Feb
22
Yanks sign Chan Ho Park
ByThe Yankees will carry seven relievers, and last week I thought I had them figured out: Mo, Hughes/Chamberlain, Robertson, Marte, Aceves, Gaudin, Mitre. It appears that the Yankees are planning for one of that crew to start the season elsewhere. According to Joel Sherman, the Yankees have signed Chan Ho Park to a $1.2 million contract with another $300,000 attainable in incentives. The veteran righty pitched for the NL champion Phillies last season, and will pitch out of the bullpen for the Yankees in 2010.
More on Park later.
135 Comments»
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The Mason Williams Watch
Oh no, the budget!
I think all this does is bump Mitre to AAA… didn’t I see that he has another option left?
Or am I dreaming? Maybe they will deal him to LA for Hoffman’s rights?
Mitre is out of options.
So I was dreaming… but swapping Mitre for Park is a cheap upgrade. I like it. Thanks for the info on Mitre.
I approve.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs.....rk-is-good
Edwar gone? Loser of the 5th starter goes to AAA? Excitement!
Loser of the 5th starter goes to AAA?
Bullpen seven-vet-deep (Mo-Marte-Robertson-Aceves-Park-Gaudin-Mitre)
+
Phil in Scranton ’til the Stretch™
=
Tommie: very aroused
———–
(“Scranton ’til the Stretch” © tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Archimedes Torquemada, 2010. All rights reserved.)
if this si what they do i will be oh so happy. but im doubtful
Joel Sherman says the Yanks “are not currently considering sending the loser of the Chamberlain-Hughes battle to the minors to stay stretched out as a starter. But the presence of Park, at the least, can make the Yanks more comfortable with that option.” Read that as you will.
You lost me at “Joel Sherman says”.
He’s got his sources. If we’ve learned anything this off-season about the tabloid coverage in New York, it’s that. He’s not going to win a Pulitzer, but his Yankee-sourced reporting has been fairly accurate of late.
Alright. I’ll take your word for it then, because unlike Sherman, I do trust you further than Matt Bush can throw you.
Resources >>>> Stealing info from other blogs.
Chan Ho Park=Latroy Hawkins
Maybe, but I bet he dares not to wear # 21.
Not even close. 1.84 ERA, .543 OPS against, 1.95 FIP after June 2nd last year.
*cough*smallsamplesize*cough*
Very true, but Chop isn’t some pitch to contact lowlife like Hawkins. He actually strikes guys out.
yeah and he generates GBs. see the fangraphs piece above. very nice.
Agreed.
If we’re really bringing in Chan Ho Park, though, I’d like for us to also sign Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Ugueth Urbina.
Let’s reunite the big-money contracts of the early Tom Hicks Texas Rangers.
Otis Nixon’s contract circa 1995 wasn’t that much far off from Juan Gonzalez’s…and his production was pretty horrendous. Not to mention Rusty Greer’s exponentially worsening contract.
He looked pretty impressive to me out of the pen in the post season last year. I had no idea he had that kind of stuff.
And he’s got the word “Ho” in his name. What’s not to like?
Got a Ho, lost a Wang.
Park sure did have a good second half last year. Not a bad signing here.
why would the yanks need, aceves, gaudin, mitre in the pen? its either one of mitre or gaudin gets shipped off somewhere or aceves gets sent down. or the one thing that will strt the debate again, the looser of the 5th starter battle starts the season in AAA.
Because they have no options left?
And because Aceves was one of the 10-15 best relief pitchers in all of baseball last year?
This all comes under the heading of depth, depth, and more depth. Yogi called it “deep depth.”
However, I’m still trying to decide whether the Yanks are planning another offsetting move. I would presume it wouldn’t take place until halfway through spring training at the earliest.
I bet we’re going to wait to see which team has a projected starter pull up lame with a tight hammy mid-spring and flip Mitre to them for a fringy prospect.
