The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that former Colorado starting pitcher Josh Fogg is about to sign a one-year deal with the Reds. The deal is reported to have a base salary of $1 million.
Fogg went 10-9 with a 4.94 ERA in 2007. You would think that Fogg would be penciled into the rotation, along with Harang/Arroyo/Belisle, which would leave the fifth spot open for a competition between Homer Bailey, Jeremy Affeldt, Edinson Volquez, and perhaps Johnny Cueto. It might also give them the opportunity to move Affeldt back into the bullpen where he clearly belongs.
On paper, this seems like a huge steal for the Reds. Fogg was expected to receive a multi-year deal on the open market, but didn't find any suitors (not unlike Kyle Lohse). As the RMN report states, he played chicken with the Rockies when they offered him a one year, $5 million deal, telling them that he wanted more than one year. Now he's left taking a one-year contract.
Fogg should be a decent stop gap hurler. With his soft-tosser profile (94 K's in 165.2 IP in 2007), there's going to be plenty of opportunities for hitters to put the bat on the ball. Over the past couple years, Fogg has been allowing more flyballs and keeping the ball on the ground less, so that's a concern in GABP. But this will keep things together until both Bailey and Cueto are ready for the bigs permanently, and for very little money.
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