18 May 2007

The Braves bullpen has been beleaguered so far this season by injuries and a couple weak links in a pen that was thought to be one of the better ones in baseball. Blaine Boyer, Phil Stockman, Joey Devine, and the likes are all options but a possibility emerged a couple days ago that former Angels closer Troy Percival could make a comeback. Ken Rosenthal has the story on Fox Sports.

The four-time All-Star closer, who retired as an Angel on Opening Day, resumed throwing about a month ago and is serious about reviving his major-league career, according to his agent, Paul Cohen. "If you would have asked me in spring training or April the likelihood of him coming back, I would have said 10 percent," Cohen told FOXSports.com. "I would say now it's 50-50." Percival, 37, has not pitched since July 2005 due to an injury to his right forearm. But he recently tested his arm by throwing six straight days and reached 97 mph, Cohen said.

The†37-year old right hander last pitched for the Tigers but pitched only 25 innings over the extent of his 2-year $12 million contract. Obviously if it is true that he is hitting 97 again with a good curve, then there will be big interest in Percival. Percival's agent Paul Cohen, who also represents Tim Hudson among others, has said that hisfirst choice would be returning to the Angels, but with a lot of money already sunk into their bullpen this offseason, I would think Bill Stoneman wouldn't move to add more there. Schuerholz could use some of the money he saved on Hampton's insurance to offer a 1-year $1-2 million contract. Imagine having a bullpen†Rafael Soriano, Mike Gonzalez, Bob Wickman, Troy Percival, Peter Moylan, Tyler Yates, and Oscar Villareal/Blaine Boyer/Macay McBride in the pen for Atlanta. If the Angels pass on Percival, I think this would be a great move for Schuerholz to make. You bring in a great veteran presence to go along with Bob Wickman and a fairly low risk, high reward arm into the pen.