Don’t they have to make a 40-man roster move now, though?
http://totallylookslike.files......amirez.jpg (safe)
Hopefully Edwar’s “reign” in the Bronx is over……..Hiyoooooooooo.
/Puns FTW!!’d
Edwar’s reign of terror is over
He’ll have to shave that beard…
I also want him to change his name from Chan-Ho Park to Chan-Ho Wang.
/racist’d
Now cmon guys, he wasn’t that bad on American Idol
Oh wait, that’s John Park …
you’re thinking John Locke
The Lost guy?
Speaking of which…the show has really gotten out of control, no?
Speaking of which…the show has really gotten out of control, no?
I think Lost is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisclose to introducing J.R. and Bobby Ewing as characters. That’s how crazy this shit is getting.
It’s going to be interesting to see how they wrap this series up. Lots of different storylines going.
Not only that, but they’ve had 7 years to craft/mold the perfect ending… it better be good
J.R….murphy? b/c that would kinda fuck with his development. i do not approve
/not serious’d
Or Jacob’s Nemesis, impersonating John Locke…
Couldn’t possibly hate this move more. Signing a 36 year old who’s suddenly effective out of the pen? Might as well have lit that money on fire.
still waiting for a /bo’d
or something.
Nope, I’m serious. More depth is always a good thing, but when that depth is in the form of someone who’s been mediocre forever, and is 36, well . . . I’m not exactly enthusiastic.
Maybe he’s figured something out, or maybe he’s the same average-ish pitcher he’s always been who had a hot second half.
Maybe he’s figured something out, or maybe he’s the same average-ish pitcher he’s always been who had a hot second half.
Since finding out will only cost us a roster spot for a month or two… let’s find out.
Just check out that fangraphs piece above. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
The fangraphs piece does nothing to refute Swallow’s point. Fangraphs references his good half-year, nothing more.
The jury is still out on whether Park’s successes are a result of real skill or fleeting skill. But he does have the decent starter = excellent reliever thing going for him.
If people are going to start calling me “Swallow”, I’m going to have to change handles.
Should we call you “T-Bone”, or “Ko-Ko” instead?
Heh.
Sorry, it was actually a mistake, not any sort of intentional joke…
MattG: “Fangraphs references his good half-year, nothing more.”
Ah, so what you’re telling me is that you didn’t read the piece. That’s what you’re telling me.
So what does 3.90 FIP mean to you, then? What does the term “average pitcher” mean to you?
Well, if you had read the piece, you would have seen that Cameron goes on to explain why Park is better than league average, or at least was in 2009. Part of it was luck, part of it was his stuff playing up out of the pen. But I’m not Microsoft Word’s auto-summary function. If you want to know more, you’re going to have to, you know, read the piece.
I read the piece, and let me say that my impression of it varies from yours. To me, Fangraphs was explaining how CHP was at that moment a very good pitcher with a good chance of getting Jeter out. Nothing in the article suggested he would continue to be a good relief pitcher for years to come, except for the fact that he was 1) a mediocre reliever, and 2) his stuff improved when he moved to the bullpen (using a chart in which I can’t actually see any improvement at all).
I think its you who did not read the article critically enough. Don’t believe everything you read.
“Well, if you had read the piece, you would have seen that Cameron goes on to explain why Park is better than league average, or at least was in 2009. Part of it was luck, part of it was his stuff playing up out of the pen”
That’s all I was saying. You can keep picking fights with me if you want, but my contention all along has been that there may be stuff to like above CHP going forward. Never said he would be a “good relief pitcher for years to come”.
I continue to be mystified by your insistence on starting shit with me. If you have a crush on me, you should just say so. Man up, son.
OK, I’ll respond. I read the piece, I thought it was about something different than you, and got annoyed when you insisted I didn’t read it.
I still say the article is about how Chan Ho Park has had a really good half year, he was a good match for Jeter in that at bat, and nothing more. At least, not what you are making it out to be.
You say “Saint Diego”.
I say “Whale’s vagina”.
Agree to disagree.
How can you dislike this move? Whats the issue with another arm out there to compete?
