Longoria has been hurt, but his 10 yr deal is pretty great as are most of the other long deals the Rays make. Of course, thats cuz they sign em when the player is like 23-25, not 30
Longoria has been hurt, but his 10 yr deal is pretty great as are most of the other long deals the Rays make. Of course, thats cuz they sign em when the player is like 23-25, not 30
Sure, but even if you sign a hot 24 year old to a 7 year deal, he still turns 31 (like Cano is) - I mean sure you can try to reextend them before they hit free agency, but when you're dealing with an up the middle guy with 4 straight 6+ WAR seasons, he knows what he's worth and has already made enough to not need to take the discount out of injury fears.
Guys with 4+ WAR expectations will get overpaid, because you can only play 9 guys at a time. A 4 WAR guy making 24M a year is league average for a free agent expenditure, but I'd argue he's significantly more valuable than paying 2 2 WAR guys 12M each if you're trying to contend.
It's not supposed to be a bargain, it's just supposed to improve your team. Seattle has the money and chose a great player to spend it on.
What makes this contract dumb? They are getting an incredible player. Again, it isn't a "bargain" but no one is arguing that. It's fair and a good move by the Mariners.
Jonah Keri goes into detail here about what you can expect from a 30-year old 2B:
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...or-the-yankees
240M is roughly 40 WAR price at current valuation, but with salary inflation over 10 years it'll likely be in the low 30s. If Cano can rip off another couple 6+ seasons before he begins to decline, he could easily get into the low 30's for the rest of his career.
The problem is players rapidly decline after 32. I've posted the fan graphs article on it before.
It's not reasonable to expect 3 years much less 6
It's a common misconception that the Jason Giambi deal "sucked dick."
Anyways, pretty bummed about losing Cano (and Mo in the same goddamn offseason), easily the best 2B in team history. Seattle most definitely overpaid, but they didn't have much of a choice as they had to blow NY out of the water.
Roy Halladay announced his retirement.
Signed a one day contract with Toronto.
Very sad to hear Doc retired. I always enjoyed watching him pitch and for many years he was the only bright spot for those shitty Toronto clubs. I think he is definitely HoF worthy.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/tex...in-lurking.ece
You might think it's absurd, but then there's this..By mid-day Friday, Seattle had heard that some team bid nine years and $225 million for Robinson Cano, so the Mariners upped their bid to $240 million and 10 years before apparently realizing the initial bid had come from themselves, too.
full article here: http://seattletimes.com/html/mariner...ners08xml.htmlOne of those speaking out is Blengino, the former No. 2 in Zduriencik’s front office. Blengino, who was working for the Milwaukee Brewers with Zduriencik at the time, said he authored virtually the entire job application package Zduriencik gave the Mariners in 2008, depicting a dual-threat candidate melding traditional scouting with advanced statistical analysis.
Blengino said he prepared the package because he was versed in the hot trend of using advanced stats for team decisions.
“Jack portrayed himself as a scouting/stats hybrid because that’s what he needed to get the job,” Blengino said. “But Jack never has understood one iota about statistical analysis. To this day, he evaluates hitters by homers, RBI and batting average and pitchers by wins and ERA. Statistical analysis was foreign to him. But he knew he needed it to get in the door.”
..............
Things started off well in 2009, with Blengino arriving alongside Zduriencik from the Brewers and assuming a powerful role of raising the Mariners’ talent any way possible. He coordinated big-picture elements of the annual draft, integrating advanced analytics into selections.
Blengino advised Zduriencik on key moves in a surprising 85-win first season, including the signature acquisition of outfielder Franklin Gutierrez.
“It was the Jack and Tony show that first year,” a former front-office member said.
But things unraveled in a turmoil-plagued 2010, when the Mariners lost 101 games.
Zduriencik fired manager Don Wakamatsu. Blengino said Zduriencik — needing to further finger-point — soon marginalized him as “the stats guy” despite his scouting background and the draft work that earned him a team “President’s Award” in 2009.
In 2011, Zduriencik imported longtime associate Ted Simmons as a senior adviser and increased responsibilities for second-year assistant GM Jeff Kingston, pushing Blengino from his inner circle. Zduriencik received a three-year contract extension that August and Blengino said Zduriencik told him: “Now, we do things my way.”
Blengino said Zduriencik became obsessed with power hitters, ignoring defense, baserunning and roster construction. He said the GM also dismissed the importance of evaluating players within the context of their contract values.
Zduriencik then made him “look like an ass” in front of baseball operations brass in spring training 2012 after Blengino gave a presentation on possible benefits from advances in computerized hitting data.
“He nitpicked about font sizes and column widths,” Blengino said. “He did what he always does and made fun of something he couldn’t understand.”
wow.
Zduriencik was the director of the Brewers scouting and managed to draft Braun, Fielder and Weeks among others - we pretty much treated him like a god (despite missing constantly on pitchers) and weren't surprised when he got a GM job.
Pretty amazing that he's apparently fucking terrible lol.
Man, even when he was beating up on the Sox in Toronto I loved watched Halladay pitch. Every game he had that look like, "You're gonna have to pry this ball from my cold, dead hands if you want me to get off this mound."
Doc is HoF materiel.
Being a small-time but growing fan of baseball (it's in second place after hockey for me), I've been a big Doc Halladay fan for quite a few years now. His pitching duel with Chris Carpenter in the 2011 playoffs was such a fantastic game to watch. 2 remarkable pitchers and it basically came down to who made the first (and only) mistake.
Watching his retirement presser, he talked about how a bunch of bones in his back and spinal column were just out of place and would require surgery to fix and that he'd never be able to pitch the same again. So retirement seemed like the best choice. Still a shame he never won the world series, but a career where he went 203W-105L is pretty remarkable never the less.
All I can hear is Thom Brennaman's stupid fucking voice saying, "And now, decision time for Dusty Baker."Ex-Cubs phenom Mark Prior retires
Mark Prior has decided to call it a career, the oft-injured pitcher told reporters at the Winter Meetings on Tuesday in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
The 33-year-old right-handed pitcher, while attempting a comeback with the Cincinnati Reds' Triple-A affiliate in Louisville, went on the disabled list in April with a shoulder injury and was released in June.
Prior told multiple media outlets Tuesday that he was interested in a front-office job.
Prior, who was signed with the second overall pick of the 2001 draft by the Chicago Cubs, finishes his career with a 42-29 record, a 3.51 ERA and 757 strikeouts in the majors. He finished third in the NL Cy Young Award voting in 2003 after going 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA and 245 strikeouts with the Cubs.
His ratio of 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings trails only Randy Johnson among pitchers with at least 500 innings.
After undergoing reconstructive shoulder surgery in 2006, Prior attempted comebacks with the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and the Reds.
He's gonna be the Padres vice president of towel drills