Free agent sweepstakes begins
Teams are making their runs at Beltran and Beltre as we speak. The M’s have an offer on Beltre in, I don’t know any details yet so I can’t tell you if it’s competitive or not.
First signing appears to be Omar Vizquez, who — I can’t stop giggling as I type this — signed a 3-year, $12.25m deal with the Giants. No, really, the Giants signed a 37-year old shortstop through his…. what are they thinking? This is the front-runner for the Raul Ibanez Signing Award for this off-season.
Also, over at the Seattle Times, Steve Kelley writes that the team should spend money this off-season, in a column that must have taken him seven, eight minutes to write. I weep for the poor squids that gave their lives so that Kelley could have the ink to run this stuff.
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70 Responses to “Free agent sweepstakes begins”
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maybe Bavasi can top that blunder…
I had begun to feel like there was something wrong with me all day today until I read that. When I saw the signing on ESPN this afternoon, I literally laughed out loud and made some sarcastic remark about how Vizquel would provide the perfect protection behind Bonds. The three friends of mine in the room all looked at me as if I had suddenly grown wings.
“That’s a quality signing, right there” one of my friends said. “Yeah, he is a wiz with the glove” another added. The third spoke up to remind us that “he had a pretty good year this past year too!”
I quickly left in search of some new friends.
Wow, that blockquote came out all wrong. I’d edit it if I could
Comment fixing: 1 beer.
Remit at your leisure.
This is worse than Ibanez’s contract, this is ridiculous. He is not a “long term solution”, like Sabean said. The guy is 37, and should be a bench player in ‘07, and an NRI kind of a guy by ‘08.
You think Omar has two years in him before he becomes a bench player? You’re more optimistic than I am.
It’s amazing how much the Giants hate first round draft picks. I’m sure Mark Shapiro was giggling when he heard this.
Well, I would have guessed that he would be the kind of guy that we would have looked for to back up Lopez, on a 1 year, 3 million dollar contract. I figured 2 years, 8 million was the Maximum he would get. This is ridiculous. I assumed a 1 year deal was all he’d get, but this 3 year “deal” is ridiculous. You may as well go ahead and put this in the “albatross” column of your Long-Term deal list.
What this makes me fear though, is that this is going to set some kind of standard…resulting in Beltran getting his 10 year deal.
I wouldn’t worry about that. Ibanez didn’t get all the other left fielders super-lucrative deals.
The best part about this deal is that it ensures the M’s won’t sign Vizquel.
As a White Sox fan, all I can say is…
Phew, we dodged a bullet there.
Refresh me – why are we all down on Ibanez? Given that he missed time with injury, he had good stats last year. Am I missing something? Why do we dislike him?
The issue’s not with Ibanez so much. It was the team’s rush to sign him to a deal that was longer and far more expensive than every other generic, average-productive left-fielder, in the process giving up a first-round draft pick.
As a Giants fan, I’d like to commit seppuku. I really could put up with everything Sabean did until right now.
Re: the Beltre offer. It’s “competitive”, in the sense that its higher than the Dodgers first offer, but there’s not a chance in the world he’ll sign either. It was like passing a note to Scott Boras that says “If you like me check this box”. There still a long ways away from a real date.
Which would mean it’s at least 5 years and over $70m, making it the largest offer the team’s made to any player since Alex Rodriguez.
If I thought our line up looked old this year, man, Giants sure looks like grandpa line up next year. lol. JT Snow, Ray Durham, Marquis Grissom, Bonds, Vizquel, Michael Tucker, Kurk Reuter, Matt Herges..
With Boras having such a large percentage of the bigger name free agents on the market this year, we are going to be for a long off-season. I would be shocked if any of his clients sign before December.
I couldn’t believe the Vizquel numbers, either. This is on top of them giving a new contract to Deivi Cruz, as well.
Re giving up a first round pick. The way I understand the Giants accounting system, money is transferable between payroll and signing bonus. By foregoing a draft pick, Sabean transfers money into current year payroll.
