Diamondbacks claim reliever Brian Sweeney off waivers

We have claimed veteran reliever Brian Sweeney off waivers from Seattle. The 36-year-old righty was 1-2 with a 3.16 ERA in 24 appearances for the Mariners. He also pitched with the Padres in 2004 and 20'06 under then-GM Kevin Towers. Overall, in 73 big league games, he has a 3.38 ERA.

Doesn't seem too bad a way for Towers' dumpster-diving bullpen rebuilding to start, even if Sweeney's FIP in 2010 was a good bit higher at 4.57 - he was the beneficiary of a luckily-low BABIP of .237. However, even that 4.57 figure would be a better ERA than anyone with a meaningful number of games, likely to be in the 2011 Diamondbacks 'pen, except for Blaine Boyer. Though a few of them did have better FIP's [Sam Demel, D.J. Carrasco and Boyer]. Guess you can't have too many arms. He does at least avoid the bete noire of our bullpen and doesn't walk many people.

It's perhaps worth noting that, in his three-year stint in Japan from 2007-09 with the marvelously-named Nippon Ham Fighters [so-named, because they are owned by the company Nippon Ham], he was mostly a member of their rotation. Sweeney started 63 games for the Fighters, with a 4.10 ERA. Given our needs, one imagines he'll be used out of the bullpen, but you never know...