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Odds & Ends: Bergmann, Maddux, Red Sox

By Nat Boyle [April 5, 2009 at 12:26pm CST]

Some Odds & Ends to round out this Sunday morning's news:

Right-hander Jason Bergmann, who has an option left, is not happy that the Nationals have sent him to Triple-A, says Pete McElroy of masnsports.com. In nine games, Bergmann didn't give up a run. He had 6 K and 2 BB in 11 1/3 innings.
Not a rumor, but a headline of importance: Unsurprisingly, the Braves are going to retire Greg Maddux's number in July.
Daniel Barbarisi of the Providence Journal praises the Red Sox shrewdness by improving their ballclub while reducing their payroll by $13MM, from fourth highest to sixth. Back-loaded extensions to key players could mean the Sox could add payroll if a marquee player becomes available this summer.
Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star has a short but interesting article up noting that paying for a free agent pitcher does not usually work out. It would be interesting to actually see the numbers on this. Mellinger writes,

"We looked at the 47 contracts worth $5 million or more per year signed by active players, and analyzed their innings pitched, ERA and adjusted ERA for up to three years before and after the contract. Our executive said this would be a crude but effective way to make a judgment.

"The results are brutal: Thirty pitchers regressed after signing, and only 13 improved. Four contracts were close enough to be judged either way. That’s a fail ratio of 2:1."

Comments

cubs in may. were first

Posted by: ChiTownCubbies | April 05, 2009 at 12:31 PM

Not surprising at all about Maddux, 100% on board with this move!

Posted by: Braves for NL East!! | April 05, 2009 at 12:35 PM

It would have been nice if the 47 contracts/pitchers involved in the study was in the article mentioned above. Would have liked to see who the absolute worst performers per dollar were.

Posted by: johns | April 05, 2009 at 12:46 PM

Honestly, how many of those pitcher deals that they used in the study were clearly bad deals at the time? Pitchers like Silva, Jason Schmidt, etc. never should of gotten deals more than 5 million in the first place.

Posted by: B3NG4L | April 05, 2009 at 01:02 PM

the only problem for the Red Sox (if you can call it a problem) is that they don't really have any place they can easily upgrade- they are already solid pretty much everywhere. Of course, it's good to have the payroll flexibility to deal with an injury, but otherwise- what could they possibly acquire? A catcher?- who is going to be available who would be a significant upgrade on Varitek- Bengie Molina? Shortstop? I don't know, I think I'd rather have some combo of Lugo and Lowrie than a Miguel Tejada.

Posted by: jakec | April 05, 2009 at 01:18 PM

"Back-loaded extensions to key players could mean the Sox could add payroll if a marquee player becomes available this summer."

To call these extensions back-loaded misses the point. In fact, the Red Sox are paying these guys more money in the early years of the contracts, so they can pay them less than they would have gotten in the later years, leaving future payroll flexibility. It's a pretty sound strategy, actually.

Posted by: Little Bear | April 05, 2009 at 03:21 PM

Are there even 47 free agent contracts signed by active pitchers that could be judged. Not counting 1 year deals signed this year, obviously.

Or did this article include contracts that weren't free agent but bought out FA years, like Nate Robertson, Dontrelle Willis, Brett Myers, Carlos Zambrano, etc.

Posted by: melonis rex | April 05, 2009 at 03:40 PM

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Odds & Ends: Bergmann, Maddux, Red Sox

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