I, too, don’t know what the M’s have offered Beltre, if indeed they have. But I have a good idea. Look back to last year’s supposed best offer made by the M’s to Tejada, in terms of length and annual payout. And that was to a player they needed at a crucial position, who wanted to go to Seattle and had a proven history of high production. Now think back to the comments the M’s (Lincoln) made when they refused to step up to the O’s offer, especially that extra year. Does anyone really believe the M’s learned a lesson from that disaster? Enough that they would offer more years to a less proven player? I don’t think so either. Skeptics won’t believe the M’s are serious until they actually do something that resembles most fans’ wishful thinking.
steve kelley is the worst… what a jackass
Didn’t the M’s offer Tejeda 3 years at ~$24m? The offer to Beltre would be almost three times that size, so… I don’t think it’s comperable.
You will recall the M’s went 5 years/$45M, but refused to go the 6th year for Tejada, who was a true perennial MVP candidate with a desire to play in Seattle. Will the M’s go further out on a limb for Beltre? Not likely. If they do, I will look forward to Lincoln’s explanation.
I hope this doesn’t come across as too preachy. Honestly, Kelley’s column was brutal, especially for running in the Sunday edition, but that doesn’t make him a jackass. I do agree that it was a terrible column, but he’s a nice guy. Not a jackass.
Looks like Kelley got spoon-fed some of the stuff that we flooded Finnigan’s Inbox with. FWIW — at least someone in the mainstream press is calling the M’s out. Glad to finally hear something from the Times challenging the M’s FO!
I personally don’t see Vizquel slowing down much any time soon. Sure, he’s in his decline years, but he hasn’t nose-dived like a lot of players. He’ll hit close to .300, with little power, and above-average to excellent defense. Indeed it seems a little strange to go three years with him, especially after they gave .8 million to Cruz. However, Vizquel is still one of the best SS’s in the game, even though he doesn’t pound the crap out of the ball. It’s quite a risk, but I don’t see him fading too far out of his normal season quite yet.
Scratch him off my list…
Omar is the guy we could have had last year when we dicided to give away Guillen. But the “medical staff” decided his knee was a disaster so we’d be better off with Jamon S…..Doesn’t bode well for this year!
If you gave me the opportunity to sign Tejada to the contract the O’s gave him last offseason, I still wouldn’t do it. The guy wasn’t close to a “perennial MVP candidate”. His WARP from 2000-2003 was 5.3, 4.4, 6.8, and 4.6. Yes, he was a good player who had one terrific season at age 27, but guaranteeing him $10+ million from 29-35 was not a good idea. He had a career year this year (WARP of 10.0) that was better than his 90th percentile PECOTA forecast.
The O’s are going to regret that contract before its over, and they got fortunate that Tejada had a career year. The M’s made the right decision passing on him.
How I wish that deal would’ve gone through. Our woes wouldn’t've been so deep. He personally probably (between his hitting and his glove) would have saved us at least 3-5 games over Aurilia alone! I’ll take a ~.290 average from my SS any day!
I didn’t think the Kelley column was “that” bad, however, what was with all this happy new year stuff?
not that I’m defending the O’s signing of Tejada, but i think we all need to realize that any long-term signing of an “elite” player will almost without exception end up being viewed as a “bad contract” in its final years….you do, however, get that player’s peak years in such a contract…the point is, unless a team is willing to accept the fact that a long term deal will be viewed as an albatross in the future, they will never acquire an “elite” player
Re #26. I agree with your comments regarding Kelly’s column. At least he is telling the front office that expectations are high in the fan base and it is time the FO delivered. Lincoln and co. have been feeding us a lot of lip service since the season’s end – well it is now time for them to fish or cut bait!!
I don’t think we will get Beltre but it would be nice to see us in the running. Then we should go for Delgado and Glaus or Koskie for the corners and Pavano or Clement (probably Clement).
The worse thing the FO can do for the fan base is sign third tier players or repeat last winters fiasco by signing a bunch of coulda, woulda, shoulda players like they did with Aurillio and Speizio. Maybe Kelly’s column will help energize the FO. Well we can hope can”t we?
