IntenseDebate - ChiTomA

13 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - 6/18 Online Seats Game... · 0 replies · +1 points

1 game back in the East!

13 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - 5/20 Online Seats Game... · 0 replies · +1 points

Lester is just filthy tonight. Thank goodness for the homegrown talent!

13 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - Adrian Gonzalez takes ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Yep, you've got it. The Yankees and Angels have that spot locked up. The Mets may if Ike Davis works out for them and with the Mariners you wonder if they'll be able to outlay that much money. I don't think Gonzalez is going to trump the average value of the Howard extension.

Smart teams may front load a deal with him so he's making more during his productive earlier years of the contract and less later. Unlike the Phillies who are just paying a ridiculous amount the whole way though.

13 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - Adrian Gonzalez takes ... · 0 replies · +1 points

I think that Jeff is talking about there being more players of Howard's caliber on the market. If he, Pujols, and Gonzalez were all free agents in the same year, there might be a better chance of signing them at least one of them at a lower price, whereas the situation I was talking about was if there's only one star player at a position that is a free agent in a year and there are multiple teams with the money to sign them. We were talking about opposite situations.

13 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - Adrian Gonzalez takes ... · 0 replies · +1 points

I think Jeff's on the right track here. The Howard contract will be viewed more as an outlier than as a trend-setter. Look at the really bad contracts given over the last few years: Soriano, Vernon Wells, Zito. All of these contracts weren't then replicated by other teams. They were viewed as terrible contracts and not representative of the general market. In fact, what a player gets as a free agent has more to do with the teams bidding (or perceived to be bidding) than anything else. The fact that Howard wasn't going to be a free agent for another two years and the Phillies had to pay a premium rather than get a discount is just a disaster for them.

In fact, the market for power-hitting first basemen has been pretty reasonable. Other than this new Howard monstrosity, the only major deal we've seen recently was the Tex's deal with the Yankees which had an annual value less than $24 mil per year and he's a significantly better player with a much friendlier career trajectory than Howard. If Pujols gets re-signed for $35 mil per year by the Cards now then all bets are off, but otherwise I'd expect that Gonzalez is looking at about the same amount, or slightly less, than Howard.

Now, the Red Sox may still go in another direction, but I don't think that their decision will be related to Howard's contract.

14 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - 4/21 Online Seats Game... · 0 replies · +1 points

Great way to end the evening...of course I will admit that I abandoned the Sox for a couple hours to watch the incredible Bruins double OT win. Just a superb Boston sports night.

14 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - 4/21 Online Seats Game... · 0 replies · +1 points

JD Dreeeewwwww! I always love it when he gets a big hit. Way to cover for a struggling Becket so far.

14 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - Report from the Fort: ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Nice write-up Gerry. Good to see Fire Brand recognized by the Red Sox and it sounds like you got treated quite well. Thanks for doing this for us.

14 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - John Lackey walks like... · 1 reply · +1 points

I would think that there are a few reasons for this: For one we don't see a lot of 20 game winners anymore no matter where they are. Lackey's had some injury concerns for a few years so they may not have pressed him to make 30-35 starts and get him 20 wins. Another reason could be that, until last year, the Angels weren't known as a slugging team and may not have given him the run support to get to 20 wins.

The fact of the matter is that 20 wins has more to do with the offense, defense, and relief pitching around the starter than with anything that this starter does for himself. Zach Grienke had one of the best starting pitching seasons in the last 10 years last year and he still only won 16 games. Just goes to show how much of this is up to the teams, not the individual starters.

14 years ago @ Fire Brand of the Amer... - Tim Wakefield returns ... · 0 replies · +1 points

You are probably right Troy. Of course they're playing 15 straight starting that third week of April so they very well might try to rest people up a bit beforehand.

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