One step forward...Two steps back

Just three days ago I wrote about how the Texas Rangers were making real progress in their pursuit of pitching and putting together a quality roster. The additions of Brandon McCarthy, Eric Gagne, and the resigning of Vincente Padilla had me excited! Add that to an earnest, but fiscally prudent pursuit of Barry Zito(he signed an unreasonable deal with the Giants), and the previous year's signing of Kevin Millwood, and you've got the makings of a solid pitching staff to go with an already excellent offensive team. Now, it has been reported that the Rangers worked out and just offered Sammy Sosa a 1 year $500,000, incentive-laden contract. Sosa is a seven time all-star, National League MVP, with just under 600 career home runs. Who wouldn't want that guy right? No one wants that guy. He sat out in 2006 because no one wanted to pay him more than $500,000, a paltry sum by baseball standards, especially for someone with stats like Sosa. The year before, 2005, Sosa hit a disappointing .221 with 14 homers for the Orioles but managed to alienate half the locker room and fans. His "boombox" was newsworthy when he played for the Cubs, so much so that a unnamed teammate destroyed it at the end of 2004 season. He had few friends in the Cubs clubhouse either. At least twice, Sosa was associated with cheating using juiced bats and steroids. The juiced bat cost him a suspension. The steroid use, though never specifically proven, has circled him much of his career. Why do the Rangers want this guy? Will the 10 home runs he hits for them this year justify all the strikeouts and more importantly, the chaos he seems to create in every clubhouse on every team he plays for? One step forward...Two steps back. That's Rangers baseball.

$$ A Bad Investment

Barry Zito has been one of the most durable pitchers in baseball, starting at least 34 games and throwing more than 200 innings every year since 2000. With a 23-5 record in 2002, Zito won the Cy Young Award. In seven major league seasons, his overall record is 103-62. So the Giants sign him to the largest pitching contract ever, $126 million over seven years. Assuming he starts 34 games in 2007, he will earn about $530,000 a game. Not a good investment. No pitcher is worth seven years. Kevin Brown was a superstar when he signed a $105 million deal for six years with the Dodgers. He went 72-45 pitching for the Dodgers and the Yankees during his contract and seemed hurt more than he was healthy. Mike Hampton signed an eight year $121 million deal in 2001. He has struggled with injuries also and his record thus far is only 53-48. And the Yankees have shelled out about $50 million for five time Cy Young winner and strikeout dominator Randy Johnson for a three year contract, now which has become a two year stint with the Yankees after they have traded him back to Arizona, of which they are still picking up a good amount of the tab. Pedro Martinez, widely considered one of the top five pitchers in baseball when he signed with the Mets for four years for $53 million, only pitched 10 games in 2006 due to injury, his second season in the deal. Barry Zito will never be in the same league as Randy Johnson or Pedro Martinez, and though he's probably on par with Mike Hampton and a little better than Kevin Brown, don't all of the above mentioned contracts show that there are too many variables in signing pitchers to long term deals? Once again, agent Scott Boras, for the betterment of his client(Zito) but to the detriment of the league, sold the Giants a bill of goods that will be hard pressed to deliver. I like Barry Zito, but not for seven years. Too bad it took the Texas Rangers only two contract debaucles Chan Ho Park(the worst) and Alex Rodriguez(the most expensive) with Scott Boras to know better than to sign Zito to seven years.

Texas Rangers - Pitching May Be Better

Last Friday afternoon I was listening to my favorite talk show on the radio, "The Hardline", (KTCK-The Ticket-1310 AM) and they were discussing the early Christmas gift the Rangers got in trading top pitching prospect John Danks for major league pitcher Brandon McCarthy. At least I believe it was an early Christmas gift. For years DFW baseball fans have watched the Rangers hit one home run after another, produce batting champions and yet still finish at the middle or the bottom of their division. And after year upon year of this mediocrity which including manager fixes, paying the richest contract in baseball history to bring in Alex Rodriguez, hiring brand name general managers, and God knows whatever else, there is nothing left to fix but the pitching. Any real baseball fan knows that pitching produces wins and in the playoffs, pitching produces pennants and World Series.

For proof, look no further than the Chicago White Sox, the 2005 World Series champs.

However, the Hardline, as I'm sure many other fans could not agree on whether or not the trade was a good one. Sure, John Danks was a homegrown talent of the Rangers farm system and their top prospect. He was probably only a couple of years from the big leagues. We'll never know for the Rangers now. Danks was moving along in AAA and as a bonus, he was lefthanded. And Danks is younger than McCarthy, if only by a couple of years.

All of these positives though cannot outweigh the biggest reason the trade makes sense: BRANDON MCCARTHY IS A PROVEN MAJOR LEAGUE PITCHER. John Danks is only a potential major league pitcher.

I could stop my argument right there, but let me point out some of McCarthy's positives taken straight from Baseball Prospectus and the Texas Rangers homepage. (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/) McCarthy has pitched 151 innings in the big leagues, with an ERA of 4.39 and 117 strikeouts. Though his record is a lackluster 7-9, he pitched huge for the White Sox down the stretch in August and September of 2005, arguably helping them in a big way for their World Series push. Now with McCarthy, Vicente Padilla, Kevin Millwood, and Akinori Otsuka and Eric Gagne in the bullpen, the Rangers might actually compete for the American West division. I haven't put in the order for playoff tickets yet, but at least there's hope.

McCarthy for Danks. That was not a good deal, but a great deal!