Other Free Agent Signings
I posted a quick remark on Jason Marquis the other day because it was an especially bad signing and needed to be vented immediately.
Here are some other bad signings (keeping in mind that it's hard to summon up too much anger/frustration/bewilderment over anything less than $5 million/year, single year contracts, or players taking a cut in pay):
Carlos Lee (Houston Astros, 6 years, $100 million) -- "A nice, round figure" -- the term can apply to the total contract salary, or to his emerging physique. The guy's putting on weight, which isn't going to help his fielding or baserunning and adds increased risk of injury. His price tag won't be completely outrageous the first year of his contract (as he'll only be making $11 million, not counting his signing bonus), and maybe even the second ($12 million), but he doesn't look like the type of player who ages well and is slated to make $18.5 million in each of the last four years of the contract (2009-2012). He's going to be a major albatross around the Astros' necks towards the end of this deal.
Gil Meche (Kansas City Royals, 5 years, $55 million) -- Sure, the Royals had to pay above market value to land the guy, but this was a bit much. I don't really understand all the hype behind Meche; he hasn't really proved himself, and, as he's 28, there must be hope that he's a late bloomer (the peak age for baseball players is typically 27). His WHIP last season was 1.43 and his ERA was 4.48, and these were both improvements over the last two seasons (both of which had ERA's over 5, and a combined WHIP over 1.50). I'd say that Meche was the most overrated pitcher on the market this year, discounting what the Cubs seemed to think of Jason Marquis. Ted Lilly doesn't seem much better, but next to Meche, taking off one year and $1 million/year makes his deal seem not so bad. A certain chemist might have an opinion on the matter.
Danys Baez (Baltimore Orioles, 3 years, $19 million) -- He put up some nice save totals in the past, but one look at his ERA and WHIP will tell you that he's not the kind of dominant reliever that kind of money should get you. Eric Gagne (admittedly more of an injury concern) only received a 1 year, $6 million contract.
Juan Pierre (Los Angeles Dodgers, 5 years, $44 million) -- Strange in that the Dodgers seemed to be getting relatively good deals on their other free agent signings (in length and/or cost).
J.D. Drew (Boston Red Sox, 5 years, $70 million) -- If he could stay healthy, I wouldn't complain so much, but he gets injured entirely too much to make so much money. Thus far in his career, he's failed to play in 110 games in any odd-numbered year, and even the even-numbered years don't show quite the regularity you want (starting with 2000: 135, 135, 145, and 146 games played -- not bad here and there, but when you miss a month's worth of games when you're "healthy", it's cause for concern). He's only had 30 homers once (31 in 2004), 20 homers two other times (27 in 2001 and 20 in 2006), 100 RBI once (100 in 2006), 75 RBI one other time (93 in 2004), hit .300 while playing 110 games once (.305 in 145 games in 2004), slugged .500 while playing 110 games once (.569 in 2004), slugged above .520 in one of his seasons of under 110 games once (.613 in 2001, not counting .972 in 14 games in 1998), walked 90 times once (118 in 2004), and had 20 doubles twice (28 in 2004 and 34 in 2006). I love stats. I've always thought Drew was overrated, but I was expecting some better numbers when I started.
Gary Matthews, Jr. (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 5 years, $50 million) -- Coming off a breakout season in which he set personal best in batting average (.313), homers (19), doubles (44), triples (6), RBI (79), runs (102), on base percentage (.371), slugging percentage (.495), walks (58), at bats (602), and, well, just about everything, he was looking to cash in. The thing is, he's 32 and I wouldn't expect much improvement from him (much more likely, 2006 will remain the best year of his career). The guy had never managed to hit .276 in a season before.
This is not an exhaustive list of players getting overpaid, just some egregious ones. Frank Thomas and Nomar Garciaparra are too likely to get injured to be worth their contracts, for instance. Prior to the season, I would have complained about Alfonso Soriano's new contract, but this season's numbers have quieted me on that front (which by no means is to say that I think he's worth every penny).
