John Thomson
Okay, the news is out. Corey Brock has the scoop at the M’s official site.
The Mariners are on the verge of signing John Thomson to a one year contract, reportedly with an option for a second year. I’ve expressed my preference for one year deals for pitchers repeatedly, and Thomson is the kind of pitcher that is often undervalued.
By no means is he a great pitcher, but when he’s healthy, he’s an average innings eater. He gets groundballs, throws strikes, keeps the ball in the yard, and even misses bats occassionally. The big knock against him is health – he’s logged less than 100 innings each of the last two seasons due to various problems. He’s not the most durable guy, and at age 33, he’s entering the twilight of his career.
But, given the escalating costs of mediocrity, a short term deal for Thomson is a bargain. He’s basically Jeff Suppan’s less durable twin. They have the same skillset and similar stuff. They get their results the same way. Suppan is asking for $40 million over 4 years. The Mariners found a similar talent for a fraction of that amount.
This is how you assemble the back-end of a rotation. Sign John Thomson and Justin Lehr to give competition to the young pitchers, and use the money saved by not paying for experience to spend on position players.
John Thomson can help the Mariners, and for the price, it’s a good buy. Kudos to Bill Bavasi for finding one of the better deals in a crazy free agent market.
My name is John Thomson
I live in Wisconsin
I work in a lumbermill there…
150… I was listening to 1380 on the drive home (after getting tired of the nightly “the Sonics need a new stadium” waah-fest on KJR*) and they were listing the biggest contracts given out… giving the most attention to the ones that seem absurd or awful, even in retrospect – Mike Hampton, Todd Helton, Kevin Brown (he’s still getting paid?), Junior, etc., even noting that Carlos Lee is getting paid more than Pujols now. There was a definite subtext of “maybe paying tons of money for a free agent isn’t a good idea.”
It was a refreshing change from the usual demands for the high-priced free agent-of-the-year, that would put Seattle On The Map.
* One person said that it would help Seattle become an international city, because of our ties with the Pacific Rim.
Anyone,
What is the league average xFIP?
As I live and breathe—something to actually perk up for. I’ve liked John Thompson for what he is for some time, and had hoped the Ms would pick him up a few years back. Given how much he was nicked up this last year, I’d forgotten he was even on the market this offseason. Personally, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his results were comparable to those Schmidt turns in over the next two years, and at a fraction of the price. If John is at all healthy and his sinker has some bite, he matches up well to the park and the team, too. I like it.
Oh God, and I _knew_ it was Thomson even before I hit the ‘firmament’ button.
Bela I think this is your shortest post ever, and the first one that I have actually had time to read. Thanks.
De nada.
Did this come up already or did anyone notice Pineiro had a better xFIP and GB% then Thomson last year? Maybe I’m wrong but Pineiro sucks why would I get excited about Thomson when he seems even worse?
We had a lovely discussion about xFIP lately and why it’s not meaningful for Pineiro.
WTF is up with that link thing? WTF? I mean, I like it, but WTF?
OK Aaron Sele had a better xFIP and GB% then Thomson. Do we want to sign Sele to a one year $4-5 million contract? I don’t like this move when I look at the numbers. Thomson is 33 so I don’t think a big rebound from last year is realistic. This looks like the Jurassic Carl signing of this year.
Corco: I don’t understand how you’ve been around here this long and not noticed that the weekends are when we do the site tinkering and experiment with new toys.
I understand that this is how these things work, but the link thing is so much more neat and obvious than anything else. It’s totally useless, but that’s what I like about it. I just wish you could put it below the comment break.
re Campillo…
I wish they’d release Dobby the Bench Elf, with the intention of resigning him, but have another team snap him up first.
I LIKE IT
USSM is going to kick ass.
I would argue that we already kick ass, but thanks.
You can never have too much cool stuff. Now you need sounds, and COMET CURSOR!!!
Okay, just for you Corco.
Good luck getting Comet Cursor, they got shut down years ago.
Hey Derek, speaking of testing out new toys, I have an idea! Brace yourself for its awesomeness:
Avatars of Mariners past and present. I don’t think I’m the only one here who would love have my comment highlighted by a headshot of, say, Jose Paniagua. Think about it. You know you want to.
Avatars are death to servers, unfortunately.
It’s totally useless, but that’s what I like about it.
Oddly enough, this is what people like about you too, Corco.
Good luck getting Comet Cursor, they got shut down years ago.
Shut down, and to this day still screwing with computers world-wide!
ohmigod. must link to something. anything.
Dave: Not to jump off topic, [deleted, off-topic]
quick tags? I LOVE quicktags….
But, frankly its very upsetting to see underline once again marginalized…sure italics has pizazz and bold is, well, bold but there is a certain unstated dignity to underline that often goes under appreciated….
BTW, I vote for a preview function….
puh, pum, pump….