Rays Sign Minor League Pitchers
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays became the latest team to take chances on Bobby Witt and Norm Charlton, signing both veteran pitchers to minor-league contracts.
The signings were announced today by the Devil Rays, who also inked veteran right-hander Steve Ontiveros and Steve Cooke and Marc Valdes, who are coming off injury-plagued campaigns. All will attend spring training, except for Valdes, who will begin the season on the disabled list.
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The third pick in the 1985 draft, Witt never has lived up to high expectations. He completed his 13th major league season in 1998 by playing for the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals -- his third and fourth teams in five years. He combined for a 9-9 record and a 6.57 ERA in 31 games.
An erratic right-hander, Witt never has harnessed an overpowering fastball, walking more than five batters per nine innings during his career. He has 1,248 walks and 1,795 strikeouts in 2,226 innings.
However, the 34-year-old Witt is durable, averaging more than 27 starts per season since he broke into the majors with Texas in 1986. He enjoyed his best campaign four years later, going 17-10 with a 3.36 ERA.
Witt is second on the Rangers' all-time list with 104 wins and second with 1,405 strikeouts. He is 131-140 with a 4.73 ERA in two stints with Texas and one each with Oakland, Florida and St. Louis.
Charlton also has bounced around, pitching for Atlanta, Philadelphia and Seattle twice in the past five years. He has had two horrific seasons in a row for three different teams, going 5-9 with 15 saves and a 6.52 ERA in 120 games.
The 36-year-old left-hander is a former "Nasty Boy" with Cincinnati in the late 1980s and early '90s. He is 45-49 with 96 saves and a 3.62 ERA in 517 games for the Reds, Baltimore, Atlanta, Seattle and Philadelphia.
Ontiveros was Witt's teammate with the Athletics in 1994 and Charlton's with the Mariners in 1993. But he has not pitched in the majors since 1995, when he went 9-6 with a 4.37 ERA for Oakland and pitched in the All-Star Game.
The 37-year-old right-hander is 33-30 with a 3.62 ERA in 204 games, including 72 starts, with Oakland, Seattle and Philadelphia. In 1994, he was 6-4 with a 2.65 ERA in 27 games.
Valdes was 1-3 with a 7.43 ERA in 20 games for Montreal last year before undergoing "Tommy John" surgery. The right-hander is 6-10 with a 4.81 ERA in 82 games for the Expos and Florida.
Cooke, a left-hander, missed most of 1998 due to inflammation in his pitching elbow, winning his only appearance in the Reds' third game of the season. He has started 88 of 104 major-league appearances, going 26-36. In 1993, Cooke led all rookies in starts (32), innings pitched (210 2/3) and strikeouts (109) while winning 10 games for Pittsburgh.
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