Some other new contracts worth talking about (or not, but I'm typing about them anyways):
Jason Schmidt (Los Angeles Dodgers, 3 years, $47 million) -- You could argue that he's getting paid too much, that he's declined, et cetera, but, in this market, I give the Dodgers credit, as I thought Schmidt would manage at least one more year at the same rate or higher.
Andy Pettite (New York Yankees, 1 year, $16 million) -- According to Jayson Stark, he left the Astros over $2 million. Assuming the report is correct, he was ready to take a $14 million offer from Houston, but one was not forthcoming. Personally, I lean more towards the theory that it had about as much to do with the Astros' efforts to trade for other pitchers (most notably, Jon Garland). Professional athletes are known for their big egos, and I think the trade rumors offended Pettite's as much as the offer of "only" $12 million. It seems that if Pettite was essentially using $14 million as a starting point, he might have come down a bit from that if the Astros had worked harder at negotiating. But, essentially, I view the whole Pettite thing as one big "whatever" in the universe of the 2006 offseason. Sure, it makes a difference, but I'm more interested in its potential impact on what Roger Clemens might do. Hopefully, he pitches more than half a season this time around. I hate to see a player like Clemens walk away while he can still play as well as he does (though, admittedly, for some players, I hope for a hastening in their decline), and I also hate the circussurrounding Clemens's midseason courting and signing. He's had huge problems with run support the last two years -- maybe a return to the Yankees could cure that.
Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants, 1 year, $16 million) -- I thought some option for a second year was going to appear for awhile there, but apparently not. Bonds proved he could still hit towards the end of last season (after people had started to write him off). With his knee strength built back up and the bone chips removed from his elbow, he should do decently well next year, and Hank Aaron's record is just about as good as gone. However, I believe that to calm the steroid-related debate over whether he truly deserves to be considered the top career homerun hitter, he'd have to top 800 (and even if he topped 1000, you'd still have some people saying he doesn't deserve to be considered #1). That would require coming back for at least 2008, and, barring a big rebound, I can't see Bonds playing beyond that, at least not without moving over to the American League to become a gimpy DH (such as Frank Thomas).
Here are some other bad signings (keeping in mind that it's hard to summon up too much anger/frustration/bewilderment over anything less than $5 million/year, single year contracts, or players taking a cut in pay):
Carlos Lee (Houston Astros, 6 years, $100 million) -- "A nice, round figure" -- the term can apply to the total contract salary, or to his emerging physique. The guy's putting on weight, which isn't going to help his fielding or baserunning and adds increased risk of injury. His price tag won't be completely outrageous the first year of his contract (as he'll only be making $11 million, not counting his signing bonus), and maybe even the second ($12 million), but he doesn't look like the type of player who ages well and is slated to make $18.5 million in each of the last four years of the contract (2009-2012). He's going to be a major albatross around the Astros' necks towards the end of this deal.
Gil Meche (Kansas City Royals, 5 years, $55 million) -- Sure, the Royals had to pay above market value to land the guy, but this was a bit much. I don't really understand all the hype behind Meche; he hasn't really proved himself, and, as he's 28, there must be hope that he's a late bloomer (the peak age for baseball players is typically 27). His WHIP last season was 1.43 and his ERA was 4.48, and these were both improvements over the last two seasons (both of which had ERA's over 5, and a combined WHIP over 1.50). I'd say that Meche was the most overrated pitcher on the market this year, discounting what the Cubs seemed to think of Jason Marquis. Ted Lilly doesn't seem much better, but next to Meche, taking off one year and $1 million/year makes his deal seem not so bad. A certain chemist might have an opinion on the matter.
Danys Baez (Baltimore Orioles, 3 years, $19 million) -- He put up some nice save totals in the past, but one look at his ERA and WHIP will tell you that he's not the kind of dominant reliever that kind of money should get you. Eric Gagne (admittedly more of an injury concern) only received a 1 year, $6 million contract.
Juan Pierre (Los Angeles Dodgers, 5 years, $44 million) -- Strange in that the Dodgers seemed to be getting relatively good deals on their other free agent signings (in length and/or cost).