Well, I say Kelly is right. Let’s ink Koskie to a nice multi-year deal right now. After all, he is capable of hitting .260 w 25-30 hr’s.
oh. and he’s a good clubhouse guy.
that’s important.
i think.
hmmm…
is there a chance Corey Koskie is really Scott Spezio? Now admittedly I didn’t see any M’s/Twins games this year, but i don’t believe i’ve ever seen them next to eachother.
Seems like that stat-line is very similar to the one Spezio was anticipated to have.
So he’s contrasting Koskie to Sandfrog, and yet, they have an astounding number of similarities. Bottom line, Kelley missed on this article, big time.
Koskie may not be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but he’s no Scott Spiezio. Koskie sports a career OBP of .373 and SLG of .463. Compare that to Spiezio’s career lines of .327 and .418. Even in BA, Koskie has the advantage–.280 to .256. I could see Koskie being a bad signing of the Raul Ibanez vein (failure to look into home/road splits and the beginning of the decline phase), but I don’t think it would be the out-and-out disaster that was the Spiezio signing.
The worst thing about Omar’s deal is what it may mean to the free agent salaries in general. If Omar is worth 3 years/12.5 mil, then Nomar is worth 3 years/24 mil, and Renteria is worth 5 years/40 mil. And if Renteria is worth 5/40, then Glaus is worth 6 years/50 mil, at least, Which means Beltre is worth even more, maybe 8 years/72 mil. And if that is the case, THEN BORAS IS RIGHT. …And that’s not a good thing.
Koskie’s also in his 30’s. While signing Delgado, Koskie and Pavano might appease the fan base briefly, it’s also like to rebound nastily relatively quickly, when Delgado and Koskie do what older players do- be paid more than they are worth- and when Pavano shows that 2004 was a career and outlying year for him instead of a average one.
If Kelley turns out to be spot-on on our signings, I’ll be severely pissed off. The fact that Koskie’s name keeps coming up in press reports I’m taking as a Bad Sign- it probably means someone in the front office is leaking.
KC,
If boras wanted 9million a year for 8 years on beltre, I would take it. Consider he might get a 6 or 7 year deal worth over 80million.
Rob,
Yes, I should have plugged in 92, not 72.
Although I didn’t state it well, my point is that the Omar signing – if it is a market adjustment – immediately eliminates Beltran and Beltre. We probably knew that already. But the Omar signing REALLY hurts when it comes to Glaus or Delgado. If Omar is worth 4 mil per year at age 73, then these guys are worth at least 12 per year. The Mariners will not pay that much (and maybe shouldn’t).
I am afraid that the m’s shouldn’t pay some of these players but will to please the fans. I think they might miss on beltre and beltran and then go after some other players to contracts that shouldn’t be to please the fans. Atleast they hopefully might make a move.
Yeah, and then in 2005 we’ll get another article from Pocket Line about how since the M’s are paying Koskie $6 million next year (even though he hit .239 with 17 HR’s and 65 RBI’s) and Delgado $8 million (even though he went on the DL in July with knee pain), and Pavano $7.5 million to go 14-12 with an ERA in the high 3’s, we can’t really be active in the FA market…
The Mariners aren’t a team who should be signing players who they’ll have to keep through their mid-30’s decline phase, especially since Koskie and Delgado are arguably IN that decline phase already. Yeah, Gillick did this in 2000 and 2001 when he bounced the team back from being craptastic in the late 90’s, but the reasons why that worked is he hit the lotto on some of his signings (coughBretBoonecoughIchirocough), the M’s HAD some decent young players as a result of the “dump the superstars” trades (Garcia, Guillen, Cameron), plus some damn good core players (Edgar, Moyer). Plus the team was basically .500 in 1999, not 63-99.
