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| Free Agency; Not the answer | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 21 2008, 01:15 PM (242 Views) | |
| Bloss | Aug 21 2008, 01:15 PM Post #1 |
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WE THE PEOPLE
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http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives...-draft-don.html Below are the top 40 starters in baseball, by ERA, the second "column" indicates how they were acquired by their current club, and finally their 2008 salary. Cliff Lee (2.43) Minor League Trade $4mm Justin Duchscherer (2.54) Minor League Trade $1.2mm Tim Lincecum (2.60) Draft $390K Jake Peavy (2.61) Draft $6.5mm Roy Halladay (2.64) Draft $10mm Edinson Volquez (2.73) Rookie Trade $390K Johan Santana (2.75) Pre-Free Agency Trade $17mm Brandon Webb (2.85) Draft $5.5mm Ryan Dempster (2.92) Free Agent $6mm Dan Haren (2.96) Pre-Free Agency Trade $4mm CC Sabathia (2.99) Pre-Free Agency Trade $11mm Chad Billingsley (3.10) Draft $390K John Danks (3.11) Minor League Trade $390K Joe Saunders (3.14) Draft $390K Jair Jurrjens (3.15) Minor League Trade $390K Jeremy Guthrie (3.15) Waiver Claim $700K Ben Sheets (3.16) Draft $12mm Armando Galarraga(3.17) Minor League Trade $390K Jon Lester (3.17) Draft $390K Tim Hudson (3.17) Pre-Free Agency Trade $15mm Cole Hamels (3.22) Draft $500K Felix Hernandez (3.23) Int'l Amateur $500K Mike Mussina (3.35) Free Agent $11mm Shaun Marcum (3.36) Draft $390K Carlos Zambrano (3.38) Int'l Amateur $15mm Ervin Santana (3.39) Int'l Amateur $400K Matt Cain (3.57) Draft $400K Matt Garza (3.63) Minor League Trade $390K Jamie Moyer (3.64) Free Agent $6mm Paul Maholm (3.64) Draft $400K Ricky Nolasco (3.67) Draft $390K Tim Wakefield (3.67) Free Agent $4mm Jamie Shields (3.68) Draft $400K Nick Blackburn (3.71) Draft $390K Gavin Floyd (3.75) Minor League Trade $390K Todd Wellemeyer (3.79) Waiver Claim $1mm John Lannan (3.81) Draft $390K John Maine (3.82) Minor League Trade $450K Aaron Cook (3.86) Draft $5mm Mike Pelfrey (3.91) Draft $390K DRAFTED / Int'l Amateur: 21 FREE AGENT SIGNING: 4 Minor League/ Rookie Trade: 9 Pre-Free Agency Trade: 4 Waiver Claim: 2 So four out of the top 40 starting pitchers by ERA were acquired via free agency. Now let's take a gander at how the top 10 rotations by ERA were built, compared to how your Rangers built their opening day rotation. Now let's move on to look at the clubs with the ten best team ERA's by starters this year. Cubs (Zambrano, Dempster, Lilly, Harden, Marquis) -- 3 free agents ($21mm) Mets (Santana, Maine, Martinez, Perez, Pelfrey) -- 1 free agent ($8mm) D-Backs (Webb, Haren, Johnson, Davis, Petit) -- 2 free agents ($23mm) Rays (Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Sonnanstine, Jackson) -- 0 free agents ($0) Brewers (Sabathia, Sheets, Suppan, Parra, Bush) -- 1 free agent ($7mm) Blue Jays (Halladay, Burnett, Marcum, Purcey, Litsch) -- 1 free agent ($11mm) Athletics (Duchscherer, Gallagher, Braden, Smith, Eveland) -- 0 free agents ($0) Angels (Lackey, Santana, Saunders, Weaver, Garland) -- 0 free agents ($0) Red Sox (Beckett, Matsuzaka, Lester, Byrd, Buchholz) -- 1 free agent ($8) Dodgers (Billingsley, Lowe, Kershaw, Kuroda, Stults) -- 1 free agent ($8mm) ... and then there's the opening day rotation of the Rangers, who supposedly don't spend any money on pitching. Rangers (Millwood, Padilla, Jennings, Gabbard, Mendoza) -- 3 free agents ($27mm) So the Rangers spent more money on free agent starters than any of the top-10 rotations in baseball, and where did it get them? Three of the top 10 (including, very notably, the Angels) didn't spend a single dime on free agent pitching. By the way, you want to see what a rotation made up of the five most expensive free-agent starter signings over the past two years looks like? 1) Barry Zito (7-15; 5.43 ERA) (7 years / $126mm) 2) Jason Schmidt (disabled list all year) (3 years / $47mm) 3) Gil Meche (10-9; 4.13) (5 years / $55mm) 4) Carlos Silva (4-14; 6.36) (4 years / $48mm) 5) Jeff Suppan (8-7; 4.62) (4 years / $42mm) How about trades? Let's take a look at each of those 13 trades to see whether the clubs who traded prospects for veteran pitchers are happy with their decisions. 1) The Indians traded veteran ace Bartolo Colon to Montreal for minor leaguers Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and Brandon Phillips. A crippling disaster for the Expos / Nationals buying the veteran. 2) The A's traded veteran reliever Luis Vizcaino to Texas for minor league pitcher Justin Duchscherer. A disaster for the Rangers buying the veteran. 3) The Reds traded rookie OF Josh Hamilton to Texas for rookie pitcher Edinson Volquez. A push. 4) The Mets traded minor league pitchers Deolis Guerra, Phil Humber, and Kevin Mulvey and outfielder Carlos Gomez to the Twins for veteran pitcher Johan Santana. Too early to tell. Guerra, Humber and Mulvey are all strong prospects and Gomez is the Twins' starting center fielder at age 22. 