The Echo Chamber Blog

We still have about a month and half until pitchers and catchers start to report to Arizona and Florida, so the off-season for Major League Baseball isn’t quite finished. Most of the big names have landed new homes but there still are a few names lingering around free agency. Our Nation’s economic troubles have trickled into our entertainment industry as we keep hearing owners, general managers, and agents blaming the economy on why guys aren’t signed yet and why some teams are dumping salary. Apparently the Steinbrenner family have no quarrels.

Here, I’ll discuss some off-season acquisitions (in no particular order) and determine whether it was a good idea or not. Obviously, the true barometers are either a.) when the season is done, or b.) when the contract has expired.

A.J. Burnett – New York Yankees, 5 Years $82.5 Million. Is it any coincidence that A.J. Burnett’s two best seasons were 2005 and 2008, the two walk years he’s had since being in the majors? This guy has always rubbed me the wrong way because I remember a quote from him or his agent back in the off season following the 2005 season where he said (paraphrasing of course) that he wanted to go somewhere where he didn’t have to be the number one guy. To me, that sounds like a guy who doesn’t want the ball. That sounds like a guy who doesn’t want to compete. The Yankees are now going to pay this dill weed roughly $16.5 million a year for the next 5 years even though he’s NEVER pitched a full season in back-to-back years. He’s amassed 30+ starts TWICE (’05 and ’08) and 200 + innings 3 times in 10 seasons. I’ll never fault a guy for being injury plagued, that’s not where I’m going with this. I’m faulting the Yankees for signing a guy who is injury plagued. This seems like such an astronomical waste of money. So now, a guy who didn’t want the pressure of being a number 1 starter for a small market ball club, is being paid a crap-ton of money by a team smack-dab in the middle of the media Mecca! Prediction: 10-12/160 ip/4.49 era.

CC Sabathia – New York Yankees, 7 years $161 Million. This contract didn’t come to a surprise to anyone. Last off-season when the Johan Santana sweepstakes was in full swing, everyone was already in full calculations mode adding up what CC would get the following year. Santana’s first season in the lesser league, big market was on par for his career numbers in the better league, small market he came from. CC’s transition will be a lot tougher coming from a small market, relatively competitive division (last 4 months of ’08 notwithstanding) in the better league to the most competitive division, the AL East. He’s got the smile, attitude, marketability, and cache to make it in New York, and he’s got the stuff, make up, and durability to be a force for the foreseeable future. But, $100+ million for a starting pitcher is never a good investment. Just ask the general managers who signed Mike Hampton, Kevin Brown, and so far, Barry Zito. The Barry Zito deal has been the butt of many jokes, but it’s no different than Santana or Sabathia. The market creates the value, and at the time of signing, Zito’s value was right around $100 million. But all these failures should have owners and general managers ere on the side of caution, yet it doesn’t. Prediction: 15-9/220 ip/4.09 era.

Randy Johnson – San Francisco Giants 1 year $8 Million. I like this deal a lot. With the exception of 2007, Randy Johnson has been much more durable over the past few years than A.J. Burnett has. Oh and Captain Red Ass is going to 46 in September. Even in his last season with the Yankees, 2006, his numbers were better than his 5.00 era claimed. With this signing, the Giants are in the conversation for the NL West. Their projected pitching staff is now: Tim Lincecum, the reining NL Cy Young, Matt Cain, who was tied for the league lead in starts and will probably strike out close to 200 guys this season, Barry Zito, say what you will, the guy’s never hurt and has the ability to pitch deep into games and is just a good pitching coach away from putting it all back together, Jonathan Sanchez, another young strikeout pitcher, this one a southpaw, and then Randy Johnson, who’s pedigree speaks to itself. Bruce Bochy will probably tinker with the rotation so all the lefties won’t one after another, but that’s a pretty formidable set of guys. Even with Johnson, their average age is about 30. That’s pretty sick. Now all they need is to sign Manny Ramirez and they will be my new favorite West Coast team…sorry Seattle, make better decisions and I’ll be back.

Raul Ibanez – Philadelphia Phillies 3 years $31.5 Million. This one is a bit of a head scratcher. Pat Burrell was a staple in left field for 9 seasons. He got ragged on by the fans but ended up being pretty consistent. He was over paid, but by no means was that his fault. He now has a World Series ring and is also unemployed. His replacement has the same offensive ceiling, same defensive prowess (which is none), and is left handed. The last part fits perfectly in the middle of a batting order that has Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, who are also both lefties (<- – sarcasm…). OH! He’s also about 4 1/2 years older than Burrell. If it ain’t broke, don’t break it and make it worse. Prediction: .290/.340/.435. Pretty pedestrian for $10.5m/year.