Basically, the ONLY way this team contends in 2004 is if EVERYTHING breaks right- they have no margin for error on big FA busts, major injuries to the rotation, lineup or ‘pen, Madritsch can’t take a half step backwards, and so on. The number of teams that go from 90+ losses to 90+ wins in one year is VERY, VERY small, and all the front office posturing about spending cash is meant to obscure that nasty reality to some pretty cheesed off fans tired of paying premium prices for a product meant to extract cash from their wallets first, contend second. The danger is that the front office will buy into their own rhetoric too hard and if they strike out on the good young FA’s who may be around when the team’s really ready to be good in 2007-2008, they’ll sign older ones who won’t be anything in 2007 but overpaid roster clutter that’s only tradable by taking other teams crap (see: Jarvis for Cirillo). Honestly, I’d rather have them set the goddamn cash on fire than only sign position players over 30. At least then it wouldn’t count against the 2006 budget.
I think Oscar makes a strong point in 31. If the Mariners aren’t willing to make deals that have a decent chance of ending up on the Good For A Few Years But We Wish It Could End Now list, they will probably never make a big signing. The key is to avoid one that ends up on the Wish We’d Never Made It list.
This is totally off topic, but I was wondering about some recent things I have read about Mike Morse. There have been a few stories written about him recently, in Baseball America and other sources. Most of the stories revolve around Morse as a big shortstop, and how he has had to try to stick at a position despite many people suggesting he is more likely to play 3B or in the OF if he ever does get to the ML level. Some of the strories I have read discuss how he has been working on his defense a lot lately, and has been making improvements with his glove in the Arizona Fall League. However, there are so many bad stories about AFL players out there, it is difficult to wade through the BS.
I was wondering if anyone had any informed opinions about his status as a prospect, what level he might end up starting at next year, and at what position. He seems to be getting a lot of press right now, even more than Choo, who is also in the AFL right now. Although AFL stats are not easy to project, if he was making a marked improvement on defense that would carry over well into next year. If he ends up being a decent or better ML player, it will make the Garcia trade a real steal. He seems like he can hit enough, but that his defense is the problem.
I was also wondering about the M’s long-term options at SS. It would be great if they could develop a player from their system. I really think that it is a great idea to put Lopez at 2B when Boone is gone. Bringing in a good SS from outside the system is going to be expensive. Besides Edgar Renteria and Orlando Cabrera, there really aren’t that many good free agent SSs that are worth the amount it would cost to bring them in. Renteria’s contract demands seem way out of line, and Cabrera will be pricey as well. I like the idea of bringing in a stop-gap player like Pokey Reese, and then move him to a utility role later on. Christian Guzman could be a good risk as well. Then, they could perhaps go after someone like Rafael Furcal or whoever might be available next offseason. However, the ideal situation would be if someone like Asdrubal Cabrera, Morse, Adam Jones, or perhaps even Matt Tuiasasopo could eventually prove they can play at the ML level. However, with the exception of Cabrera, it seems like all of these guys have a position change in their futures. I like that the M’s are drafting athletic, toolsy, high school position players, but you have to wonder if any of these guys will end up at SS.
I was wondering if you guys had any input on this.
I think it could be worse as a Giants fan, the contract is back loaded, the defense is improved, and the top of the lineup is set for next year. He will produce next year, provide a vetran presence in cluth situations and still we have room for improvement in the OF. I see the Giants better off now, especially if we can pick up a solid defense OF to start in Center and who can get on base often. Further, Omar fits in well in the clubhouse on a very vetran team. I think the Giants are going to look good come April, granted they will be a very old team, but if they can stay healthy them will win at least 90 games and probably 95-100. But I am biast and hopeful.
i didn’t mean to impunge steve kelley’s personal qualities in any way. it’s just that i am so sick of his overly simplistic columns and his lack of research… it really irks me that many seattleites get their opinions from him. that, in my book, is a big responsibility. and, unfortunately, he seems perfectly happy to write simple columns that don’t help seattle learn. he is so quick to jump on and off bandwagons it is amazing. of course, i should really be complaining about the times who refuses to ask more of their columnists – not kelley.
boy, this season must have made an impression on Kelley, for he has written *two* columns on the need to DOOOOO something, unlike previous years.
