Picking up Jon Garland is not a sexy move, but it's an essential one.  It'd be like picking up Velma for your mystery solving gang.  She's the one doing all the essential tasks like being logical, deciphering scientific formulas, reading foreign languages and losing her glasses. After all that work she then lets a couple of bumbling idiots accidentally solve the mystery.

Jon Garland doesn't get a lot of strike outs, he doesn't walk a lot of players, he doesn't have very good stuff, he just has a rubber arm that eats innings - like Shaggy and Scoob eat Scooby snacks.  When Garland eventually loses his glasses velocity, he did his job of paving the way for our bumbling bullpen to come in and let Scooby Doo Heath Bell be the hero.

So while I don't expect to be buying tickets and yelling "YES! Jon Garland is pitching tonight!" while pumping my fist furiously, he is just as essential to the Padres completing the season as fertilizer for the lawn and nacho cheese.  And really you can't ask for a better endorsement than that.

Garland links after the jump:

• Padres Add Garland to Rotation – Ducksnorts
  "Garland’s main assets are durability and reliability."

• Padres hang hopes on high-priced Garland - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "San Diego has one of the last pitcher’s parks," said the 6-foot-6, 205-pound Garland. "Petco Park is a place where I saw myself pitching."

• Padres round out rotation with Garland | padres.com: News
  Free-agent right-hander Jon Garland has agreed to a deal with the Padres, pending a physical, likely completing the club's five-man starting rotation.

• PADRES: Garland added to 2010 rotation
  "If people look past this team they're going to be surprised. ... We can creep up on people."

• Is Jon Garland really worth $5.3 million? :: Friar Forecast
  If we say that Garland’s addition adds two wins to the Padres projection, now they are an 81 win team. That increases their playoff chances by 6% — to a whopping 18%.

• Padres Sign John Garland :: Friar Forecast
  "The projections that are out are pretty much in agreement on Garland. He is expected to produce a FIP around 4.5 in about 190 innings. That is solid, valuable performance, and worth approximately 2 wins ($7MM) above replacement."

• Padres Splurge On Garland
  Did you think the Padres were going to spend over 5 million on a free agent pitcher? Neither did we. But was the money well spent on 30 year old veteran Jon Garland, or should that cash have gone to a big bat like Xavier Nady? Get the 619 Sports guys’ take in their latest podcast

• XX Sports Radio: Corey Brock Interview (MP3)
  The Padres' beat writer for MLB.com joins Coach to talk about the signing of starting pitcher John Garland formerly of the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Angels.