Mark Teixeira – New York Yankees 8 years $180 Million (still not 100% official). He and CC Sabathia were both the biggest names coming into this off-season and both surpassed my expectations for dollar amount. But I also had both signing elsewhere in my prediction blog. So what do I know? The Yankees just got from underneath a $100 million dollar deal for a first baseman, who they tried their hardest to get rid of after 2004 season. Or was it when steroid testing became a tad more strict and invasive? I forget. But in any event, they didn’t quite learn from their last escapade I guess. Giambi was only a couple of years older than what Tex is right now when he was signed and he was supposed to bring the Yankees to promise land (wait didn’t they win the year before they signed him?) and they never won the World Series with him. Big Tex is going to have it easier than Giambi because the fans will embrace him from day one. He’s replacing a bum (in their eyes) and he’s going to help open the new stadium. Giambi was replacing a winner in Tino Martinez and then apologized for steroid use a few years later (assuming it was steroids because he never actually said what he was apologizing for during his press conference in spring training ’05). When you compare the ’08 stats from Kevin Youkilis and Mark Teixeira, they’re eerily similar, but Youk won’t be making $22.5 million next season. Just think for a second about how absurd the Yankee infield is when it comes to yearly salaries. First base, $20+ million, third base, 25-30 million (incentives included), short stop, $20+ million, and then rounded out by Robby Cano at around $3 million. Quite disgusting. Prediction: .288/.389/.505 and a new fond addiction to escargot.

Francisco Rodriguez – New York Mets 3 years $37 Million. The Mets will be paying approximately $19 million on closers for 2009. Billy Wagner will be healing his left elbow all season as K-Rod will be destroying his right elbow all season. Wagner has a pretty good history of staying healthy other than this past season, K-Rod, who is about 10 years younger, doesn’t have a very good injury future. . . if that makes any sense. Some scouts and baseball officials have said over the years that his herky-jerky violent delivery will derail his arm or shoulder one day, but so far so good. Clearly he passed his physical so there isn’t any eminent danger. But there will be a bunch of “I told you so”, “who didn’t see that coming” and “doy”s left on Omar Minaya’s voicemail when and if it happens. K-Rod’s 2008 season was by far his worst in his career, despite destroying Bobby Thigpen’s saves record. Don’t get me wrong, still a phenomenal season, but he’s been on a downward trend since ’04. His strike out rate went down and his era went up. Heading to the NL may help that for a season or so, but NL closers hardly face pitchers in the late innings, so they don’t have it as easy as their starting counterparts. When this deal is said and done, it will still be worth it. Just don’t be surprised if the Mets to have two closers on the books come 2011 again. Prediction: 66 games/58 games finished/39 saves/2.09 era.

Edgar Renteria – San Francisco Giants 2 years $18.5 Million. The Giants haven’t had an offensive minded short stop in sometime and they hope they’ll have one in 2009-10. Renteria didn’t have a very good year at the plate in ’08. It was a lot like his ’05 season in Boston. A return to the NL was pretty much a foregone conclusion once the Tigers declined his 2009 option. There was some skepticism when it came down to the Tigers offering him arbitration or not, since the risk of him accepting out weighed the reward of an additional draft pick if he declined. They ended up declining and Renteria was signed a few days later. His defense isn’t gold glove worthy like it was back in Florida and his first few years in St. Louis, which is where I thought he’d be returning to. A move to third base may be in his future and since the Bruce Bochy has the young and husky Pablo Sandavol penciled there now, they might have one of the least “rangey” left sides in all of baseball. I’ll always root for Edgar no matter where he goes. I think he was sent packing way too early in Boston and was never a good fit for the Tigers. Prediction: .285/.345/.405.

Honorable Mentions.

Cesar Izturis – Baltimore Orioles 2 years $5 Million – If he bats 9th, plays his usual impeccable defense, and hits .250 he’ll be worth it.

Mike Hampton – Houston Astros 1 year $2 Million – For a team that is having alleged money problems, I can think of 2 million things better to spend $2 million dollars on. One would be a photo of Mike Hampton because that would do about the same as the real thing. Why not pay a quadruple-A guy the league minimum, it’s not like they’re contenders. Texas is such a stupid, useless state.

Mark Hendrickson – Baltimore Orioles 1 year $1.8 Million – See above. I know that career ERA north of 5.00 is tempting but even tendering Daniel Cabrera a contract would have been more interesting. Plus Cabrera still has some upside left. I never will understand the saving money moves that are followed up by setting money on fire moves.

Kyle Farnsworth – Kansas City Royals 2 years $9.25 Million – Loves-to-Fight Guy was overpaid because Dayton Moore traded away his bullpen for on base percentage help (.299 for Mike Jacobs and .344 for Coco Crisp). Farnsworth was never very good with the Yankees, but his half of a season in Atlanta back in 2005 is probably what Dayton Moore paid for. Good luck with that. Kansas City bars will suffer from this signing.

I’ll have a complete off-season grading session once spring training is in full swing. Stay tuned. Also, feel free to email us at echochamberblog@gmail.com with questions and comments and as always, feel free to comment below.