According to this article, former first round draft pick Andrew Brackman is not acheiving the way he was once beleived he could. His velocity is down and he's been getting knocked around Scranton. He was removed from the rotation and placed in the bullpen, but to no avail. He just hasn't been able to piece it together.
Brackman was an interesting signing from the beginning. A high-risk, high-reward prospect that the Yankees took a chance on. There were injury concerns (later realized as he needed Tommy John shortly after signing), but he had a big fastball, and the best case scenario had him as a dominant front end starter. However, Brackman is a Boras client, so even though it was a risky signing, the Yankees still over paid. The contract itself isn't so crazy for the Yankees ($4.55 million over 4 years, plus club options through 2013), but still high for a prospect. Where they overpaid was in that they signed Brackman to a major league contract and were therefore forced to place him on the 40 man roster. So even though he was getting lit up in High A ball a few years back, he was accruing major league service time, and taking up a roster spot. A roster spot he still has. Further more, if I'm reading his contract correctly, he was given a $1 million bonus for having the team exercise his 2011 option (which they did), and is making an annual salary of $400,000 in the minors to pitch out of the bullpen (for comparisons sake, Eduardo Nunez makes $419,300, Ivan Nova makes $432,900, and Francisco Cervelli makes $455,700, all of these guys are big league contributors).
Long story short, this was a stupid signing. The point of signing a high risk, high reward player is that you get them cheap. That's why you sign guys like Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia to minor league contracts worth $900,000 and $1.5 million respectively. And that's for guys who are proven big league talents. You don't sign a guy with a high risk of injury and who has never thrown a pitch in the major leagues to a long term major league contract.
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4 comments:
Don't forget Gardner at $530,000. He's one of the best deals in MLB.
You make a great point about Brackman's service time. Many teams spend a lot of money on draft picks (think the Nationals with Strasburg and Harper) because a large signing bonus pales in comparison to an arbitration award or free agent contract for an average ML player. With Brackman, it's like the Yankees didn't understand the significance of giving him a ML contract. Of course with Brackman, since he's pitching so badly, it's likely the Yankees will non-tender him rather than go to arbitration.
I would hope so, but its not like the Yankees are known for making sound fiscal decisions, particularly when they relate to releivers.
The Brewers DFA'd Mitre. The Yankees have to pick him up. He would cost next to nothing and be better than Carlyle or Sanit.
oh I have not heard of this the case of Andrew Brackman and it is indeed a curious case and I found it really interesting thanks for sharing it buddy
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