I went back, wondering who he’d proposed the Mariners pick up in previous years, and found he’d not felt the need to talk about it before. Beside the ‘need to be players’ column this week, he has also weighed in on Alex (my favorite column so far, the one where he announced that Alex was proving himself a ‘true Yankee’, who ‘arrived in game three’… he didn’t go back to comment on Alex’s disappearance the next three games), one on Hargrove, & on Edgar. In the 2003-04 off-season, he wrote about the proposed Alex/Boston deal, the ‘new’ Melvin, Spiezio & his band, and Rob Ramsay. The 2002-03 off-season he wrote about Dusty, about Melvin (”born to do it”), about Bryan Price, and one January column lamenting the fact they didn’t sign Colon, Contreras or Paul Wilson to shore up the staff. In 2001-02 he had the 116 game-love column, the ’shame on the Jays for hiring Ricciardi’ piece, the Buhner retirement piece, more on 116 wins, and columns on both Boone & Shige…
Man. Those Giants. Next thing you know they will sign Brett Tomko. He’ll become their #2 starter after Schmidt and probably win 11 or 12 games for them.
ESPN quotes some newspaper as believing the M’s are the favorites for Delgado; if that were true, how would you expect them to proceed?
(I mean if it were true and they did sign him.)
ESPN also thinks the mariners will sign sexson and valentin. Let’s hope ESPN is wrong.
Right, it’s REALLY likely we’ll sign 2 FA 1B’s- the two premiere ones on the market.
Pass the bong, ESPN, quit bogarting.
I know about the Sexson rumors, but I want to know if Dave or DMZ knows what Bavasi might do next if his first move was an expensive 1B.
Koskie would be such a classic M’s acquisition, my head hurts just thinking about it. Sorta good, potential but inconsistent (thus relatively inexpensive), nice guy, sell him to the fans as a great player and hope he has a career year. And if he stinks, at least he won’t complain about it because he’s such a good ‘clubhouse guy’.
Acquiring a 1B first is absolutely the wrong move. It’s the easiest positition to fill (in fact, they already have 2 guys to fill it: Bucky and Ibanez). It would be stupid to sign Delgado or Sexson before dealing with 3B. Thing is, it would be just like the Ms. They bumble from one move to the next without any particular plan other than to sign the guy they’re negotiating with.
Re: # 55 – Three. You forgot WILLIE BLOOMQUIST.
The notion of interchangeable parts has to go. When LP said such things as “We need another bat,” he meant “We need another good bat.”
But management seems to have taken that to mean ‘any bat will do.’
BTW, we don’t already have two guys that can play first. If either IBANEZ or JACOBSEN play first, we’re in deep trouble.
I agree with you completely chris (#55)… I’ve always wondered at how other teams seem to be able to put together a string of four or five signings/trades in a period of a few weeks while the M’s always seem to space theirs out a bit. It just seems like multitasking isn’t exactly (gross understatement) our front office’s strong point. It’s EXTREMELY frustrating to see other teams wheel and deal while the M’s plod along picking up the scraps or jumping for that piece of meat that nobody else is all that interested in… I mean seriously, how vastly improved could this team be if they approached all of their potentially targeted free agents (all they way down to long relievers and bench guys) with offers on day one? I realize that if all of them were to accept it would cause a problem, but it’s not like the M’s HAVE to sign a guy once they make an offer and he accepts, is it?
Again, the M’s front office of 2000-2003 is not the M’s front office of 2004. There are positives and negatives to that statement, but can we stop assuming that Pat Gillick is still running the team?
Elliot, I’ll be stunned if the M’s sign a first baseman before Beltre gives them an answer. He’s Plan A, and they’re not going to Plan B without knowing whether Plan A has a chance or not.
ok, Dave,
That’s EXACTLY what I’m talking about! Why must the M’s wait to see if free agent #1 pans out before going after #2? When we approach it that way we get stuck with the Quinton’s and Aurillia’s of the free agent class (btw – yes, i know that Q wasn’t a FA)… It’s been proven – and even stated in articles written this year – that Boras clients DO NOT sign early. So, what is the logic in waiting for Beltre to decide who he is going to play for when that decision isn’t likely to come until well into December or even January? I wouldn’t mind having Delgado at first or Glaus at third as back-up plans… and if Beltre does indeed want to sign, then, well, WHOOPEE! We might actually have a hot at a decent team next year and in the years beyond!
