Today Jim Bowden of the Washington Nationals signed a ton of players. Twenty one minor league free agents in all. There’s several former Rangers on that list:
Pitchers Colby Lewis, Mike Bacsik, & Chris Michalak. In addition, they also signed catcher Danny Ardoin. None of these guys were world beaters when here, although I think most Ranger fans will remember Colby Lewis as a promising pitcher who was taken down by injury and then lost on a roster squeeze to a waiver claim. Colby came up for a cup of coffee with the Tigers this season; makes me wonder if he’ll get an AL championship ring. :)
The guys over at USS Mariner had this to say about Lewis in a larger article on the big signing spree by the Nats:
Remember Colby Lewis? He was a big prospect once. He disappeared after rotator cuff surgery, missed almost all of 2004 and then didn’t pitch in 2005. And yet early returns were shockingly good last year. In Toledo, he was a little homer-prone but struck out 111 and walked 38. Next year he’ll be 27, so he’s like… a better Gil Meche? The really interesting twist here is that the Nationals got someone else to pick up the tab on his rehab, saw that he might be one of the few to return to any kind of effectiveness after shoulder surgery, and then they picked him up.
Makes you think Bowden is going for the quantity theory on the basis of you bring in a boatload of players, you might get someone decent out of the lot; fully expecting most of them not to amount to anything. I do admit to some surprise that Chris Michalak is still hanging around.
I was wondering what the hell happened to Colby Lewis. He had some talent, but never seemed to stick here. It’s too bad. I thought that he would become a solid middle of the rotation guy to back up Kenny.
Then again, I thought that Ryan Drese would be the same. Oh well…