Thursday, January 1, 2009

More Hot Stove News: Angels Sign Brian Fuentes, Cubs Sign Aaron Miles

Also occurring yesterday were the signings of closer Brian Fuentes by the Los Angeles Angels, and second baseman Aaron Miles by the Chicago Cubs.

Fuentes had been rumored to be the Angels' top choice of closer for quite some time now, and it was only a matter of time once K-Rod signed and once Teixeira signed that the Angels would look to ink the electric lefty. They signed him to a two year, $17.5M deal with a third year vesting option worth $9M.

Fuentes has spent his last seven years pitching in Coors Field, and has kept a respectable sub 3.50 ERA since being named the Rox' closer in 2005. During that time period, he also had more strikeouts than innings pitched for three of those four years, all while holding opponents to a sub .220 BAA.

I like the Fuentes signing for the Angels, because it gives them a replacement strikeout arm to close out games, while also giving them a lefty in a bullpen full of righties.

The Cubbies signed Aaron Miles to a two year, $4.9M deal yesterday as well. Miles has spent his last three seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, with a gradual improvement in his numbers across the board, resulting in a .317/4/31/49 year last year.

This signing just puzzles me, as the Cubs have so much talent up the middle even with Mark DeRosa now in Cleveland that locking up a guy who is not the best of the group offensively to try and replace DeRosa's production is just foolish. I do not see Miles getting more than 300 at-bats this year, if he does I'll be surprised.

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