Because the team doesn’t have unlimited resources. If Beltre eats up $9 million of your 2005 payroll, and you’ve already committed $8 million to Delgado, you’ve only got about $7 million left to fill out the roster, and this team still needs a starting pitcher in a bad way.
Signing Sexson or Delgado now reduces your options. No reason to set the market. The M’s are playing it smart. Patience is a virtue.
1) To be “competitive,” the Ms need to get TWO new hitters with ISOs better than .200
2) Existing acceptable starters (no trades) are:
Olivo—C
Boone—2B
Lopez—SS
Winn—OF
Ichiro—-OF
Ibanez—OF or 1B
Jacobsen—DH
Leaving the need for a 3B FOR SURE and either 1B or CF (Ibanez assigned accordingly). So (without a trade) they can go ahead and sign a 3B, and either a 1B or a CF. But with only one CF who qualifies, and the looming possibility of a bidding war with Steinbrenner, …(tough call).
A trade can change the whole picture, though, so that probably has to come first. If, e.g., they traded Boone for A Jones, they need a 2B and not a CF or 1B. If they trade Boone for C Jones, then they need a 2B and not a 3B.
Throw the need to understand recovery from injuries and/or the (7 letter) s-word into the process, and the GM has a tough job.
ok, dave,
I can see that, but at what point does a virtue become a hinderance? I know that you don’t believe that one guy can make a team, so why hold out so long for one guy at the risk of the rest of the team…. You’ve gotta agree with me that there won’t be much left by the time Beltre signs… and then where does that leave us?…
No, I don’t have to agree with that. I think Beltre will be one of the first “big names” to sign, probably in early December. I think Beltre signs before Sexson or Delgado.
I don’t view this offseason as a chance for the M’s to return to contention. I view it as a chance to add talent for the long haul, and if we lose out on overpaying for an injury prone first baseman, I will lose no sleep.
Dave – I think I’d lose sleep if we lost out on Delgado, because I do not consider him to be injury prone. Sexson and Glaus, however, are worth staying far away from; at least for the moment.
I’m kind of surprised we made an offer so quickly on Beltre, for a while I thought we were going to lay low and try to steal Beltre away from out of nowhere in December with a terrific offer.
As I see it, the Mariners probably have two scenario’s, the “get Beltre” scenario and the “get Delgado” scenario. If we get Beltre, we’ll probably look for a “cheap” first baseman (likely Ibanez, maybe Sexson). Likewise, with Delgado, we’d be looking at a reasonable SS or 3B (likely Koskie, maybe Rentaria, *maybe* Glaus).
I happen to agree with you that the first option is better, at least in the long term. However the second option could arguably be better in the short term and wouldn’t involve a 6 or 7 year potential albatross type contract. While I think, if its possible, we should try to sign Beltre before looking anywhere else in the infield, its not completely insane to send Delgado an offer just to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere else.
As far as the comment someone made on “Visquel setting the free agent market,” theres room for optimism. After all, Ibanez signed a similar contract last offseason and it did not result in inflated salaries for the truly elite free agents. If I remember right, Vlad actually went quite a bit lower than most people thought he would.
In theory, the only way Visquel would impact Beltre in a way as was suggested, would be if the impact went sequentially up the free agent ladder. For example, next week Corey Koskie signs a slightly inflated contract because of he’s a little more valuable than Visquel. Shortly there after Glaus signs an inflated contract because he’s a little more valuable than Koskie, then Rentaria signs an inflated contract because he’s more valued than Glaus, and ultimately, Beltre signs and inflated contract because he’s more valued than Rentaria.
However, if Rentaria signs tommorrow for a reasonable figure, say 4 years 28 million, then it throws a cap on the potential damage caused by the visquel signing. Suddenly, players like Glaus are looking at less than 28 million, Koskie less than that (probably much less), etc. With the closest echelon to Beltre and Delgado making less than 30 million, it preserves the notion that Delgado will probably go in the 30 millions range and Beltre in the 60 or 70 millions range.