J.D. Drew (Boston Red Sox, 5 years, $70 million) -- If he could stay healthy, I wouldn't complain so much, but he gets injured entirely too much to make so much money. Thus far in his career, he's failed to play in 110 games in any odd-numbered year, and even the even-numbered years don't show quite the regularity you want (starting with 2000: 135, 135, 145, and 146 games played -- not bad here and there, but when you miss a month's worth of games when you're "healthy", it's cause for concern). He's only had 30 homers once (31 in 2004), 20 homers two other times (27 in 2001 and 20 in 2006), 100 RBI once (100 in 2006), 75 RBI one other time (93 in 2004), hit .300 while playing 110 games once (.305 in 145 games in 2004), slugged .500 while playing 110 games once (.569 in 2004), slugged above .520 in one of his seasons of under 110 games once (.613 in 2001, not counting .972 in 14 games in 1998), walked 90 times once (118 in 2004), and had 20 doubles twice (28 in 2004 and 34 in 2006). I love stats. I've always thought Drew was overrated, but I was expecting some better numbers when I started.
Gary Matthews, Jr. (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 5 years, $50 million) -- Coming off a breakout season in which he set personal best in batting average (.313), homers (19), doubles (44), triples (6), RBI (79), runs (102), on base percentage (.371), slugging percentage (.495), walks (58), at bats (602), and, well, just about everything, he was looking to cash in. The thing is, he's 32 and I wouldn't expect much improvement from him (much more likely, 2006 will remain the best year of his career). The guy had never managed to hit .276 in a season before.
This is not an exhaustive list of players getting overpaid, just some egregious ones. Frank Thomas and Nomar Garciaparra are too likely to get injured to be worth their contracts, for instance. Prior to the season, I would have complained about Alfonso Soriano's new contract, but this season's numbers have quieted me on that front (which by no means is to say that I think he's worth every penny).
Some other new contracts worth talking about (or not, but I'm typing about them anyways):
Jason Schmidt (Los Angeles Dodgers, 3 years, $47 million) -- You could argue that he's getting paid too much, that he's declined, et cetera, but, in this market, I give the Dodgers credit, as I thought Schmidt would manage at least one more year at the same rate or higher.
Andy Pettite (New York Yankees, 1 year, $16 million) -- According to Jayson Stark, he left the Astros over $2 million. Assuming the report is correct, he was ready to take a $14 million offer from Houston, but one was not forthcoming. Personally, I lean more towards the theory that it had about as much to do with the Astros' efforts to trade for other pitchers (most notably, Jon Garland). Professional athletes are known for their big egos, and I think the trade rumors offended Pettite's as much as the offer of "only" $12 million. It seems that if Pettite was essentially using $14 million as a starting point, he might have come down a bit from that if the Astros had worked harder at negotiating. But, essentially, I view the whole Pettite thing as one big "whatever" in the universe of the 2006 offseason. Sure, it makes a difference, but I'm more interested in its potential impact on what Roger Clemens might do. Hopefully, he pitches more than half a season this time around. I hate to see a player like Clemens walk away while he can still play as well as he does (though, admittedly, for some players, I hope for a hastening in their decline), and I also hate the circussurrounding Clemens's midseason courting and signing. He's had huge problems with run support the last two years -- maybe a return to the Yankees could cure that.
Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants, 1 year, $16 million) -- I thought some option for a second year was going to appear for awhile there, but apparently not. Bonds proved he could still hit towards the end of last season (after people had started to write him off). With his knee strength built back up and the bone chips removed from his elbow, he should do decently well next year, and Hank Aaron's record is just about as good as gone. However, I believe that to calm the steroid-related debate over whether he truly deserves to be considered the top career homerun hitter, he'd have to top 800 (and even if he topped 1000, you'd still have some people saying he doesn't deserve to be considered #1). That would require coming back for at least 2008, and, barring a big rebound, I can't see Bonds playing beyond that, at least not without moving over to the American League to become a gimpy DH (such as Frank Thomas).
Labels: baseball
posted by DC | 9:15 PM
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