Email a copy of 'Why Didn't Colby Lewis Get More Money?' to a friend
Loading ...
By Tim Dierkes | at
Email a copy of 'Why Didn't Colby Lewis Get More Money?' to a friend
MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com
hide arrows scroll to top
Marxkip
Colby Lewis obviously deserved more money. I’ve often heard the Japanese Leagues being seen as a AAA+ league talent wise. I find it hard to believe that the ML clubs see things this way. If there was a AAA pitcher putting up the #s Lewis did over his years there, he’d have gotten more.
venn177
AAA+? That’s why they always win the World Baseball Classic, right?
Honestly, I don’t understand why people would ever say anything like that about Japan.
Ferrariman
the japanese teams with the WBC has nothing, i mean, nothing to do with it. besides, the WBC happens when players are just coming into SPRING TRAINING. as in they have had like 5+ months of a lay off and are then competing for their country. i’d like to see how the WBC would shake up if it were to take place..in say…late June.
that said, AAA+ is probably a stretch. their better than that
Steve Smith
The Japanese league is better than AAA+ (not by much though). However, using the WBC as a comparison is not a solid arguement. If you really think that the Japanese league is so good then why do players who are not offered contracts in MLB go to Japan to reinvent themselves?
ronny9
well here is the thing about the world baseball classic. I think it is a given that as a whole the US has the most significant and talented baseball league in the world. If that weren’t the case Ichiro, Matsui, Dice K etc would not be coming over here to play in the american baseball league. Arod, Bonds and Griffey would have gone to Japan to take the “leap” to the best league in the world if it were the other way around.
I have read in multiple places that many MLB scouts believe that Japanese baseball is the equivalent of 4A baseball. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have 30 players in the league that would be able to be a major contributor to the MLB roster. (that’s all it takes for a great world baseball classic team too!!!).
But as for the world baseball classic lets run thru the teams that finished ahead of the USA in the first two WBC’s.
the following teams finished ahead of the USA both times:
Japan, South Korea, Venezuela
these teams finished ahead in one of the two tournaments:
Cuba, Dom Republic, P. Rico, Mexico
now if we were using your argument of WBC finishes that would suggest that the pro leagues in S. Korea, Venezuela, Cuba etc would also be equivalent to MLB level???
I don’t think so.
grant77
I’m sure his failure to produce in the majors over an extended period with that same stuff didn’t help his cause. I mean, he was absolutely brutal in 5 seasons, just terrible.
I don’t think it had much, if anything, to do with the Japanese leagues like marxkip implies.
Tim Dierkes
Doesn’t seem like it was the same stuff, if Kurkjian’s article is accurate.
grant77
If that’s the case, the fact that he stunk it up here may be of less importance.
Moebarguy
It’s always easier to say this retrospectively.
Patrick Newman
I’ve heard that he turned down a bigger contract from Hiroshima to come back to the States. I don’t know the figure but my guess it was around $3m annually.
MadmanTX
So nobody mentions “hometown discount”? He started with the Rangers and maybe Colby wanted to go back to the Rangers and that is all there is to it. Colby Lewis is in the minority of underpaid bargain players. There are far more “making more than they should based on their stats” players like Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman.
CollinN
If you took all the best players from AAA, you could field a very competitive team at the WBC. The Japanese WBC team doesn’t represent the overall talent level in the Japanese league.
sergio
“better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”
makes no sense, it should be “better the devil that offers the most money”
in spanish they have a saying that goes like this “better the known bad than the unknown good”; I guess he meant something like this…