The Clearest Sign that MLB's GM's Have Gone Insane

[John Galt]

The Lee, Soriano, Pierre signings may have raised a few eyebrows, but Adam Eaton for 3 years at over $24 million (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2677728)!?!?! What did Gillick like best? That he has never had an ERA below 4 (even playing most of his career in a pitcher's park)? The fact that he was injured most of last year and only pitched 65 innings? Or the fact that in those 65 innings, he had a 5.12 ERA? Even worse is that he is prone to giving up HR's in gobs (112 HR in 861 career IP) which will not help in Philly. Eaton is the type of pitcher you take a chance on to see if he is healthy and maybe fills out a rotation for a few million at most. He is not a 3 year/$24 million guy. But in this market, everything goes, I guess.

[Young Drachma]

Wow. This reminds me of playing OOTP and trying to keep playing when inflation has salaries to the point where scrubs are making $5 million a year.

[Eaglesfan27]

Insanity. Inexcusable since we were practically giving away better starting pitchers last year in an apparent salary dump.

[Philliesfan980]

I think Wolf would have been a better fit. The only thing that I can think of is they didn't want to go with 3 LH starters.

[JimboJ]

My understanding is they offered Wolf more money and more years than the Dodgers, but Wolf wanted to play closer to his home (or he had no interest in returning to Philly).

Nothing suprises me anymore with players contracts. If you want a starting pitcher with any kind of ability at all, you need to overpay. Besides, they had all that extra cash that they had targeted for Soriano laying around.

[Philliesfan980]

Yeah, I wish there were some more quality bullpen guys out there. They lost a good # of games last year because of their pen, and it didn't get any better. Gordon can't make it through the entire year as their closer.

[sterlingice]

Wow, that's just... wow.

I guess at first blush it's not "epic-ly" bad like Mike Hampton but, really, man, that's a lot of money for a league-average, at best, pitcher.

SI

[rewissick]

I don't know...Benson got a similar contract from NY a few years back, and I think they are almost the same player, at least in my head. With the new CBA plan I think this is going to be the new reality for a few years.

[John Galt]

I don't know...Benson got a similar contract from NY a few years back, and I think they are almost the same player, at least in my head. With the new CBA plan I think this is going to be the new reality for a few years.

Benson was a standard-setting contract at the time, but I think it was a lot better than the Eaton deal. Benson had a pretty good year in 2000. He got injured, had TJ, and then didn't do so well. But at the time, the Mets signed him, he was healthy and over the TJ recovery period. It also mattered in NY, that Joe Torre had remarked that Benson had the best stuff he had seen.

Eaton, on the other hand, is still a serious injury question and has never had anything close to a "good" season. He has never pitched 200 innings in a season (although he was really close once). If he was a league average pitcher who could be counted on to pitch 200 innings, then he would be worth at least $9-$10 million in this market. But Eaton isn't even close to that. Based on last year, he is a serious injury question mark and likely to put up over a 5 ERA in Philly. Maybe if he puts up a 2007 with a 4.50 ERA and 200 IP, then he would be worth this contract in 2008, but to sign a broken player with no hint that he is recovered to a high money 3 year deal makes no sense, IMO.

[Bearcat729]

The Lee, Soriano, Pierre signings may have raised a few eyebrows, but Adam Eaton for 3 years at over $24 million (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2677728)!?!?! What did Gillick like best? That he has never had an ERA below 4 (even playing most of his career in a pitcher's park)? The fact that he was injured most of last year and only pitched 65 innings? Or the fact that in those 65 innings, he had a 5.12 ERA? Even worse is that he is prone to giving up HR's in gobs (112 HR in 861 career IP) which will not help in Philly. Eaton is the type of pitcher you take a chance on to see if he is healthy and maybe fills out a rotation for a few million at most. He is not a 3 year/$24 million guy. But in this market, everything goes, I guess.

Hmmm 24 mil over 3 years is what Eric Milton got in 2004 so you can see how well that worked out for Cincy

[bselig]

Would be interesting to see MLB team books from the past three years or so, because it sure seems like at least some teams are feeling a whole lot richer right now

[sterlingice]

Would be interesting to see MLB team books from the past three years or so, because it sure seems like at least some teams are feeling a whole lot richer right now

Oh, the fun of someone with the username of "bselig" posting that ;)

SI

[Havok]

god i hate what baseball has become... it makes me sad :(

[Arles]

Wow, this is just crazy. Makes me even more happy that the DBacks got Doug Davis via trade (who will make between $4 and $5 mil). If he were on the open market, he'd probably cost $8-9 mil per. Sheesh!

[Fonzie]

Oh, the fun of someone with the username of "bselig" posting that ;)

SI

And that, my friend, is a beautiful catch!

[Tyrith]

The Danys Baes deal is more crazy in my mind. He's a reliever with an ERA over 4, and he gets 19 mil over 3 years!? Can't you just go through a bunch of AAA players and hit a 5-ERA reliever if you're going to go to that kind of trouble?

[SackAttack]

I was shocked at the Baez deal.

I mean, seriously, what Tyrith said. You could get Baez's level of production for far less than $6.3m/year.

[cubboyroy1826]

Suddenly the Manny Ramirez contract is looking good to many teams who 2 years ago wouldnt have thought about trading for him. Arod is still overpriced but nowhere near as much now.

[stevew]

The Eaton signing is totally stupid. I think the Phils probably could get similar production out of Floyd or Madson as their #5 starter, and neither would have cost more than 500k. Basically Eaton will be the 4th or 5th starter on the team as well.

If, and thats a big IF, he can pitch 200 innings this year, he'll easily give up 40 homers.

[mckerney]

I was shocked at the Baez deal.

I mean, seriously, what Tyrith said. You could get Baez's level of production for far less than $6.3m/year.

Yeah, 2 years $2 million for Dennys Reyes is looking like a great deal right now.

[Ksyrup]

I was shocked at the Baez deal.

I mean, seriously, what Tyrith said. You could get Baez's level of production for far less than $6.3m/year.

I don't think that deal's as bad as the Jamie Walker deal. You're talking about a mid-30s journeyman reliever who had 1 good season as a lefty specialist and threw, what, maybe 40 innings this year? He got $12M for 3 years. At least Baez has some history to back him up. Not much, but more than Walker has.

[Philliesfan980]

The Eaton signing is totally stupid. I think the Phils probably could get similar production out of Floyd or Madson as their #5 starter, and neither would have cost more than 500k. Basically Eaton will be the 4th or 5th starter on the team as well.

If, and thats a big IF, he can pitch 200 innings this year, he'll easily give up 40 homers.

I think this deal has Ryan Franklin written all over it. Hopefully he pitches halfway decent so the Phillies can trade him in July.

Madson needs to grow a pair and grab the #5 job. He's such a winey bitch.

[JS19]

I forgot where I read it, so im not sure how reliable the source, but i read that Drew is close to signing a 5 yr, 75M deal with Boston. Why in the hell would they trade Manny, who I believe has only 2 yrs left at 40M, and replace him with Drew? And a better question is how in the hell is it decided Drew deserves 15M a season?

[GoldenEagle]

The Cardinals giving Kip Wells $4mil a year is also puzzling. I think that is close to what Carpenter is making.