It’s a great add, unless they overpay.

On another blog I read they are all for signing Kiko Calero. I gotta admit I kinda agree as he will come much cheaper and has tons of experience and success as a setup guy. Capps seems like he wants to close…which would add nice depth in case Marmol struggles…but I could see this getting in Marmol’s head and constantly looking over his shoulder.

Seems to me that Pitt likes to drop players and trade them as soon as they get good to
prevent having to pay them anything close to what they are worth, or they give up on them
after misusing them or down right failing to develop them well…

Capps was 27 for 32 and there has been no mention of an injury…

Despite wanting to retain Matt and making an aggressive offer that we believed would be at or near his free-agent value prior to the tender deadline, we felt that the risk of an arbitration award at a substantially higher amount was not a good business decision for us…Obviously, we would have preferred to get something of value in trade for Matt, but given his track record beginning in the second half of 2008, his trade value was limited throughout the summer and again this offseason.

Sounds like a money decision with a little “he sucked the 2nd half” justification thrown in at the end.

Matt Capps wouldn’t have been let go by Pittsburgh if they believed he was healthy and still effective.

Healthy players are let go all the time due to arbitration rules. The process often lands players far more than they’d recieve via free agency. I’m not saying that I want Capps, that he’ll be great, or that he’s worth the $8M he looks to receive. But arbitration sees a lot of players let go that are healthy.

what?

If you count Silva in the ’pen, then they might be in the discussion.

But the pen arms at this point are (all figures according to Cot’s):
Grabow: $3.75M
Marmol: TBD made 575K last year
Guzman: TBD made 422K last year
Samardzija (maybe): $2M
Marshall: TBD made 450K last year
Gorzo: TBD made 433K last year
Gray: TBD made 400K last year
Berg, Caridad, Parisi, Gaub, Parker, Patton, Stevens would all be at or near the league minimum.

IMO, Marmol is the only TBD guy who might get a raise to over $1M. (I’m admittedly not that fluent on salary raises and/or arbitration for young guys)

So if you toss in Silva, sure they’d be an expensive pen. If you don’t count him (because he’s in the rotation or because his salary is more of a reflection on the cost of MB rather than bullpen spending), the pen is the least of our money concerns.

The team would be in a much better position had it not overspent on Grabow. I’d have much rather seen Hendry pick up Capps for $7.5/2 than Grabow.

However, I think I’d still like to see Hendry make a move that I consider a good one, regardless of him having made a previous move that I don’t agree with.

That said, I don’t really know how much money the team has to manuever with, so it might not be the most efficient use of the resources available. But I think Capps would certainly help to shore up the bullpen.

He can close for the Nats, which was one of his criteria. OTOH, if he signs there, he’ll be on another bad team that is far from the playoffs.

If he comes to the Cubs, he becomes a setup guy on a contending team, with the possibility he might close if Marmol fails. I know which one I’d pick, presuming the money is close or equal.