5 Worst Offseason Signings

[zzzmanwitz]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7542024

 

Well, I guess we were right not to resign Cordero or Linebrink (at least in one man's opinion). I'm kind of surprised to see Kendall on this list seeing though its a one year deal to a very weak offensive position with a decent amount of upside. Oh well, its not like I usually agree 100% with sports writers.

[clancyphile]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7542024

 

Well, I guess we were right not to resign Cordero or Linebrink (at least in one man's opinion). I'm kind of surprised to see Kendall on this list seeing though its a one year deal to a very weak offensive position with a decent amount of upside. Oh well, its not like I usually agree 100% with sports writers.

I would have to put Kendall on the list.

Estrada still had a decent offensive season despite injuries, and was traded for a reliever who seemed to be nitroglycerin on the mound, and then the Brewers got three other relievers, then spent the money for Kendall.

Gagne + Riske + Torres + Estrada > Gagne + Torres + Riske + Mota + Kendall.

 

[theavrock]

Must be a slow news day. The offseason isnt over yet and this guy is already judging worst moves.

[zzzmanwitz]

The nice thing about Kendall is he has some speed for a catcher. He won't be thrown out at home on a single when trying to score from second. I don't want to make this a Kendall vs. Estrada thread, I'm sure we already have one of those. But Kendall, could really be a great addition to this team, even if he doesn't have a great offensive year.

[burnzy24]

I saw that last night and I agree. I think if Perry is going to use the "he was terrible last year" argument then why didn't he put Andruw Jones and his .222 average in there instead of Kendall? I know Jones is a better player than Kendall but he was just flat out bad in a contract year and still got a ton of money. They both have a decent shot at improving from last year but at least with Kendall he only got a one year deal and for not nearly as much money as Jones.

[SoCalBrewfan]

With all the players yet unsigned, this seems a bit premature. I'm going to go out on a limb and say there's a worse signing than Kendall yet to come. Not that the Kendall deal is any kind of beautiful thing...but I'd argue that it's almost impossible for a one-year deal to be among the worst in a given offseason.

 

Honestly, I'd put Guillen on the list ahead of Hunter while we're at it.

[Ennder]

I don't think we spent enough on Kendall to put him in a list of worst deals regardless of how good or bad he ends up.

[Thurston Fluff]

$4.25 million is bench player money. How is getting a starting catcher for role player money a bad signing? If the arguement is that he isn't worthy of being a starter anymore then singing him to the deal he got isn't the problem as much as not doing anything else to shore up the position. If he got singed to that contract to be a backup it would have been ok by me.

I don't get the reasoning for the Matsui deal being so bad either. He's not very good offensivly but saying his numbers will be like his road numbers is ignoring the fact that Coor's field isn't all that differant than Houston for being hitter freindly. Again $5.5 million for someone who can start isn't that far off the pace of bench players.

[trwi7]

Yeah this is really early. I mean how many free agent signings have occured? It hasn't been very many and some of the top free agents are still out there. I have a feeling if he did this in spring training Aaron Rowand would be at the top of the list.

[mothershipconnection]

I don't think we spent enough on Kendall to put him in a list of worst deals regardless of how good or bad he ends up.

 

Agreed. Wasting $4.25MM on a single season isn't going to be near the worst deal unless it's for Chad Moeller or someone who barely merits a camp invite. Jones and Guillen, IMO, needed to make the list.

[gregmag]

Aside from what others have said, the problem with Perry's analysis of the Kendall signing is that he puts way too much stock in last season. It's very relevant data, but it's not the only relevant data. Besides, how can you say he isn't likely to improve over last season's numbers when he improved a great deal from his first team to his second last year?

 

On the other hand -- maybe this is relevant to what Perry's doing, maybe not -- our views may be somewhat skewed by the fact that we were only trying to upgrade over utter crap. Kendall may very well be a bad starter, but I'll be shocked if he's as bad as Estrada was last year.

 

Greg.

[brewizard]

our views may be somewhat skewed by the fact that we were only trying to upgrade over utter crap

 

Good point. At first, I didn't think Estrada was all that bad. I saw him hit a homerun against the Dodgers. But as the season wore on, when Estrada couldn't get home from third on a double... it was maddening...

