Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Am I Missing Something Here?

Probably. But the Mets just signed K-Rod for 3 years and $37M, essentially $12M a year for a top five closer. Why wouldn't the Angels try to keep him if that's the going rate? Did K-Rod slap Arte Moreno in the face as he left the clubhouse on the last day and yell, "I'm rich $!#@#"? Don't know for sure, but it seems you'd want to keep a guy that good at that rate when you have Angels money. Does this suggest that the Angels are wrapping up all or most of their spending in the Teixeira chase? Doesn't bode well for CC.

7 comments:

Fred Trigger said...

I think its because they have younger cheaper options in the bullpen.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

I could understand that, but at three years, that's a proven closer. You can have good arms in the pen, but when you have a sure thing closer I'd think you'd like to keep him.

Fred Trigger said...

Well, yeah but, KROD at one point was an unproven closer as well. So was Mariano. Why not go for a cheaper option, instead of spending 12 million on a 1 inning guy? I dont really buy into the whole closer mentality thing. I mean, look at Brad Ziegler for the A's. He was a 28 year old minor league journeyman, and now he's closing out games.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

Leave Ziegler out of this! I see your point, but look at every arm in the Yankee bullpen prior to last season, relief pitchers are hardly known for their consistency, and for a contending team, I think you stick with the known commodity at the closer position.

Fred Trigger said...

Well, yeah. When you have a panamanian destructicon in your bullpen, you might as well stick with him. However:

I'm goonna throw out some numbers for you.

Player A: 2.24 ERA 68.3IP 77K 34BB
Player B: 1.62ERA 61IP 55K 22BB

ok, Player A made $10 million last year. While player B made league minimum. Which one is the better value?

I think you know where I"m going with this. A, is KROD. B ,is Jose Arredondo. So, for about 9million less, you get more or less the same production.

Look, I know he broke the saves record but, that was due in large part to the angels having great pitching, and a so so offense, so he got put into a lot of those situations. The only problem is a lot of guys can hold a 3 run lead. A prime example is Joe Borowski from 2007. He lead the league in saves, but he had an ERA over 5. In conclusion, the Angels would be better off spending big on offense, because their pitching is still really good. Also, I think the yankees should pull their offer to CC, and focus on Teixeira, because that offense is old, and believe it or not, their pitching wasnt half bad last year. Plus they have Wang coming back.

Anyways, I got off track fom my main point, which is, the yankees had a lot of crappy guys in the bullpen (Farnsworth, Meyers). All you need is one or two really good relief pitchers to really succeed. Some examples:

2008 Phillies: Brad Lidge, JC Romero, and Chad Durbin

2007 Red Sox: You guys know this one

2006: Cardinals: Adam Wainwright, Brandon Looper

2005: White Sox: Rookie that year Bobby Jenks springs immediately to mind, Dustin Hermanson

2004: You know who

2003:Marlins: Looper (again, huh, forgot about him on that team), Machete man

2002:Angels: Troy Percival and 20yr old unproven KROD

2001: Diamondback: Byung yun kim, and Bret Prinz.

So, as you can see, for every proven veteran, there are plenty of unproven player who can suceed, and have, on the big level. KROD, Jenks, Papelbon, Okajima, Kim.....actually, lets just forget about him. Stupid Brosius. The cause of all the unneccasary arod hating.

Man, I'm really bored tonight.

Raven King said...

What proven history-making closer wants to pitch for the Angels?
No matter how splendid their regular season is, they always manage to lose to the stupid Red Sox in the postseason.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

good point