The Giants signed left-hander Brian Burres to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to Spring Training, MLBTR has learned. San Francisco drafted Burres in the 31st round of the 2000 draft, but the 30-year-old has never played for the Giants at the MLB level.
In six seasons with the Orioles, Pirates and Blue Jays, Burres has a 5.75 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 38.3% ground ball rate. He posted a 3.86 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 14 innings with the Pirates this past season and spent most of the year as a starter at Triple-A, where he posted a 4.66 ERA with 6.6 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 129 1/3 innings.
This is nothing more than having minor league depth. The Giants make signings like this every year. Vogelsong’s resurgence was very rare, especially given that he had just little to no success prior to 2011.
Plaxico Burress had a shot..but he already took his shot..got his foot!
That’s not the ex-Pirates lefty I was hoping the Giants would target. Paul Maholm is still available and I think the Giants could sign him to a fairly inexpensive 1 or 2 year contract. I like the idea much better of Maholm as the #5 guy instead of Zito or Surkamp.