 

At this point I think: How bad can Kendall really be? Anything will be better!

 

(note to self: I felt the same way every time Moeller got an AB...)

 

And anyway, is there no chance of trading away pitchers for another catcher as well as a 3rdbase/leftfielder?

[patrickgpe]

since it was only a 1 year guaranteed contract i don't think it was one of the 5 worse. The guillen one should have made it.

[GAME05]

he complains about overpaying Torii Hunter, but what does money really matter to a team like the Angels?

 

Kendall was the best catcher available, it's not like anyone's expecting him to be an all-star.

[RU Rah Rah]

Somewhat (but not entirely) tangentially, I followed the link at the top of page see what people thought of Dayn Perry's book, Winners: How Good Baseball Teams Become Great Ones (And It's Not the Way You Think). A typical review was:

 

"Dayn Perry is the worst baseball writer I have ever read, and Winners is a prime example of it. He is NOT an objective writer, even though this book is mostly mindless trivia and stats. He strikes me as biased, uneducated and his work plain stinks."

[brettac1]

Jones and Guillen, IMO, needed to make the list.

 

Andruw Jones? That's a pretty sweet deal when compared to the Hunter signing. For only two years, I don't see how it can be forecast to be bad. The Hunter one obviously will be, and everyone knows it. Same goes for the big money/long term relievers.

 

I'd probably agree with that list, outside of Kendall (and I do think he'll suck, but he'll only suck for one year). I'd probably put Guillen on there.

[TerraceReserved]

Wow, that was a pretty bad review of the Kendall signing. He completely ignores a career .375 OBP and the fact that he posted numbers in line with the rest of his career in Chicago. What he did last year certainly is relevant, but he places waaay to much weight on it. And if he reverts even close to his career norms, he'll be an above average hitting catcher. A one year deal for just 4.25 million is not bad all.

[Tbadder]

We wanna know why salaries have reached a catastrophic level. 36 million dollars for a fat, .222 hitter. Fans have no reason to coomplain why the league has no competitive balance.

[GAME05]

the dude seems to think we live in this perfect free-agent world where you can sign every reliever to simple two-year contracts and that every GM should have no problems with finding at least league-average players at their position.

[dadofandrew]

I don't think there's really been any bad signings yet, other than Matsui. Some have more risk than others, but "bad"? Hardly.

[brettac1]

Some have more risk than others, but "bad"? Hardly.

 

Four year deals given to relievers by teams that are going to win a combined total that will probably be under 150 are bad deals as far as I'm concerned. I think the Linebrink one in particular is a headscratcher.

[hp2444]

This list did what it set out to do. Make people argue over nothing. Pointless to argue until we see something. Kendall could rebound and look like a steal, or could tank and be buried on the bench. Wait... we don't have another catcher.

[radman12484]

Jason Kendall isn't a cancer on the clubhouse either for what I know of. Estrada was like having Matt Stairs at catcher. He didn't want to be here, so get rid of him.

[mothershipconnection]

our views may be somewhat skewed by the fact that we were only trying to upgrade over utter crap

 

Still, I wouldn't consider it among the worst deals in the offseason if we gave Estrada the same deal. I wouldn't be at all happy, but I'd see it as paying the going rate for a just-better-than-mediocre catcher, but only getting a mediocre catcher. Worst case scenario is you're paying $4.25MM for a $2MM player.

 

 

Andruw Jones? That's a pretty sweet deal when compared to the Hunter signing. For only two years, I don't see how it can be forecast to be bad.

 

I think it's all going to depend on whether he's truly experiencing a decline or just had a bad year. That said, it was a pretty darn bad year when you consider the AAV of his new contract. No, it's certainly not the Hunter deal, but Jones is getting paid generously for a guy coming off of a .724 OPS season.

[GAME05]

"I think it's all going to depend on whether he's truly experiencing a decline or just had a bad year. "

 

that's the thing, what has the economics of baseball come to that you'd pay a guy that much on only the hunch that he's going to rebound and be a good player again?