Jeff Samardzija Is Now Signed As Well, Five-Year Deal With the San Francisco Giants

Per CBS Sports . com.

The Giants didn't wait long after losing out on Zack Greinke, so perhaps they had Samardzija in mind to begin with.  The bad news is this guy is a big drop from Greinke - he had a lousy year last year with the White Sox, leading the league in home runs allowed.  In fairness, U.S. Cellular Field (a.k.a. Comiskey Park) is prone to home runs, so it might not have been all his fault. 

The Giants really didn't have great starting pitching last year other than Madison Bumgarner (4.8 WARP) - Chris Heston and Jake Peavy checked in at 1.5 WARP apiece, and the rest of the starters (Mike Leake, Tim Lincecum, Tim Hudson, Ryan Vogelsong, Matt Cain) combined for 0.1 WARP.  Of those five, only Cain is signed for next year (Hudson retired and the other three are free agents), so there were holes to fill no matter what.  Still, Samardzija is a guy who's had one really good year (2014, with a 3.7 WARP, or Wins Above Replacement Player), so it wouldn't be shocking to see buyer's remorse kick in within a year or two.

Here are his stats on Baseball Reference.

Zack Greinke to Sign With Arizona Diamondbacks

Again, per CBS Sports . com.

This is a big surprise; it was assumed for a long time the Dodgers and Giants were going to be the two main bidders.  Greinke had a huge year last year (9.3 WARP, or Wins Above Replacement Player) and has had 21.1 WARP over the last four years overall.  He is 32 years old, but he's been pretty solid (he's only had two seasons in the last eight where he made less than 30 starts, and both of those seasons were 28 apiece), and he doesn't seem prone to injury.  He had some issues with social anxiety disorder in 2006, but that hasn't been a problem since then.  Should be a good pickup for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Greinke's career stats are here on Baseball Reference.

Chicago Cubs Sign John Lackey to Two-Year Deal

Per CBS Sports . com.

This is kind of a surprise; I knew the Cubs were in the market for an additional starting pitcher, but I didn't know Lackey was in the mix (especially since he's coming from their arch-rivals, the Cardinals).  Pretty decent year last year, and 9.6 WAR over the last three years (he had Tommy John surgery in 2012).  The only down side is he's 37 years old, so it's hard to say when his fastball will slow down.  Seems like a pretty good acquisition, with two caveats:  1) per Ken Rosenthal, the total payment to Lackey over the two years of the deal will be $32-$34 million, which may be a lot if he slows down, and 2) since St. Louis made a qualifying offer, the Cubs forfeit their first round draft pick to the Cardinals.  On the other hand, given the Cubs ineptitude in the draft - between Mark Prior in 2001 and Kris Bryant in 2013, the only 1st round pick over a 5.0 WARP is Josh Donaldson, who never actually played a game in a Cubs uniform (he was dealt to the A's a year after he was picked) - maybe that's just as well.

Lackey's Baseball Reference page is here.

Tigers Reported Ready to Sign Mike Pelfrey

According to Jon Heyman at CBS Sports . com, anyway.

On first glance, this is a gigantic so-what.  Pelfrey will be 32 years old when spring training opens next year.  He's had two pretty good years, where he accumulated a combined 5.7 WARP (wins over replacement player); unfortunately, those years were 2008 and 2010.  Over the last five seasons, he's had a combined 1.6 WARP, and 1.4 of that was last year, when he won 6 games, lost 11, and put up a 4.26 ERA for the Twins.  Frankly, this is a guy that I would be looking at after most of the dust has settled in the winter market, not early on.

Perhaps Detroit, having already signed Jordan Zimmerman, is looking to finish up its starting rotation.  However, Detroit's problem last year was, aside from the now-departed David Price, they got a decent (although not spectacular) year out of Justin Verlander, and a lot of lousy out of everybody else.  The team's starting pitching finished dead last in the majors with a -8.1 WARP, after having finished second in the majors in 2014 at 7.4 WARP (behind the Washington Nationals, who also dropped last year, but not by anywhere near that much).  No Detroit pitcher, other than Price and Verlander, who started more than five games had a WARP above 0.1.  They lost Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello from the 2014 team (Scherzer was still excellent last year, Porcello was not), but Anibal Sanchez and Alfredo Simon, who were expected to be good again last year, both tanked.

Detroit has got to fix this if they have any hope to contend (which is going to be hard in a division that features the World Series champion Kansas City Royals and the steadily-improving Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins); the problem is Zimmerman and Pelfrey may not be anywhere near enough.  I guess the thinking is Pelfrey will be a lock to be decent, but I don't see a lot of evidence to make that guarantee.

Here's Pelfrey's stats at Baseball Reference.