5) The Diamondbacks traded minor leauge lefties Brett Anderson, Dana Eveland and Greg Smith; minor league infielder Chris Carter; and minor league outfielders Aaron Cunningham and Carlos Gonzalez to Oakland for high-quality young major league starter Dan Haren. Too early to say for sure, but the A's seem to have done very very well here, getting two quality big league starters and young outfielder with All-Star potential in Gonzalez. 6) The Brewers traded minor league slugger Matt LaPorta to the Indians for veteran ace C.C. Sabathia. Win-Win 7) The White Sox traded young major leaguer Brandon McCarthy to Texas for minor leaguer John Danks. Obviously, looks horrible for the Rangers buying the more veteran guy. 8) The Braves traded what was left of veteran shortstop Edgar Renteria to Detroit for minor leaguers Gorkys Hernandez and minor league pitcher Jair Jurrjens. Clear loss for the Tigers buying the veteran. 9) The Tigers traded Mr. Anonymous Organizational Filler Material minor league outfielder to Texas for Armando Galarraga. This basically amounts to a waiver claim. 10) The Braves traded LHP Dan Meyer, RHP Juan Cruz and Charles Thompson (?) to the A's for Tim Hudson. A massive win for the Braves buying the veteran. 11) The Rays traded OF Delmon Young to the Twins for Matt Garza. Sort of Hammy-for-Volquez lite. The Rays certainly look like they got the upper hand so far, but this could easily turn out to be a win-win wash. 12) The White Sox traded veteran starter Freddy Garcia to Philadelphia for minor league pitcher Gavin Floyd. A massive loss for the Phillies buying the veteran. 13) The Mets traded veteran starter Kris Benson to the Orioles for minor leaguer John Maine. Another huge loss for the Orioles buying the veteran. In most of those deals, you had a club trading a young starter (and usually much more) for a veteran player. With the exception of the Hudson deal, the club buying the veteran for the minor league pitcher has come out on the losing end of the deal. Three of these deals -- the Santana, Haren and Sabathis deals -- have a chance to give their current clubs a World Series this year, but at what appears to be enormous cost. Those are the kinds of deals that make sense for a club with a legitimate shot at winning right now, damn the future. Six of these deals gave the team selling a veteran player a young pitcher who currently ranks among the top 40 in ERA. And what did they get for those stud kids (Lee, Jurrjens, Maine, Floyd, Danks and Duchscherer)? Bartolo Colon (no playoffs for Montreal that year), Edgar Renteria (no playoffs for Detroit this year), Kris Benson (no playoffs for the Orioles that year), Freddy Garcia (Philly made the playoffs last year, but Garcia won just one game all year), Brandon McCarthy (ahem..) and Luis Vizcaino (traded four days later for a vortex of suck named Jesus Pena). Yes, yes. Not every trade for a veteran goes badly. Not every free agent pitching signing turns out horribly. But a lot of them do. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was a really good read. |
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| bostonfanatic87 | Aug 21 2008, 04:16 PM Post #2 |
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Is Matsuzaka the Sox free agent there? |
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| webgem924 | Aug 21 2008, 04:33 PM Post #3 |
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Beckett and Byrd via trade, Lester and Buchholz via draft, so yea |
[align=center]![]() ![]() both by me
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| bostonfanatic87 | Aug 21 2008, 04:40 PM Post #4 |
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But I wouldn't necessarily call Matsuzaka a FA either. |
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| OriolesManiac88 | Aug 21 2008, 04:45 PM Post #5 |
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We Are...PENN STATE!
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What the hell would you call him then? |
![]() We Are...Penn State!! 2008 Season: 11-1 - Beat Michigan St. 49-18 BIG TEN CHAMPS! ![]() Something Magic Happens, Everytime you go You Make the Magic Happen, the Magic of Orioles’ Baseball! Orioles Magic! Feel it Happen! O - R - I - O - L - E - S ! | |
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| bostonfanatic87 | Aug 21 2008, 04:53 PM Post #6 |
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I don't know, but he wasn't acquired in Free Agency, that doesn't involve sealed bidding for exclusive rights to sign a player. |
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| jaysdude09 | Aug 21 2008, 05:16 PM Post #7 |
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KKKKKK
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Dice-K was either signed from IFA, traded for cash considerations, or drafted in the offseason draft first overall in the first round by the Red Sox. Note the draft had 1 round in it, and 1 pick. The next offseason draft occurs when Yu decides to come to America. |
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