In his tenure with the San Diego Padres, Kevin Towers developed a reputation as a bullpen expert. His expertise in this area made him a prime candidate for Arizona, who had the worst bullpen in the league last season. In his introductory press conference with the Diamondbacks, Towers expressed his beliefs when it comes to assembling relief pitching.

My goal here is put together a bullpen that’s better than San Diego’s. To me, it’s several weapons. A bullpen’s not just the closer. To me, you should have five to six guys that can pitch in the seventh, eight, or ninth inning against the middle-of-the-order hitter and be able to get a strikeout.

Towers began the rebuilding process on Monday, acquiring David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio from the Orioles for Mark Reynolds. While Hernandez and Mikolio aren’t exactly household names, they could end up playing key roles in Towers’ next dominant pen.

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Even after the recent signings of Adam Dunn, Aubrey Huff, and Victor Martinez, there are still a number of intriguing older first basemen left on the market. Unfortunately, many of those players share a similar flaw: each has peaked in terms of production at a position that doesn’t typically age well. Given the four-year deals handed to Victor Martinez and Adam Dunn, and the two-year contract given to Aubrey Huff, these older sluggers have to be wondering if they too are in line for a multi-year deal.

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We’re excited to be debuting two new writers today, of which Chris is the first. We think he’ll be a great addition to the site and think you’ll enjoy his writings on a regular basis here.

While Jorge de la Rosa took his title as the second best free agent starting pitcher to the market, he eventually decided that he didn’t want to go anywhere and re-signed with the Rockies. He received two guaranteed years with a third-year player option, which will be followed by a fourth-year team option if de la Rosa decides to stay on for a third year. Depending on that fourth year, de la Rosa is expected to make either $31.5 or $42.5 million over the length of the contract. Does the reward justify the risk?

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