Thanks for the good news, Dave.
I think we should go hard after Rentaria and Beltre, imagine that defense.
In all seriousness, what’s with Steve Kelly’s Vanilla Ice ‘do?
Vizquel . . .
I _can’t_ figure Brian Sabean out. There is a method somewhere in this man, but I just haven’t been able to do a + b + c on the guy. Now, he’s working with significant budget constraints, yes. And he is clearly a true believer in the stars-and-scrubs approach; I’m not, but Sabean is the best example of that in baseball at the moment in my view. But to make this work, you’ve got to pick a few genuine stars, and back them with _low-paid_ scrubs.
Now, Sabean did acquire Jeff Kent, and got a bit bang. He did trade for Schmit at ten cents on the dollar, and had the sense to sign him. He did sign Robb Nen, when the guy was a force. He did pick up Rey Durham for very little, and has gotten value from the guy. Sabean did acquire Ponson for his run in ‘03 when Sidney had some real value, and then had the sense NOT to sign him. Sabean has held onto Kirk Reuter, on of the underrated pitchers in the game, and gotten consistently decent results. Given his budgetary issues, the initial signings of Jose Cruz and Deivi Cruz both make a certain amount of sense, and if they didn’t lift the team they at least made a minimum contribution.
—On the other hand, there was the signing of Edgardo Alonzo to a multi-year which I thought was one of the stone-craziest wastes of money I’d seen in years; a much worse signing than anything the Mariners FO has pulled off in since Gillick arrived. Sabean _resigned_ Cruz for far more than he is possibly worth. Sabean traded to _acquire_ Pieznarsky, one of the most dislike players in the game, and the acquisiton bombed, the guy had zero value. And to do it, Brian traded Joe Nathan, gambling that Nen was coming back despite repeated setbacks with his arm. Instead, Nen’s career is over, and the Giants had neither player. Then this signing of Vizquel, which is beyond laughable. The guy’s knee couldn’t pass a physical last year. He had pathetic range for a SS for ‘04. He’s 37. There is NO WAY he finishes a three-year, in my view, and I wouldn’t be surprised in anyway whatsoever if he never has an effective year again. This isn’t even a gamble; like with Alonzo, it’s purest wish-fulfillment.
I think Sabean has gotten bored with his present context of possibilities in SF to the point where his attention has simply checked out. It happens, even to really talented managers and GMs. But having said that Sabean’s decision-making these last two years has been extremely poor. Oh, Brian is fooling himself because the Giants ‘were in it until the last series,’ which is farcial since NO team in the NL west in any way deserved to be in postseason, and none could take control of the division in any way. I think that the ‘05 Giants are going to do exactly what the ‘04 Mariners did, and you can quote me. Giants fans should go into the season expectin 100 losses, because anything better than that with the team they have at this point is going to be a victory of a kind.
I’ve stopped reading Steve Kelley completely. I remember when I moved to Seattle reading his columns and rolling my eyes. Those attempts at humorous analogies sports columnists so love…..an utter failure. I still can’t believe this guy gets paid. Or does he?……..
Anyhoo. Vizquel will be an aberration. If the Giants had waited they probably could have gotten him for less, but, meh, they probably wanted him from the get go. No one else was going to top their offer. I don’t see babyO doin’ so hot. He had one of those typical final flame out years last year. His 05 stats will be half as hot, 06 horrendous, 07 possibly released. Not that I don’t want him to have 3 more above average years. He is one of those hof-but-not SS’s that may go the way of Barry Larkin – forgotten in the wake of A-Rods, Jeters, Nomahs, and Tejadas – guys who have at best .75 times the glove, but at worst 1.25 times the bat.
But seriously, if Vizquel is setting the market, then lots of players are going to cost more than anyone is willing to pay. That’s when there ends up being a few gems at the end of the off-season. Good guys for cheap!
I wish I had time to study all the game theory that goes into contract negotiations and team needs. It’s mostly a transparent game, but a crafty GM could make it fun. And Bavasi….uhh, please suprise me Bavasi!