Eric Wedge, manager of the year.
So at least our regular season play is getting props 
Barry Bonds, obviously. The Manny Ramirez deal worked out just fine for the Red Sox. A-Rod’s been more than worth it to the Yankees, and to be honest he earned his keep in Texas, too, the problem was that nobody else on that team did. I doubt a lot of Cardinals fans are upset about Albert Pujols’ big deal.
Dreifort’s signing was just plain stupid. I mean, it was terrible, but there’s a pretty big difference between giving big money to an MVP player and first-ballot Hall of Famer, a guy who just pours the runs across the plate and has established himself as one of the true elites in the entire history of the game, and… Darren Driefort, whose was basically a nobody and whose contract was, I assume, the result of some kind of weird nexus of desperation, insanity, and a very bad guess as to how much salaries would increase in the short term.
The Dreifort signing was the dumbest signing in baseball history. Chan Ho Park was a disaster, but at least you can look at the fact that he had a very good track record and say “well, that didn’t work out, but you can understand why they took the chance.” In terms of giving huge bucks to a player who had very little established credentials AND did nothing afterwards to justify the contract, it might actually have been the dumbest contract in the history of professional sport. It’s not really a basis for realistic comparison.
By the way, the player the Tigers trade for was not Juan Pierre but Jacques Jones.
Bad Trevor.
Kevin Brown was proven commodity when he signed the ‘richest contract ever’. Jason Schmidt was proven as well.
The Giants have could not have been worse last season. And if Bonds wasn’t chasing a record, the Giants would have parted ways with him sooner. And been better off. Bonds is still a great and feared hitter. You gotta wonder how much the steroids have helped with that. One thing is for sure…they haven’t helped with his speed or his fielding or his cheerful disposition. You can say Bonds put butts in the seats. But SF is always going to draw and they will come in greater numbers if the Giants can contend. (of course, they have other questionable signings to contend with before that can happen)
It was part way into Manny Ramirez’s deal that Boston was looking to dump that contract on anyone who would take it. Yes, Boston has two World Championships now, but I think they had less to do with Manny and much more to do Big Poppi, great pitching and some role players stepping up when it counted.
What about Jason Giambi? And A-Rod will always put up great numbers…until the post season. The Yankees have been stacked with talent in their tenures there and yet they have no rings. Didn’t the pair make about as much as the entire 2003 Florida Marlins championship team?
I think they would put just as many butts in the seats if Mike Lowell or Miguel Cabrera had been at third and they had said sayonara to Giambi and A-Rod.
The Yankees spent more on payroll than the Diamondbacks, Rockies and Indians combined last year. And they talking about giving A-Rod a bigger contact. I don’t think their strategy is working all that well.
Thak you for letting me vent.
Giambi was a dumb signing, he was never even average with the glove, he had a body type that did not lend itself to a belief that he would hold up for the long term. We still don’t have a clue who the Yanks (really George on this one) were outbidding, I believe they were just plain stupid. One more big if at the time, it was already rumored/suspected that Jason was part of the Steroid Brigade[sup]TM[/sup].
Add to the list of long-term deals that really did not work well for the Yanks, Dave Winfield. A great player, but not what George thought he was signing and it led George down the road to his second suspension. Of course I could than argue that the suspension is what led to the Yankees dynasty of the 90s happening as the team finally developed farm talent and retained, avoided stupid free agents signing and made many shrewd trades.
I would like to submit the two Rockies signings for this competition. Hampton and Denny Neagle were really bad contracts. Hampton I can almost understand, but Neagle was known for giving up long fly balls, how did they think that was going to translate to that ballpark?
Jim
They’ve made the playoffs, what, 13 years in a row? No rings since 2000, yes, but you have to get to the playoffs to win, and at long last they are paying attention to pitchers and to their farm system.
The Yankees have supposedly offered $270 million to $280 million over 10 years, which is basically an extension of his old contract with a modest raise. From their standpoint, they stuck to their guns and would be getting a good deal - it doesn’t cost them the prospects that Cabrera would have (they’re trying to build the team around some of those guys, even if one could get traded for Santana) and doesn’t raise his salary that much despite another MVP year. It’ll be expensive at the end, true, but that’s years off.
