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Pirates Still In Discussion For Jeff Francis
By Tom Smith
The Pittsburgh Pirates are still in the mix for
free agent left hander Jeff Francis.
It’s interesting that the Pirates have been in the discussion for over a month. It seems the Pirates are still interested. They were interested a month ago along with Seattle, Milwaukee, Colorado and Houston. Crasnick dropped all those other teams but added Mets, Nats, Texas and the Bronx Bombers to the mix a month later.
Francis will be 30 years old when Spring Training rolls around. In 2010, Francis pitched 104.1 innings and put up a 93 ERA+ and a 5.00ERA with nearly 6K per nine innings pitched with the Rockies.
Francis is one of several established (depending on your definition) starters such as Freddy Garcia, Jeremy Bonderman, Doug Davis, Justin Duchscherer, Kevin Millwood, Brad Penny, and Rodrigo Lopez that appear to be looking for short, incentive laden deals.
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