Fremont Bound

The A’s further strengthed their bullpen by signing left hander Brian Fuentes to a two year deal. Last week is was Grant Balfour and this week it’s former closer Fuentes.  Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed and he gives the A’s some nice insurance after Andrew Bailey went under the knife to have his elbow repaired. If Bailey isn’t 100%, Fuentes could easily slip into the closer role and if Bailey is good to go, he’ll be a very good setup man.

Fuentes is death to left handers, who hit only .211 over his career.  I like this deal a lot because the two year term makes it low risk and it’ll really help shorten up those games for the starters.

The Athletics shored up their bullpen by signing a guy with a most un-pitching like name out there.  Grant Balfour will be in the mix for two years and the Athletics will have him for $8.1 million.  Balfour was one of the many guys who had a nice season out the pen for the Rays last year and he’s yet another guy who’s not going back to that division winning team.

The past three seasons, Balfour has had two good ones and one not so good.  2009 was mediocre (4.81 ERA) but 2008 was awesome and 2010 nearly as good.  Balfour is a good platoon guy and right handers hit just .174 against him in 2010. Over his career, Balfour has just a .219 batting average against right handed hitters.

Balfour joins a solid A’s bullpen.  Andrew Bailey will close and Joey Devine will work as the setup man but expect Balfour to get his share of innings.