/voice of reason’d?
This signing was CLEARLY a way for the Yankees organization to appease their neighbors who have been protesting the lack of parks since the new stadium has been built.
“Yankees spend 1.2 million on Park”
Now GO AWAY hippies!!!
Well played.
enjoyed
Solid move by Cashman. Park’s overall numbers for ‘09 are deceiving. If you check his splits last year as a SP vs RP…as a SP he had an ERA of 7.29 and 1.74WHIP. As a RP his ERA dropped to 2.52 and had a WHIP of 1.18 (He also struck out 52 batters in 50IP as a RP). Taking it one step further, after June he allowed only 5ER in 30IP.
Solid move by Cashman.
Is there any other kind?
Igawa says hi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question
Score one for Bo.
LOL
Wow. Who knew Park had such a bulldog mentality?
Look on the bright side, we could rename our touristy area to “Chan-Ho Monument Park” to grab some more of the Eastern cultured fans…
Other notable similar name changes that worked: Anthony Michael Dining Hall @ John Hughes High, John Wilkes Photo Booth @ your local mall, etc.
The jokes get worse as you head down the thread.
Yeah, none of them are as funny as your consistently awesome and rip-roaringly hilarious jokes, Bo. You’re a laugh a minute. You’re the most charming, gregarious, pithy, witty, clever conversationalist I’ve ever met.
If you look up “rapier’s wit” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of you right there. (Possibly four different pictures of you, but I digress.)
To be fair, he did make a decent joke in this thread, and the joke he was replying to did kinda suck (sorry Rose).
(On the other hand, Bo, if a joke isn’t funny you could just move along instead of being a dick.)
Is replying seriously to something that’s obviously tongue in cheek really a “decent joke”?
You’re assuming his reply is only funny if he took your comment seriously. I think he was just making a funny.
The historical record would indicate he was not making a funny.
The Yankees are paying Chan Ho Park $1.25M. The Nationals are paying Brian Bruney $1.5M. Think about it.
Mark my words, Axisa:
Natinals Fever exists. And, Mo help me, YOU WILL CATCH IT.
just in case you or anyone else was wondering, I too have caught nationals fever.
http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry.....seball.jpg (safe)
Yeah but Park has incentives that bring him up to a whopping $1.55M, and that’s where I draw the line.
And, just to mischeviously rile shit up:
Paying Park, Gaudin, Mitre, Winn, and Thames a collective 8M (roughly)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Paying Johnny Damon 8M by himself
Please stop making it seem as if these are the Twins or A’s here.
They could have added Damon without blinking an eye and also Park and Gaudin.
But then again you might be one of the few who think Winn/Thames/Gardner/Hoffmann is better than Damon.
Mr. Damon, I would like to meet the edge of this cliff…
But then again you might be one of the few who think Winn/Thames/Gardner/Hoffmann is better than Damon.
A) Collectively, yes, they damn well might be.
B) Boversimplifying as usual. Even if Winn/Thames/Gardner/Hoffman don’t equal Damon’s production, unless Damon is going to start moonlighting as a three-armed relief pitcher capable of throwing 200+ innings out of the bullpen, you’re leaving out an important part of this equation.
For the money we would have paid Damon, we got a four-headed LF monster that can approximate his production AND enough payroll room to add 2-4 big league relief pitchers.
o yea, what a 4-headed monster that is – real scary. Stick to useless movie quotes, Eric.
/doing it right?
Close. Not enough superfluous punctuation, though.
“When all this is over, you’ll go back home driving Carla and your baby in your beige Volvo. And I’ll be dead…or still reading Bo’s comments, which is the same thing.” – John Mason, The Rock
They could have added Damon without blinking an eye and also Park and Gaudin.
No they couldn’t have. And they didn’t. They publicly spoke of a budget…and stayed within that budget while bettering the team with several pieces rather than just one.
And just like death and taxes, you’re wrong again.
Please stop making it seem as if these are the Twins or A’s here.
