Jason Marquis: No ace but fills a need

Let's face it. Everyone would love for the Twins to have found an ace up there sleeve that they could have played next year in their starting rotation, but was never realistically going to happen and it might be for the best. I don't know much about Jason Marquis except for the few articles I've been reading on him since he signed with the Twins, but he obviously is not a flashy pitcher who will rack up the Ks and strike fear into opposing teams. Once you get past that however, I think Twins fans need to take a look at the positive things Jason does bring to the 2012 Twins' team.

• He's been seen as an innings machine in the past. With Carl Pavano being the only Twins starter to throw over 200 innings last year, it was an obvious need to find someone who is likely to reach that accomplishment. The best thing about this is it keeps the bullpen fresher so in a way the Twins just upgraded their bullpen by finding a way to have them throw less innings.
• The bullpen is also upgraded due to the fact that Brian Duensing will be moved from their from the starting rotation. He likely will be an improvement over a lot of the pitchers who were their last season.
• Marquis is also a guy that sounds like a good character guy. Of course this is overstated often about players and we have no way to know how true it is, but he sounds to be a student of the game (very important for pitching) and one who gives 100% playing through pain at times and not making excuses. Last years team lacked leadership some have hinted and you want people like this in any business or team. I'm fairly comfortable saying that Jason will be good in the clubhouse and especially for the younger pitchers.
• The price is right. I don't like the Twins self imposed salary crap more then anyone else but given the financial constraints they were working in, they didn't have cash to spend on a huge strikeout starting pitcher. 3 million for one year won't break the bank and let's be honest. A lot of things have to break right for the Twins to be in contention this year. It's not the time to tie up a lot of money in a long term deal for a pitcher. That would likely handicap them moving forward.

Pitching is always a tricky thing to predict. Unless you have Johan Santana or Mariano Rivera it's hard to know what you are going to get. Francisco Liriano is still the Twins best shot at a true ace and while I highly doubt that will happen, he was actually a pretty decent pitcher in 2010. Who knows how things will shake out this year but I'm actually more confident in Jason Marquis at this point so that itself is a good thing. Let's cut the guy a little slack. This could tern out to be another unspectacular but useful signing.