A good free agent signing!
Dave · November 27, 2006 at 4:46 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Not surprisingly, the bargain of the offseason so far belongs to Mark Shapiro and the Cleveland Indians, also known as The Best Run Organization In Baseball.
The Indians signed David Dellucci to a 3 year, $12 million contract. Dellucci isn’t anyone’s savior, but he’s a very effective LH bat with across the board skills. He’s had his injury problems and just turned 33, but for $4 million, he’ll provide the Indians with an above average left fielder. Like the Jacque Jones signing last winter, this is a contract the Mariners should have been very willing to hand out in their search for “left-handed sock”.
Damn those Cubs. They’re spoiling it for everyone else.
Dellucci’s numbers don’t seem to show him to be a “left-handed hitter with sock.” He’s an above average left-handed hitter but no sock.
Um, so he didn’t hit 29 home runs in 2005?
Hey Dave, I haven’t seen this for awhile so maybe you have an old link. Can you put up a quick rosterbation of what you think will be our roster come 07 season. I’d be curious of what you thought as of today?
Jim,
2005: 29HR
2006: 13HR
Career average over 162 games is 15HR
I don’t think Dellucci has sock. And I would even say that 4M/year is bit of a good deal. But not a killer deal.
We’re back to evaluating players by home runs? Is this 1988?
yeah, you have to at least factor in the Veteran Leadership, too 🙂
in SI, Heyman says “The Hanshin Tigers have accepted the top bid — believed to be about $25 million — for left-handed pitcher Kei Igawa”
I think it was appropriate for Jim to bring up HRs because we are talking about “sock” in the context of Safeco, with a short right field. That’s all.
If you look at Dellucci’s production/plate appearance, he’s right up there with the guys getting the big money this offseason. So yes, he provides “sock” however you want to define it.
Plus, with right handers being the dominant starters in our division (Zito will be gone), he would have been a great fit, even though he doesn’t hit lefties as well as righties.
Plus, and I’m sure msb will mock this based on the previous entry, he actually is a good veteran leader, and is well respected by teammates. I don’t care what you say, that matters…
25mil for Igawa is crazy if true. Good luck to he who again has overspent. I hope it wasn’t us.
I don’t think Dellucci has sock.
Last year, Dellucci’s isolated slugging against RHP was .230. Some hitters who had (overall) about a .230 ISO last season: Justin Morneau, Ken Griffey, Jr, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Raul Ibanez, Miguel Cabrera.
That certainly qualifies as “sock” in my book.
Speaking of sock, Buster Olney seems to think that the A’s want Mike Piazza as their new DH.
Sorry, Dave. I just reached for the closest tool to refute the “no sock” claim about Dellucci. But the ISO stat drives it home pretty well, I think.
Looks like Cards sign Adam Kennedy: 3yrs./$10 million.
.273/.334/.384 last year with the Angels, those numbers will likely go up against NL pitching. I’d say that deal borders on “reasonable.”
Was the sarcasm in my last post not evident?
Reasonable FA Contracts so far:
Mike Mussina
Moises Alou
Jose Valentin
Randy Wolf
David Dellucci
Frank Catalanatto
Adam Kennedy
Wade Miller
Frank Thomas
Roughly in that order. And I don’t hate the Mark DeRosa deal as much as everyone else does, so I might toss him in there as well.
There are good deals to be had for teams who know what they’re doing.
ESPN just confirmed that the winning bid on Igawa was 25 million. The identity of the winning team is still unknown.
Dave, how do you feel about Gregg Zaun’s deal? Two years, $7.5 million for the Uber-Backup Catcher when dozens of capable backstops are floating around as minor league free agents … the mind reels ….
Zaun’s good enough to be a starter, so that deal’s not bad. But he’s 35, so I don’t love giving him a two year deal.
That deal, along with DeRosa, is in the decent category.
It strikes me that perhaps the most dangerous trend this offseason is in offering multi-year contracts to middle relievers, who are usually among the most easily replaceable players in baseball — and historically the most unable to sustain good performances over a number of seasons.
Three years each for Danys Baez and Jamie Walker, and FOUR years for Justin Speier? And now the insane Orioles are reportedly offering Chad Bardford a three-year deal. Wow.
I don’t think you can call the stupidity of one franchise a trend. Three of the four relievers to sign multiyear deals so far have been with Baltimore, and lets be honest, Mike Flanagan isn’t going to have his job much longer.
Cards, Adam Kennedy. Along with Eckstein, they’ve got the market cornered on Anaheim’s short, scrappy infielders.
Kennedy, if it goes down as advertised, seems quite reasonable to me.
Kennedy looks like an average hitter, in league terms…but I’m not sure what his VORP in wins would be over a replacement 2B…anyone help?
Cards, Adam Kennedy. Along with Eckstein, they’ve got the market cornered on Anaheim’s short, scrappy infielders.
Uh. Gomez. Don’t forget Player A…
Kennedy is typically 20 VORP, but 2006 VORP was only 11.
Jack, that’s 20 Vorp over other 2B?
The definition of VORP:
Value Over Replacement Player. The number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player at the same position would contribute if given the same percentage of team plate appearances. VORP scores do not consider the quality of a player’s defense.
I would take Mussina and Wolf off the list of decent FA contracts since neither of them really exercised full market opportunity. IOW, no matter how well run a team was, unless they were in NY or SoCal, you weren’t landing one of those two.