Angels sign Gary Matthews 5/$10M

[WyldStallyn]

have the gm's all lost their minds? his career avg is .263. career ops is .755. this makes mannys and arods contracts look normal

[bucksox]

wow that's a lot of coin for GAry. Do you think this pokes holes in the rumors of Manny to the Angels now?

[joeg24]

Wow... that's a lot... hoepfully for the Angels case, the ballpark and contract year weren't that much of a factor. I wonder how much that one catch got him?

[Pogotheostrich]

wow that's a lot of coin for GAry. Do you think this pokes holes in the rumors of Manny to the Angels now?

Probably but these deals should get a whole lot of new teams interested trading for Manny. Who in their right mind wouldn't pony up $7 million a year more to get Manny instead of Matthews?

[Yoda]

This deal reminds me of Halos signing Steve Finley a few years back.

Come on. So the Angels had one bad signing at CF before, it isn't like they signed Erstad to some outrageously bad deal too.

Or GA... or Salmon...

[George_Foreman]

Damn. I was kinda hoping they'd get stuck without a CF and be forced to trade for Andruw. Something like Santana + others, and they sign Andruw to an extension.

Oh well. CFs who can hit are expensive, so I don't think this is that bad. Certainly not nearly as bad as the Pierre deal!

[mweir145]

8-o I can only imagine next year when Vernon Wells is a FA.

The Jays better trade him by July because they certainly don't have the payroll space to resign him.

[Big Pimpin]

Damn. I was kinda hoping they'd get stuck without a CF and be forced to trade for Andruw. Something like Santana + others, and they sign Andruw to an extension.

Oh well. CFs who can hit are expensive, so I don't think this is that bad. Certainly not nearly as bad as the Pierre deal!

Pierre at least has a solid track record. He'll get on base and swipe bags. Matthews has had one good season.

[JustAnotherYanksFan]

Wow, that's disgusting. It's things like these that really make you wonder how people get hired to be a GM. I mean, I understand part of it is making a splash and making the fan base see that you're making an effort to improve the team. But is there really anyone out there who believes that what Matthews did in '06 is at all representative of his real ability?

This isn't even comparable to the Pierre signing, where you could at least argue that even if some people don't believe Pierre is worth $9m a year, there are those who argue that his poor OPS doesn't properly reflect his true value as a leadoff man, etc...but I just really don't see how anyone could think paying Gary Matthews, Jr. $50 million could possibly be a good idea.

[Yoda]

Oh well. CFs who can hit are expensive, so I don't think this is that bad. Certainly not nearly as bad as the Pierre deal!

I disagree. Matthews had a .866 OPS in a hitter's heaven with a stacked lineup at age 32, in his first full season. This deal is worse than Pierre's.