These are both pretty good signings. Mike Maroth has proved that a pitcher won’t break down after losing 20 games like he did in 2003 and while he took a small step back in 2005 after a pretty solid 2004 season, Maroth is one of those back of the rotation guys that each team needs. He’s left handed and he has a nice delivery by keeping the ball behind his head as long as he can to hide the pitch. I liken him to a left handed Milt Wilcox. He’ll probably never be an ace, but he’ll give you some solid innings and if you put a good team behind him (like Wilcox had in 1984), he could win upwards of 17-18 games in a season.

I look at Brandon Inge’s season a couple of ways. While he hit sixteen homeruns, he’s a light hitter for a thirdbaseman. On the other hand, if you would have told me in 2002 that Inge would be playing 160 games in a season and drawing over 60 walks, I would have never believed it. Inge followed up a breakout season in 2004 with a decent campaign in 2005. Where he really showed off was with his glove. He ended the season with 30 fielding runs above replacement (14 above average) at third base and while many point to his 23 errors, Inge is a gold glove third baseman in the making.

Plus it’s always nice to see the homegrown guys stick around. Maroth signed for 2 years, $5.25 million. Inge signed a one year deal for $3 million. That’s money well spent in my opinion.

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