Ultimately, despite some really stupid ploys from the Rodriguez camp, this is the most sensible end to this situation. Nobody needs him more than the Yankees do and nobody can pay more. He could have saved himself all this bad publicity if he and Boras had sat down with the Yanks in the first place.
Some signings work out and some don’t. Some draftees work out; most don’t. Some pitchers work out and some hurt their shoulders. It was asked if any big money contracts had worked out and I pointed out that some in fact have.
You’re rationalizing. For one thing, no, they won’t always come in SF; if the team stays bad for a few years and doesn’t have Bonds as a draw you’ll start to see empty seats. This is a team, after all, that threatened to move what, 3 times?
For another, Bonds was worth the money. Maybe he’s an asshole and a cheat, but the fact is that they got tremendous value for their money. He played brilliantly for over a decade, won five MVP Awards, and was the main reason the team won or contended for anything in that stretch. Bonds is an example of a big contract working out.
Ramirez is a brilliant player and he helped his team win, helped it a huge amount. Why is it hard to admit that?
Are we talking about the same team? I thought the Yankees were the team that hasn’t missed the postseason since 1993. Playoffs are a crapshoot; no team is likely to win the World Series. But the Yankees HAVE gotten to the dance every year; thats the hard part, and without A-Rod there’s no way that happens this year and no way it happens in 2005, either.
Ramirez hits for average and power and is deceptively good at throwing baserunners out from left field. Ortiz has a hurt knee, plays bad defense (when he plays first base at all) but has had some very good years with all that protection around him. Really, Manny’s numbers are better with Ortiz around and Ortiz’s numbers are better with Manny being around. They complement each other very well.
Ortiz is overrated and Ramirez is underrated. Both are good, but Ortiz isn’t in Ramirez’s league.
I just checked for the NL Cy Young. Jake Peavy collected all 32 first-place votes.
I was pretty happy with Pujols’ fat contract.
**Big breaking story tonight: ** Bonds was indicted on perjury & obstruction charges.
I guess it’s a lucky thing that Boston was unable to unload his mammoth contract when they tried.
Actually it might have been the best thing that ever happen to that team since 1918.
Hunter signed a 5-year contract for $90m with the Angels.
Great Center Fielder, but he is 32 and not really a great hitter.
Lifetime BA of .271, OBA of .324 and mid-20s power. At least his splits are good.
Jim
It’s hard to not over-rate defense, though. Jim Edmonds, for example, will have a job for as long as he can walk.
Aye, but they desperately need an offensive weapon to work with Vlad, I still think they will try hard to get Cabrera from the Marlins. Then the Hunter pick-up will look better.
Jim
I think you’re right, Jim. That’s a good outfield, assuming Garret Anderson stays upright for most of the season (he’s getting on in years now), but their infield still doesn’t impress me that much. Give LAA one more big bat, and then I’d be willing to concede the AL West to the Angels for the next two or three years.
A big pat on the back to Jimmy Rollins for his MVP award. The pick has gotten bad-mouthed in some quarters, but I think he was deserving, for leading the team of my youth into the playoffs (after years of underachieving) if not for the numbers. Though his numbers were still pretty impressive.
So the Dodgers have apparently landed Andruw Jones. I’m trying to figure out how positive a move this really is. The way I see it, with Jones in center, everyone pegs Juan Pierre to move to left field. And that should mean that either Ethier or Kemp gets traded because the Dodgers can’t afford to platoon those guys again. So my guess is Ethier moves to right field with Luis Gonzalez as backup, and Matt Kemp probably gets traded in a package deal for a pitcher. If someone else sees this differently, let me know.
My problem is this: Jones is being brought in for his fielding skills and his power. We don’t know yet if he’ll be able to put last year behind him and produce the sort of numbers he’s been known for in his career. But even if he does, and we lose Kemp in the process, isn’t that sort of a break-even? Kemp is not as good a fielder as Jones, but he has a strong arm, lots of speed, good power, and he’s still a kid. Other than getting Pierre out of center field, have we really gained much?
This is a question rather than an argument – I’m no baseball analyst. I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this.