Thursday’s news, the Putz deal
This ended up going into yesterday’s Q & A bucket after I collapsed from exhaustion, but the big news is that JJ Putz got a three-year, $13m deal. It’s a good move in a couple of ways: as Dave’s noted, the bullpen’s been getting a lot shakier through this off-season, and it really does help to have someone who can get some outs on the staff. I don’t agree that if you have that guy you only pitch him in the ninth when you’re up 1-3 runs, obviously, but the M’s have the money and the stability gets them somewhere.
The problem I see, though, is that Putz is unlikely to repeat the performance we saw last year. I’m not trying to say that he’s not good, or that his late-blooming development isn’t for real, but sustaining that kind of performance is extremely difficult, and next year, when he’s just really good instead of crazy good, I wonder if we’re going to see people ragging on him for sucking it up once he got the money. That’d be sad.
Money-value wise, as much as I hate to make this kind of rough comparison, look at what the Orioles were paying for relievers this year. Putz at this price, even if you’d agree with us that closers aren’t all that hard to find and make, is still undervalued to a lot of teams, and you could move him if you had to.
I know, that’s not an amazing endorsement, and I’m mixing some pretty lame analysis, but in my defense, I’m a little swamped with work and I really want to sneak off and go skiing.
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#50…basing it on what they’ve done in the past…and assuming they are healthy enough to do it again…they’ve all notched double digit wins in their careers more than once when healthy…
What’s the latest on Foppert? What realistic expectations can we have for him?
#52…great question! he was supposed to be a star, but has languished in the minors…what’s up?
True Lawrence is not a saviour,but much better than Ramirez. Plus the acquasition other than money is so much better. Soriano for Ramirez who is not as good as Lawrence was just can’t describe how awful it was.
Lawrence can help our staff .
The problem with this team is that our #2 and #3 guys would be 4’s and 5’s on a good team. Not just this year, but for awhile now. Even with the lure of Safeco, we can’t attract the good ones. And then people wonder why we can’t beat Oakland?
The good news about this deal is that we have a guy that can get the last 3 outs.
The bad news is Bavasi didn’t get anybody that can help out in getting the first 24.
Repeat question from yesterday’s thread but never got answered. Does anyone know the current status of Foppert and if we can realistically expect him to contribute anytime in the future?