Here's the latest from Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com..
- The Tigers' interest in John Lannan is only lukewarm at best and one executive told Heyman (via Twitter) that American League teams are leery of what switching leagues would do. For their part, the Nationals still seem eager to move the left-hander.
- With no real playing time likely available to Bobby Abreu, it might be for the best for the Angels to simply release the veteran, Heyman writes. Even though Abreu's agents, Peter and Edward Greenberg, said his recent comments were taken out of context, Abreu is obviously frustrated and unhappy about his situation.
- Is Barry Zito's contract the worst free agent deal ever? – Heyman believes that it is and it tops his top ten list. John Lackey, Gary Matthews, Carl Pavano, and Mike Hampton round out the top five.
- There are several theories as to why Adam Dunn wasn't able to produce last year, including the idea that his big contract got to him, writes Heyman. The 32-year-old hit .159/.292/.277 in 122 games last season.
Wheres Kei Igawa?
In Japan, laughing his keester off!
Exactly. Kei and Hideki Irabu were two of the worst imports in MLB/NPL history.
Can we substitute Lackey for Theo Epstein signings? Terrible…
Crawford, Lackey, Drew, Lugo, Clement, Cameron list goes on and on.
Was Drew such a terrible signing though?
yes…
Do you post on IMDb?
Theo is decent at making farm systems, but he really makes some bad signings,
Soriano for the Cubs.
As it stands right now Carl Crawford’s contract isn’t looking all that great.
Albert Belle and the Orioles.
Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers was a complete waste of money.
Lance Parish and the Phillies was a dud many moons ago.
Also, you good throw in the Phillies signing of Chad Ogea as well :p
Adam Dunn…..
I mean this list could go on for awhile….
The Nationals still seem eager to move the left-hander. What?? The last I heard the Nats GM wants to keep him because of possible injuries and depth purposes.
A-Rod’s did not even make the list, I’m a bit surprised.
Cue biased Yankee fans to tell you that its worth it because hes going to break the home run record and hes still good now even though he has half of a hip and who cares if he makes like 30 MM at the age of 42
No Yankee fan, biased or not, I can assure you said A-Rod was worth it, especially with those incentives. They outbid themselves without question.
He’s “only” making $18 mil at 42. I think Pujols will be making over $30 mil at 42 though.
This ‘biased’ Yankees fan doesn’t believe any ball player is worth $20MM or more a year. Still, in this economic climate, A-Rod’s contract is very palpable to swallow.During the life of the contract, He’s been an All-star 10 times, won 3 MVP’s, won multiple HR titles, and has finally won a WS ring. While he’s been hurt the last two years, his numbers still are impressive.
If there’s any bias being thrown around, it’s the perception of people expecting any player to actually live up to a contract that’s unrealistic as that.
Well to be fair not all of those allstar appearances were deserved. If Arod is healthy he’l probably make the team.
True enough. I could cite the fact that some of his HR titles are tainted or that he should not have won the MVP when he was with Texas. That seems to illustrate my point about unrealistic expectations due to the contract. Fact of the matter, I can’t think of any player who has done a better job of ‘fulfilling’ a ridiculous contract than A-Rod.
“Tainted” or not, they count… and how can you argue that A-Rod did not deserve the 2003 MVP award?
You seem to missing the point here… I’m defending A-Rod on a thread about the worst contracts ever. Still, one has to be honest and call things as they are.All the numbers count … for everyone!
Now as for the 2003 MVP, I don’t believe that that award should go to the player with the best overall stats or who’s on the best team. I believe the player should have outstanding stats that are meaningful, that contribute to the team’s winning and that he as an individual make his teammates around him, better. For me, it’s not just about numbers.
A-Rod didn’t do that in 2003 with Texas.
That year Texas finished dead last in a four team division, their record was an awful 71-91. That’s 20 games under .500. They were actually one game worse than the year before, while A-Rod had a monster year statistically. The Rangers finished 7th out 14 teams in attendance that year, all the while A-Rod was smashing HR’s and driving in runs every game.