You’re right, we’re not the Twins or the A’s. The Twins and A’s have a 100M budget.
We have a 200M budget.
The size of the budget is different, but the fact that the budget exists does not. Have we made exceptions to the budget on occasion for elite players? Yes.
Johnny Damon is not longer an elite player. The sooner you come to that realization, the better.
Johnny Damon
is not longerwas never an elite player. The sooner you come to that realization, the better.But teh double steal!
They could have added Damon without blinking an eye and also Park and Gaudin.
Why do some people seem to think that the Yankees budget doesn’t actually exist?
People think that.
We haven’t yet confirmed whether or not SalBoGrantLanny is an actual person or just some sort of f#$%&ed up bot blog commenting program gone irrationally awry.
Did you miss the part of the off-season where the Yanks offered Damon 2 at $14 million and 1 at $6 million only to have those offers be completely rebuffed? Did you miss the fact that the Yanks have an honest-to-God budget?
Neither of those two facts help your argument. Thus, you ignore them. Good work there.
Ben, what I didn’t miss is that when the Yanks WANT a player, they don’t offer him a 40 percent paycut…
Cashman is totally disingenuous. He NEVER wanted Damon back. He KNEW 2 years at 10 mil per year would get it done. That’s couch money for the Yanks…
When the Yanks WANTED Damon after the 05 season, I seem to recall they didnt offer him a paycut…In fact, they offered him $52 mil for 4 years – based on numbers Damon put up for Boston…Damon pretty much duplicated those numbers in New York and came up huge in October.
Yanks dont do breakups well….See Torre, Bernie….
When the Yanks are paying Nick “Hospital Bed” Johnson nearly 6 mil (for what?) and that stiff Kei Igawa…aka The Gimp, 20 mil to toil in obscurity and never play for the big club, well “Cash” should re-evaluate who he wants to play hardball with…
Replace Wang with some Ho.
What a relief.
eye sea double yew you dee tea
CHP > Mitre, so in that respect, fist pump.
But, 36 YO reliever enjoys career half-year…if it doesn’t work out, he can form a support group with Ron Mahay and Juan Cruz, among dozens of others.
When they were FA’s, though, if all it cost to get them was a 1.5M salary and a roster spot, wouldn’t you have endorsed Mahay and Cruz?
I would have. Cheap lottery tickets FTW.
Mahay: Yes. Cruz: Yes. Cheap lottery tickets: Yes.
Excitement over CHP: not really.
They’re all the same. Cruz, Mahay, CHP are all fungible, occasionally dominant, often not relief pitchers. I don’t get why CHP would be less appealing to you than Mahay or Cruz.
He’s actually probably the safer bet, all things considered. He’s been a better big league pitcher for a larger sample of success. He’s the more proven commodity in terms of actually getting big league batters out.
I agree. There’s not a one worth getting excited about.
I love this website. Where else would you get a firestorm of about 100 comments starting at eight in the morning when a World Championship team that just signs a career journeymen pitcher to pitch out of the pen. Gotta love it.
As to the signing, after losing Matsui and Wang, maybe the Yanks needed to fill their Asian quota.
If it makes you feel any better, Kyle Higashioka has an Asian-sounding name.
I feel like this late in the game should have been able to get him for cheaper, but decent move none the less.
Park has(had?) the best beard in baseball and perhaps the best Asian beard in general. If I had his beard ( well I do kinda) I would’ve gone to a club with a more manly facial hair policy.
“Brian Cashman lobbied ownership to expand the payroll for Park, but now Chad Gaudin or Sergio Mitre could be traded.”
They have a budget until Brian really wants something and then he calls big daddy Hal.
Yankees budget= joke.
The Yanks spent $1.1 million on Randy Winn and had a few extra bucks to spend. When Chan Ho Park’s price dropped, the Yanks found the few extra dollars. Here’s what Sherman had to say:
And that’s how a business is run.
