Kyle Lohse Signs Extension

This is a curious signing. For a team that has been able to rebuild guys like Lohse, Weaver, Looper, etc., paying $12 M for a guy like Lohse over four years doesn't make a ton of sense. Better off w/draft picks and another reclamation project.

Did Bill Bavasi, Special Assistant to the Reds GM come over to help the Cardinals?

Lohse is very obviously having a career year. If he had a year similar to any of his other years, he wouldn't be getting considered for such a contract (except by Bavasi).

If the Cards are tired of the reclamation projects, why not go after a pitcher who is more proven? Although that could easily turn into a disaster (Mulder, anyone?), its less likely to. Especially when prospects aren't involved.

Good signing for the Cardinals, I'm very happy to see them lock up guys like Lohse to large contracts that aren't going to end well. I'm a Cub fan and this makes me happy. Enjoy his 2008 season Cards fans, that's as good as it's going to get and now you've got $12 million less to pay better pitchers every year for the next four years.

Bernie Miklasz of the Post Dispatch is reporting that the Lohse deal is done and he'll get upwards of $10 million a year over 4 years.
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Contract length is a bit long, but dollar wise it's not bad.

I know this is only one point of data. And part of the money could been seen as paying a guy for a good season. But man it does not bode well teams looking to sign a starter or two and not tie the equivalent of the Marlins payroll in just 2 guys.

"This is a mistake, the Cardinals would've been better off figuring out how much it would cost to get a legitimate top of the rotation guy first."

Adam Wainwright? Chris Carpenter when healthy (although, when is that?).

And, daveinexile is right. This set the market. Scott Boras walked away with a HUGE win. He set the market early for his other similar clients (Oliver Perez, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, etc.) to get way overpaid

I was in no way saying the Cards didn't have a top of the rotation starter, Wainwright is definately that. I was just saying that if they are willing to pay 4/48 for a solid 3/4 starter in Lohse, why not see if you can land a Burnett or Lowe for similarish money. Offer Lowe 3/51 and Burnett 4/64, and see if they bite. Those deals would both be better value, and I don't see the bidding for Lohse going much higher than 4/48, even on the open market.

"the deal will be similar to Carlos Silva's four-year, $48MM contract."
This deal will be similar, and in more ways than just the length and salary. Congratulations, Cardinals, you are the losers of the offseason and it hasn't even started yet.

Ok. I'm trying to look at the positives here. The first 2 years are under 10 mil if I understand correctly. Which is not a bad price for him at all. The last two years are the trickier ones. If contracts continue to inflate like they have recently then the last 2 years will probably be around market value at that point in time. It's not 12 mil a season. It's an average of 10.25. Which is slightly better. At the least he gives the Cards a solid innings eater right? hopefully.

1. Lohse is a better pitcher than Silva across the board, especially under Dave Duncan.

2. Lohse was signed to be the #3 starter for the Cardinals. Assuming Carpenter comes back healthy next year, the Cards will have Carpenter, Wainwright, Lohse as 1-3. That's not too shabby, plus they have some flexibility now for rounding out the rotation.

3. The Cardinals don't need to roll the dice on more reclamation projects. The Cardinals need to stabilize the rotation, so guys with injury histories (i.e. Brad Penny) don't fit the bill. They already have some of those, they don't need more.

4. If the Cardinals hadn't resigned Lohse, I bet some team would have paid him $15/yr for 2-3 years. This isn't a bad deal, considering the prices free agent pitchers have commanded in recent years.

Alright, it's 4 years, 41 million which isn't that bad in my opinion.

The Cardinals had I believe 15-16 million they wanted to add a pitcher, it's plausible that guys like Sabathia, Lowe, Burnett, and others could get upwards of 18 million on average a year.

Lohse is about to turn 30, he's one of the youngest starters on the market and has always had good stuff, just never fully knew how to use it until this year. I believed he would win 15 this year (believe it or not) and I'm from Minnesota so I watched his years with the Twins and I think he can be a solid mid of the rotation starter.

The Cardinals are now set up with Wainwright, Lohse, Pinerio, and Wellemeyer with Carpenter a possible comeback and some money to bring in a reclemation project like (my personal favorite) Carl Pavano.

Then the Cardinals can spend some extra money on a reliever although that has a bad track record but the bullpen was a soft spot last year.

Then spend the rest of the I believe 30 million available to try and get an "impact" bat.

STL do need an impct bat eiher by free agentcy, or by trade. I always wanted STL to trade for Holliday, and they have a surplus of outfielders anyway. They will also have a surplus of catchers when Anderson is ready to come up to the majors.

I read somewhere that Dave Duncan was leaving the Cards. If so you can forget Lohse being even remotely good next season.