With the Economy the Way it is, You're Lucky You Get Soup.

Earlier today, Brad Penny cleared waivers and is in the process of joining the Giants in their effort to keep hold of the NL wild card.

Au Revoir Mon Penny.

When they first brought on Brad Penny, I wasn't overly impressed with the move. But the longer he was around the more he grew on me. Asking to be released was probably a pride--You can't fire me, I quit--thing but I think that I'm going to miss him. He had a good couple of months in there. He has a ready laugh. More importantly, nobody (as far as I know) asked him how he thought his buddy was going to do on Dancing with the Stars. And that mess of a last start wasn't completely his fault, the bullpen did him no favors. (But I can't be mad a Michael Bowden. He has the cutest little accent-those flat "a"s kill me.) Best of luck to Penny with whatever he ends up doing.

And I Laughed.

It's not funny. Or, at least, it shouldn't be funny. Like the Lugos and the Javier Lopezs of the team, I find myself trying to stick up for Brad Penny. I don't like when guys get picked on, especially when most of the time it isn't entirely their fault that the team lost. But when Tom Caron Freudian-slipped that Bad Penny would be pitching tomorrow, I got a case of the giggles.

And what I really wanted to write here was that Penny had gotten the best of the Rays hitters that he had faced. But, sadly, that isn't the case. Pat Burrell has seen him the most and has ten hits in forty-two at bats (three home runs and a double) with three walks. He did strike out twelve times, though. Kapler has three hits in seven at bats but two of them were home runs. You could make excuses and say that those at bats would have come last year when Penny was hurt and Kap was red hot, if you wanted to. Haverhill and Crawford are both one for three. And Gabe Gross is one for two with a walk.

After having been called out by Tom Caron hopefully, tomorrow's game goes well for Penny.

A Trip to the Dime Store.

Perhaps believing in the more dire second couplet "Find a penny, let it lay, and you will have bad luck all day" of the "Find a penny, pick it up..." poem, the Sox have officially picked up Brad Penny. I don't know. For the same reason I wouldn't have picked up A.J. Burnett or Josh Beckett, I wouldn't have touched him. Of course, I was mostly wrong about Beckett. Hopefully, I'm wrong about Penny too.

In more bargain basement pitcher shopping news, the Sox have also picked up Penny's former and future teammate from the Dodgers, Takashi Saito. Saito was good in 2006 and fabulous in 2007. An elbow ligament injury (some sources say it was sprained, some say it was partially torn) put the kibosh on his 2008 campaign from July 16 to September 13. If he can be healthy, then it's a fabulous pick-up.

Having said that repeatedly over the past week or so is a little nerve-wracking. This practice of filling out the roster with members of the walking wounded is worrisome. Chances are that some of these guys won't pan out. But *fingers crossed* in Theo we trust. Right?