Seems to me the Rangers could have finished last without him and his big stats. In addition,the fans sure weren’t rushing to Arlington to see him put up those gaudy numbers, so really how ‘Valuable a player’ was A-Rod that year?
Just look at the players on the list. They have all been significantly below average player production. Arod has still averaged 28 hr since he signed his contract, which while being overpaid, is still significantly above average for a 3b.
vernon wells not in top 5 ?
edit, didn’t read the “free agent” part .
extension
It’s free agent deals, is it not?
what about jason bay w mets, jayson werth i know its early but still.. ken caminiti w rangers , kevin brown with yankees, oliver perez with mets, ken griffey jrs with reds exception being first yr on contract,
denny neagle w rockies, daisuke matsuzaka w red sox,
Kevin Brown was traded to the Yankees. They didn’t sign him.
thats right thnx
Kevin Brown’s contract with the Dodgers was ridiculous given his age, but when he wasn’t injured, he was pretty amazing.
I don’t think it’s too early to call the Werth contract a mistake. He wasn’t even that bad – a 20/20 guy with good defense didn’t kill the team, but I don’t see him doing significantly better considering how he’s on the wrong side of 30 and wasn’t that great to begin with.
Griffey Jr. was plagued by injury. When he was healthy, he played well. He will probably be the last ballplayer to make diving catches in the outfield with that kind of contract. The era of the baseball player going at it 100% is over, big money contracts and the fear of injury have allowed bloop singles to win the fight.
At least early in the Zito contract, he was eating up some innings. Maybe I’m stretching a bit…
It’s Gary Matthews Jr. I don’t think his father signed any terrible deals.
I think Carl Crawfords deal has the chance to be right up there. Lets see what this year brings, but he will be starting the year on the DL and wrist injures can linger, so he is not off to a promising start .
Daisuke is another one. Cost 103 million over 6 years. Compare him to Zito, both in the first 5 years of their deals
4.25 ERA (DM) vs 4.55 ERA (BZ),
105 GS (DM) vs 140 GS (BZ)
93 million (DM) vs 80 million (BZ)
Making 35 less starts is a big one since those starts are made by replacement starters who perform significantly worse than league average.
Of course, BZ has 2 years left (39 million + 7 million buyout) while DM has only 10 million for this year. Daisuke won’t pitch until June though and could very well perform worse than BZ coming off TJ surgery.
Jury still open on this. If Zito finishes the last 2 years of his contract strong, and next year is a contract year so that’s not as crazy as it sounds, then Zitos contract won’t look as bad.
Heyman seemed to forget the Dodgers trio of awful contracts: Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre and Jason Schmidt. I think at least one of those should have made this list.
Also, Manny’s $45m/2 year deal was pretty ridiculous.
Jones and Manny were only 2 year deals, so they didn’t really kill the team. Pierre was easily the worst contract of these because he wasn’t worth close to that money, but a healthy Schmidt would have been.
That’s ironic, because Heyman is featured in my worst sports insiders list.
Best post here.
anyone mention Vernon Wells
Yoenis Cespedes… what, too soon?
Looks like a great athlete and an unremarkable ballplayer so far.
Release Bobby Abreu?
I’d rather him be some malcontent that pinch hits than let him walk for nothing. Throw him in the outfield when we are up by 7 or down by 7. Let him pinch hit/run. He can still efficiently run bases and take a walk.
This is especially true in Wells repeats his 2011 campaign. I could see Vernon on the bench and Abreu splitting time with Hunter/Bourjos/Trout in the OF.
There is absolutely NO reason to release Bobby A at this time.
Bobby’s playing time in professional baseball gets down to one word: Ochocinco.
Not to make an obvious point, but Heyman’s list seems rather generous to clients of Scott Boras. Crawford is on (not a Boras client) but Werth is not (Boras). Andrew Jones doesn’t make the list? How about Matsuzaka?