Penny would be a higher quality veteran than most options to take late season starts away from the pitchers hitting their innings limits. At his best, he was darn good. He has no velocity problems so there is no evidence of an injury problem. He has not been good in August, but had a long stretch of effectiveness in June and July. In the AL East, he was a 5th starter who, due to injuries, was asked to pitch in more important games. Throws a lot of pitches and has not been going deep into games.
If you believe that it is easier to pitch in the NL than the AL, you might be able to convince him that he could come here, show what he has in low stakes settings, and "try us on for size." If he likes it, we might be able to sign him. It might even be to his advantage to sign short so he could hit the market again in 2011. I don't know if he will be a Type B (my guess is no), but we can offer arbitration because he's coming off a low base salary year.