No Astacio
JMB · February 5, 2005 at 2:27 pm · Filed Under Mariners
The Rangers signed starter Pedro Astacio to a one-year, $800K deal yesterday. I only mention this because his name had popped up here and there in connection with the M’s. It’s worth noting that after making 31 starts and pitching 191.2 innings back in 2002, he’s only worked 45.1 inning since. This is a guy with a ton of mileage on his arm who’s less than two years removed from shoulder surgery. Also, he’s not very good. In other words, I’m glad the Rangers signed him and not the Mariners.
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10 Responses to “No Astacio”
Detroit just got Mags, 5 year deal 75 million.
Is it just me or is Detroit building somrthing good. I know they have a ways to go, but this is a nice start.
It’s just you, Alan … and Dave Dumbrowksi.
Jeff Sullivan has an excellent post at Lookout Landing on why this deal for Magglio Ordonez is a terrible signing.
At least the Rangers didn’t waste too much on Astacio as he gets in touch with his inner John Wasdin. I haven’t seen or heard anything to show that Astacio is any better than what he showed in a few outings with Boston last year. Like Aaron Sele, a pitcher of similar age, established peak talent level and shoulder-injury history, he’s likely at the end of the line.
Well, the Detroit Tigers’ signing Magglio Ordonez has got to be the worst of the off-season; Troy Glaus, Richie Sexson, Russ Ortiz, and Derek Lowe were over-paid, but not as heavily as Ordonez. (Looks like Bobby Higginson is on the market…I’m telling you, obtaining him [Higginson] for Randy Winn, Scott Spiezio and either Ryan Franklin or Shigetoshi Hasegawa would be a good move (for it is probably the only way to rid of Spiezio and the ~$10 million remaining over the next three years on his contract).
AK … why would the Tigers be eager to take on all our payroll problems? Why would they want to commit 16 percent of their roster to them? You’re only thinking about this from the Mariner perspective. Have you thought about whether Detroit even has a place for Hasegawa, Franklin, Winn or Spiezio? I sure don’t see it.
And what exactly does Bobby Higginson do well, as he gets set to turn 35 coming off a power-free season in which he hit .246 and slugged .388? Let alone well for $11.8 million?
Bobby Higginson is apparently this month’s Ryan Howard (the overrated player the Mariners need to trade Randy Winn for).
Maybe we should start a betting pool on who will be the NEXT rumored traded player for Randy Winn that gets flogged to death in 1323 USS Mariner comment threads. I’ll take Jose Mesa…
I’ll take Griffey for Winn.
Bob Finnigan
Check this out. This is the latest on rotoworld. This isnt just a bad signing, its flat out obsurd. If this all goes down in the worst possible way, the Tigers organization is in SERIOUS trouble.
-Magglio Ordonez’s deal with the Tigers will be worth up to $105 million over seven years and includes a clause that will allow it to be voided after 2005 if a reoccurrence of his left knee problem lands him on the DL for at least 25 days.
The AP story would seem to indicate that the Tigers aren’t protected from knee problems in 2006 or beyond. Under the terms of the deal, Ordonez gets a $6 million signing bonus, $6 million this year, $15 million in 2006, $12 million in 2007, $15 million in 2008 and $18 million in 2009. Detroit has a $15 million option for 2010 with a $3 million buyout and a $15 million option for 2011 with no buyout. The option years would become guaranteed at $18 million in 2010 and $15 million in 2011 if he has 135 starts or 540 plate appearances in the previous season or 270 starts or 1,080 plate appearances in the previous two seasons.-
Regarding Detroit’s ‘rebuilding program,’ they’re constructing an All-Fragile team, with Carlos Guillen, I-Rod, Rondell White, Urbina, Percival, and now Ordonez. Seriously, they’ll pay for this—the contracts are signed—but they are going to have an implosion year in ’05 or ’06 when all of thes guys go down together. Betting on any _one_ of those guys is not that bad a move; two is risky, but they’d challenged the MLB loss record, which can raise one’s tolerance for risk to be sure. Signing all of these guys is madness, to me.
What I don’t get is, Why isn’t Dombroski building a power rotation for that pitcher’s park they build in Motown? If he was going to be giving out bucks, it would make sense to get a front of the rotation arm to go along with Bondrman among all those back of the rotation guys they have now. If there’s an upside in this disaster approaching to me, it’s that the Pizza Guy just might sell the team when it pancakes this time. Which, to me, would be a plus. I grew up next to De-troit watching games in beautiful old Tiger Stadium, and the present ownership has done nothing but spin its wheels and lay a ton of gravel since it arrived. . . . And just _don’t_ get me started on Sparky Anderson. I feel for Alan Trammell, though.
Why did Tejas give Pistachio a guaranteed deal? Their starting pitching is awful, but Pistachio is no upgrade over Drese, Rodriguez, rogers, or Young, and they ain’t movin Park out of the rotation, so I don’t get it.
Mr. Corcoran…
That’s the same question Rangers fans are asking.
Particularly since Hart has said that Astacio WILL be in the rotation to start the year.
So even though Hart has said that the Rangers are committed to taking a look at the young pitchers, the young pitchers have only one slot in the rotation to fight over.
Unless, of course, Showalter fave R.A. Dickey has a good spring, and wins a rotation slot…in which case 29 year old Ryan Drese will be the youngest member of the rotation for a team which is nominally in the midst of a youth movement.
Sigh…it is a bad offseason to be a Ranger fan…