A few more links for Monday night….
- A scout tells John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link) that he didn't know of any teams scouting Ben Sheets this past weekend.
- John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets that there's no risk to the Reds signing Gary Matthews Jr., but that he still wouldn't do it.
- Jack Moore of Fangraphs explains how he thinks the Cubs should approach the trading deadline.
- The Red Sox will have the financial flexibility to make a move or two this summer in part because of their abundance of homegrown pitching talent, according to MLB.com's Peter Gammons.
- Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer says the Phillies may need to acquire an arm for the back of their bullpen.
- With July 31st fast approaching, MLB.com's beat writers are fielding a slew of questions about possible trades. Check out mailbags from Anthony Castrovince (Indians), T.R. Sullivan (Rangers), Joe Frisaro (Marlins), and Chris Haft (Giants) for their thoughts on the trade market.
who would want to scout ben sheets?
Yeah, really? I wonder why there wasn’t anyone scouting him? As an A’s fan, I am still in shock that they spent $10MM on a one year injury-plagued pitcher.
When you account for his stuff & ceiling, there’s not much shocking about it. It was a good signing that has not turned out well.
I like Ben Sheets and I think he has great stuff and talent. But I have a hard time calling it a good signing; the A’s are a small market team and I think that guaranteeing Sheets 10MM was not the smartest move, given the fact that he hadn’t pitched in over a year. They committed over 15% of their opening day payroll to him, with only hopes that he would not effective/healthy.
I understand the opportunity cost argument, but what were the A’s going to do with that $10m? Not much.
Ultimately teams commit money to everyone with only hopes that they will be effective and stay healthy; it’s not unique to Sheets. They scouted him pretty well. His stuff was there and reinjury didn’t seem likely.
You’re right that it was an unusually high percentage of payroll, but the A’s aren’t hamstrung by his contract. Near as I can tell, their hope from the go was that he’d have trade value or at least compensation value after the season – not that he’d lead them to a division title.
He has definitely been a let down, but that’s not the only measure of the wisdom of a signing.
“Ultimately teams commit money to everyone with only hopes that they will be effective and stay healthy; it’s not unique to Sheets”
True, but most players don’t get 10MM guaranteed after such an extensive injury history and not pitching for over a year.
But I get your point, there really was a chance for Beane to look like a genius and he took it, and no, Sheets’ contract is tying their hands by any means, just something that I found odd for them to do.
“Ultimately teams commit money to everyone with only hopes that they will be effective and stay healthy; it’s not unique to Sheets”
True, but most players don’t get 10MM guaranteed after such an extensive injury history and not pitching for over a year.
But I get your point, there really was a chance for Beane to look like a genius and he took it, and no, Sheets’ contract is tying their hands by any means, just something that I found odd for them to do.
I understand the opportunity cost argument, but what were the A’s going to do with that $10m? Not much.
Ultimately teams commit money to everyone with only hopes that they will be effective and stay healthy; it’s not unique to Sheets. They scouted him pretty well. His stuff was there and reinjury didn’t seem likely.
You’re right that it was an unusually high percentage of payroll, but the A’s aren’t hamstrung by his contract. Near as I can tell, their hope from the go was that he’d have trade value or at least compensation value after the season – not that he’d lead them to a division title.
He has definitely been a let down, but that’s not the only measure of the wisdom of a signing.
I like Ben Sheets and I think he has great stuff and talent. But I have a hard time calling it a good signing; the A’s are a small market team and I think that guaranteeing Sheets 10MM was not the smartest move, given the fact that he hadn’t pitched in over a year. They committed over 15% of their opening day payroll to him, with only hopes that he would not effective/healthy.
There is also no reward for signing Gary Matthews Jr.
thats true man
Of course there’s risk to signing Gary Matthews. There’s risk that giving him even fifty plate appearances could cost you a game you can’t afford to spare.