TRJ Weblog

Every year, GMs outsmart themselves and often outbid themselves for overrated free agents. Scott Bora$$ is the master agent at convincing a GM that his client has another suitor, so if the GM really wants this guy, he better up his offer. The reality is that only one GM is bidding on the player and they end up outbidding themself and throwing away tons of money. Works out great for Bora$$ since he gets a piece of the contract, so the higher it is, the larger his share. This year was no exception. There were some truly awful moves in baseball this year. Here are some of the highlights or lowlights as the case may be. Giants sign Barry Zito for 7 years for $126 million. This can be filed in the "What on earth were they thinking?" category. The Giants GM must not take part in any Fantasy Leagues, because if he did, he would know that Zito would not only not rank as the top pitcher in baseball, he would not rank among the top 30 pitchers in baseball, so why would you pay him as though he was the top pitcher in baseball? This is insane. He is no Randy Johnson in his prime. If Zito is worth this much, then Johann Santana should be worth about $1 billion for 7 years. Giants also made a huge mistake in giving Zito 7 years. Have they not looked back at any previous long term pitching deals? What is Kevin Brown doing these days? He is not pitching, but still getting paid. Mike Hampton is having a fine career, having not lost a game in over a year. Oh that's right, he has not pitched in over a year and is out again this year. How is Denny Naegle doing these days? Boston Red Sox sign JD Drew for 5 years and $70 million. When he opted out of his LA Dodgers contract, the Dodgers could not show him the door fast enough. I think they might have been thinking about having a parade to welcome him out of Los Angeles. Another Bora$$ client. I seriously doubt there was a single team interested in signing Drew to such a ridiculous contract, but Bora$$ convinced the Red Sox that someone else was interested besides Theo Epstein. It appears that the Red Sox had second thoughts about signing Drew as they seemed to be looking for a medical reason to void the contract, but it was too late. As far as I know, Drew has never played an entire season and appears to not get along well with teammates and the media. It will only be a matter of time before the fans in Boston end up hating him just like the fans have everywhere else he has played. The interesting things is, Drew won't care what the fans think and won't care about how the team is doing. Royals sign Gil Meche for $55 million over 5 years. This is really going to turn KC into a contender? What it does do is suck up cash that the team could use to develop and keep younger talent. Florida is able to dismantle and rebuild in a matter of a year or two, but the Royals constantly go out and overpay mediocre or washed up players like Benito Santiago and Reggie Sanders, and now Meche. I would hate to be a KC fan, however it might be nice to be a baseball fan living in KC, as you could probably get cheap tickets on game day, sit anywhere you want and watch your favorite players pound hapless KC into submission. Angels sign Gary Mathews Jr. for 5 years at $10 million per year. I thought this was a bad move before Mathews' steroid scandal and still do. Mathews' non-denial denials, sure make him seem guilty of something. The guy has been a career journeyman player and suddenly has a good year in his free agent season? Classic red flag that the Angels ignored. Cubs made a series of questionable moves, led by picking up Alfonso Soriano for $136 million over 8 years. I have to root for this move to work, since I have Soriano on my Fantasy Team, but I'm not holding my breath. Soriano will hit homeruns and steal bases, but he has never impressed me as a clutch hitter with men on base and will likely not hit above .280, with a low on base percentage. Seems like he would be more suited to batting 7th than first, but who would pay their #7 hitter $136 million? Well, maybe the Cubs would do that. Cubs also pick up Jason Marquis for 3 years at $21 million. He got wins in St. Louis because they had some good teams, but he is not a very good pitcher. At least his contract is only 3 years. Cubs also pick up Ted Lilly for $40 million over 4 years. I think they would have been better off saving some of that money for Zambrano and using the rest on picking up a young pitcher from some place like KC for cheap. In the interst of equal time, I'll look for some free agent bargains for my next entry. Could be a very short entry. Play ball!