Moore's dick and calling a $4 million setup man that has about a 50/50 chance of being worth a shit some no-brainer move like you're willing to do.

I've watched the guy pitch a ton over the last couple of years - if you really think he lost the strike zone and started throwing nearly 10 mph slower because of bone spurs that somehow went undiagnosed for nearly 2 years, more power to you; wanna buy a bridge?. I'm simply trying to discuss the signing and provide some insight about a player I've seen quite a bit of.

There are rumors the Royals are interested in Colby Rasmus to play CF, since they may not be sure if Cain will develop an above avg bat. Soria i think would be dealt to Toronto. This move by itself doesn't make sense imo.

Ask the St. Louis fans on this board about Colby Rasmus. Then feel the love.
DO NOT WANT.

Yeah, the Cardinals fans are talking about it. Some folks seem to believe that Soria has lost his stuff and I just don't quite see it.

His velocity is down about .5 mph from 2 years ago, but that's mostly due to the fact that he's incorporated a cutter. His standard 2-seam fastball averages exactly the same 91.7 mph it averaged at his apex. He's getting more horizontal movement on his curve, more vertical movement on his change, more horizontal movement on his slider.

He's moved away from his sinker to use the cutter more; he's moved away from his curve to use his slider more and he's cut his changeup usage in half. The way he's throwing the respective pitches remains very similar, but the frequency of the offerings are now differing greatly.

He looks a lot like Jason Isringhausen looked when they started trying to use a cutter with him. The interesting thing was that we found out later that Izzy's hip was bothering him, so he couldn't pull down on his curve and wouldn't power through his 4-seamer. Hence his change in offerings. We've not heard anything about problems with Soria's base though, so that explanation doesn't make much sense.

It looks to me more like a guy that's been coached poorly, has made bad adjustments to his game and has lost confidence in himself. I think Soria is a solid bounceback candidate if he can just go back to what worked for him.

Ask the St. Louis fans on this board about Colby Rasmus. Then feel the love.
DO NOT WANT.

Rasmus is a $10 million talent with a Hollywood dad and one fragile MFing psyche.

He has 30/30 talent and he's cheap for a couple more seasons. 2 seasons ago he was arguably the best offensive CFer in baseball (and almost assuredly the best in the NL). The kid can play the game if he can just get out of his own way.

LaRussa was a terrible match for him. And maybe the AL East isn't a great fit either. Perhaps being on a midwest team with a much less domineering manager would allow him to just show up and play. That said, he really does take a shitty approach to improving his game. When I saw him in the spring, he'd go to batting practice and just swing as hard as he could. He'd go to the OF without his glove. He was just damn immature.

Get past the immaturity, unlock the talent and you'll have an All-Star on your hands. I just don't know if that's going to be as doable as it seemed a year ago.

If you thought Greinke was a headcase, Colby is just as bad... with a father that's even worse. Not really sure that is something this young team needs.