Pedro is Back!

Pedro has passed his physical and has signed with the Phillies for a reported $1m with $1.5m in incentives.

For just $1m you would think more teams would be interested. No team including the Phillies could expect Pedro to pitch a healthy half-season or even be productive when he does pitch, but all the Phillies risk here is $1m, consider it the typical "try to catch lightening in the bottle" move for the Phililes, and also consider it a solid one.

The Phillies have the 3rd worst ERA overall and from their starters in the National League. Cole Hamels hasn't been Cole Hamels, the new and improved strikeout machine Joe Blanton is still Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ has been performing over his head, Brett Myers was ineffective and then got hurt, Jamie Moyer is showing his age and then some, Chan Ho Park sucks, Antonio Bastardo isn't much of a major leaguer and he got hurt, and even Rodrigo Lopez has managed to get 2 starts in. So, it's safe to say the Phillies could use another starter. Pedro doesn't necessarily solve that problem, but he obviously doesn't hurt it. The Phillies will (and should) still try to get their hands on Halladay or a number of other starters that are available (Bedard, Washburn, Davis, etc..) but adding Pedro can only help. He's not gong to give the Phillies 100 2nd half innings, and when he is pitching it likely won't be much better than league average if that, but there current rotation features 2 starters that are worse than that, so any way you want to slice it Pedro should be an upgrade.

This isn't a move that makes you say the NL East leader just got better, but they certainly didn't get worse, and if Pedro is one of 2 replacements in their rotation (can you say Roy Halladay?) then the Phillies have to be considered the obvious favorite in their division and maybe the league.