Odds And Ends: Draft, Nady, Kinsler, Snell

Great blog by Sam Mellinger on draft pick signing bonus demands. I think baseball fans are too quick to pile on agents for ruining the game for asking for up front money for top picks. To really put it into perspective look at it this way: Boras, in return for Steven Strasburg signing a rookie deal, is basically asking for Carl Pavano money. Pavano money! That's less than half of Mike Hampton money. It's a lower per year average than Edgar Renteria money. And it's susbstantially less per year than contracts signed by steroid abusers who built fraudulent stats and failed to perform in a drug testing environment like Sheffield, Giambi, and possibly now Manny Ramirez and A-Rod. You want to argue that large guaranteed contracts to vets who fail to perform is killing baseball and I'm willing to listen. Signing bonuses to high draft picks though? I just don't see it.

"Marchman says Lowe has been good. Guess he didn't want to bother looking up his numbers."

That is, unless Marchman is right.

Lowe may not be missing as many bats or getting as many groundball, but he's given up only four home runs in 95 innings, so his FIP still comes out to a tidy 3.64, well below the league avearge. He's not pitching as well as in past years, but if he maintains this performance he's still living up to his contract.

"Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star says the draft picks who ask for big bonuses aren't always the bad guys."

Well yeah.

You have a kid trying to make big money because it may be his only shot, and then you have a massive organization owned by an old man with a huge fortunte.

They're fighting over a few million dollars, and somehow the kid with little money is the bad guy?

The players are rarely the bad guys when it comes to contract negotiations.

Nice tidbit on Kinsler. Just goes to show you the "can't miss" prospects often miss and the guy nobody expected anything out of becomes a star