They dropped 1.2 million on a 36-year-old journeyman reliever that one can easily argue is not needed. So if you want to live under the delusion that Yankees are on a budget go right ahead it goes well with that other delusion about the Yankees not making any money last year.
Essentially, the Yankees had $2 million remaining in their budget when Randy Winn was signed for a $1.1 million.
Meaning that we still had 0.9M in the budget.
And when the price fell further over the course of the week, from $1.5 million to $1.2 million, Yankees ownership finally approved the signing.
Meaning the Yankees didn’t go 1.2M overbudget to sign a 36-year-old journeyman reliever that one can easily argue is not needed, they went 300k overbudget to sign a 36-year-old journeyman reliever that one can easily argue is not needed.
Going 300k overbudget to add a journeyman reliever who happened to be one of the most dominant relievers in 2009 is a good and worthy exception to the budget. Low risk, high reward.
It’s not proof that the budget is not real, though.
I disagree, but fair enough. I would love to see what would happen to the “budget” come the trading deadline and someone is dumping a player that the Yankees need?
Be true to your DNA folks it’s not like we are Pirates fans.
Your forgetting Thames’ $900,000 if he makes the team and the performance bonuses to other players. That budget line is fading fast for a “fiscally responsible” team like the Yankees.
And going overbudget by 1M is a whole pantsload different than going overbudget by 7M.
It still over budget for the new fiscally responsible Yankees I’m shocked.
There is no such thing as being a little pregnant.
Well my guess is this signing means Mitre or Gaudin won’t be a Yankee. In Spring its between them for the 6th starter/long man as Aceves is going nowhere. So getting rid of one of those 2 will free up money for Park keeping it in the budget.
There is no such thing as being a little pregnant.
True. But there IS such thing as being just a little bit overbudget. And, you can also easily become underbudget again.
Pregancy is probably the worst possible analogy you could have made in this situation.
OK.
My Mo the Yankees draws the line on Damon and now they are the fiscal role models for baseball. If the Yankees are so fiscally responsible then they should try getting under the luxury tax next year. They can start by not signing Mo or Jeter LMAO.
But they wouldn’t
Because they don’t have to
Because they ARE THE NEW YORK YANKEES!
Thank Mo!
I believe this will be filed under “boversimplification”
Yankees budget= joke.
Had we signed Johnny Damon this week to an 8M or 9M deal after saying all winter that we can’t fit him in the budget, I’d agree with you.
Park isn’t making 8 or 9M. He’s making 1.25 or 1.55M. And his signing most likely means one of the other cheap bullpen swingman pitchers (i.e. Gaudin or Mitre) will be moved to another team at some point, which will most assuredly come with a corresponding cost savings making Park’s signing budget neutral.
So no, signing Chan Ho Park to a 1.25-1.55M one year deal on Monday, February 22nd does not mean that the Yankees budget is a “joke”.
Nice move, no problem with it at all. Depth looks real good right about now and Park pitched great as the season wore on last year. I would guess this would soon signify the end of the Mitre era or could it be “Waiting for (a trade of) Gaudin” ?
Park for 1.25m >>>>>>>>>>>> Escobar for 1.25m (5 innings over last 2 seasons)
Omar fail once again.
Yeah, but Escobar has a higher upside. And the Mets don’t need a solid, reliable bullpen guy who’s ceiling is middle relief, they need to swing for the fences with a high-upside lottery ticket that may produce at elite, pseudo-closer levels. That’s Escobar. If he can be healthy, he can be dominant. Park’s probably not going to be dominant, just solid.
I give Park better chances of being dominant than Escobar.
Then again, I usually dont pick a guy who has 5 innings (+20 minor league innings) combined in the last 2 seasons to have a dominant season.
Why can’t some people just get over this Damon thing? He’s gone. Thats it! Move on!
More IP for the Yanks this year: Gaudin or Swisher?
yes!!! a korean…Now my dad will take me to more baseball games.
Can Mitre be sent to the minors is he passes through waivers?
Yes, but it is unlikely he would pass through waivers.
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