River Avenue Blues

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Open Thread: The difference is at the top of the free agent market

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In his latest column, Jeff Passan discusses the differences between this year’s free agent class and that of a similarly weak class, 2006-2007. While he starts off with the small differences, the multiyear deals for marginal and backup players, like a good columnist he make the strongest point towards the middle:

Most striking is at the top end. Three years ago, Alfonso Soriano got $136 million, Barry Zito $126 million and Carlos Lee $100 million. The Red Sox shelled out $103.1 million for Daisuke Matsuzaka

Notice, too, that three of the four teams listed no longer have cash to spend. The Giants have spent their winter signing second-tier free agents, when what they really need is a middle of the order bat. The Cubs, with plenty of up the middle needs, have had to settle for Marlon Byrd in center while trading away Milton Bradley for a bad pitcher. The Astros have a left side of the infield that will probably get on base less in less than 30 percent of their at bats.

Even put in the context of the 2006-2007 market these weren’t good deals. The Cubs, Astros, and Giants didn’t receive much praise for these overpriced signings that year. Revenues were peaking, which caused the players to be temporarily overvalued. I’m not sure anyone had that kind of foresight back then, but even without that benefit most analysts thought that none of those three players warranted the deals they received. If the Yankees had signed CC Sabathia to the same seven-year, $161 million contact that off-season, I don’t think we’d look back at it with the same disapproval as we do the three actual signings from that off-season.

If baseball has benefitted in one good way from this recession, it’s a more proper valuation of players. Corner outfielders on the wrong side of 30 no longer get $100 million deals. Questionable pitchers don’t get six year contracts. There are exceptions, of course, but in general it seems baseball has been moving away from these big money deals. I think that’s a good trend, as long as it applies to the players on this year’s market. The right free agents — the ones not quite 30 who have a track record of durability and elite performance — should still get paid. I hope we see more movement towards this over the next few off-seasons.

So, after seeing zero comments on this thread for an hour, we’ll just leave it up as tonight’s open thread. Enjoy.

The RAB Radio Show – March 26, 2009 – Episode 20

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For only the second time in our 20 episodes, we’ve got Ben on. It’s always nice to have that third voice in there. The main reason: we each posted our 20 Most Important Yankees lists this week, so we thought the podcast was a great opportunity to discuss them a bit deeper. We lead the program off with that, talking about what we considered important (something I regret leaving out of my list) and why we put players/staff where we did. Plus, we got to poke a little fun at Hank.

From there it’s onto reader questions, which are just a great way to get the conversation started. We talked about Joba’s velocity among other topics — including the battle for utility infielder. Yesterday on the RAB Twitter feed we asked if anyone else wanted Ramiro Pena to make the team solely because he’s not Angel Berroa. I guess I was outed as the guy who asked, because Mike and Ben seem to favor Berroa for other reasons. Oh well. As always, it was a great job by the listeners, sending in excellent questions.

Just a quick note before we embed the media player: This is the open thread for the evening. Feel free to discuss the radio show, but of course anything goes.

Late add: Dave from Blueseat Blogs asks, and I must oblige: Let’s go Rangers!

Onto the podcast. It is available in a number of formats. You can download it here by right clicking on that link and selecting Save As. If you want to play it in your browser, just left click the link. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed, which will send it to you every Thursday. You can also subscribe in iTunes. Finally, we have the embedded audio player below.

[audio:http://riveraveblues.com/podcasts/RABRadioShow32609.mp3]

The RAB Radio Show – January 29, 2009, Episode 11

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As it turns out, neither Mike nor I was available earlier this afternoon when we usually record the RAB Radio Show. We got together later on to put the show together, and here it is. We’re posting it now for the open thread.

The first topic is the Pettitte signing, and we talk about how it’s tough to see this as a bad move. We kind of wrote of Joel Sherman when he said the Yankees next offer would be under $10 million, but that turned out to be the case, at least as far as guaranteed money goes. It won’t take much for him to hit around that $10 million mark with his incentives.

Then it’s onto reader questions. We cite a Ken Rosenthal report which states that Nick Swisher is atop the Braves list of desirable outfielders. He notes that the Yankees want prospects in return. I’m not sure I dig this type of deal. Chances are, the prospect won’t be of the blue chip type so, again, the Yanks are probably better off holding onto the depth.

Onto the podcast. It is available in a number of formats. You can download it here by right clicking on that link and selecting Save As. If you want to play it in your browser, just left click the link. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed, which will send it to you every Thursday. You can also subscribe in iTunes. Finally, we have the embedded audio player below.

[audio:http://riveraveblues.com/podcasts/RABRadioShow12909.mp3]

We appreciate any feedback. You can leave it in the comments or email either of us.