Bonehead Bavasi signs fatty to huge deal, Mariner fans cry

[HOOTIE]

Bavasi is one of the best gms around, if not the best. This deal only enforces that.

[HOOTIE]

The sad part is the state of MLB. Guys with a career era+ of 102 (average), can get 11 mil a year. That means scrubs can get 5-6 mil. This only continues to show that pitching is diluted, and 24 teams never sounded better.

BP, things were bad for Seattle once Piniella/Gillick left. The bad part is Chuck Armstrong is still here. Seattle was lucky last year. They really should have went 79-83. The Angels getting Hunter, and Kuroda going to LA, surely makes this year a real longshot.

[mweir145]

Haha, I've always thought of Carlos Silva as a slightly better version of Josh Towers.

Silva's career stats: 4.31 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 395 K and 171 BB in 945 IP
Tower's career stats: 4.96 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 387 K and 122 BB in 726 IP

If AJ Burnett wasn't already going to opt out of his 5 year/55M deal next year, this pretty much clinches it.

[RyanK]

The sad part is the state of MLB. Guys with a career era+ of 102 (average), can get 11 mil a year. That means scrubs can get 5-6 mil. This only continues to show that pitching is diluted, and 24 teams never sounded better.

Contraction might be the best thing for baseball...

[willy-t]

Haha, I've always thought of Carlos Silva as a slightly better version of Josh Towers.

Silva's career stats: 4.31 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 395 K and 171 BB in 945 IP
Tower's career stats: 4.96 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 387 K and 122 BB in 726 IP

If AJ Burnett wasn't already going to opt out of his 5 year/55M deal next year, this pretty much clinches it.

AJ is almost getting robbed by the Jays, given the current climate and to think the fuss the deal caused when they signed it with him.

The cheek of Riccardi saying how bad it is for the Jays (yeah, I know AJ has been injured). Just shows how quickly things have changed

[kellythemick]

Contraction might be the best thing for baseball...

Or a little restraint shown by owners - which leads to a little restraint shown by fans paying the bill. Short season A league ball rocks!

[Pogotheostrich]

The sad part is the state of MLB. Guys with a career era+ of 102 (average), can get 11 mil a year. That means scrubs can get 5-6 mil. This only continues to show that pitching is diluted, and 24 teams never sounded better.

It is all cyclical. I think pitching is already catching back up. The fault is with GMs overpaying average guys.

[kab21]

The sad part is the state of MLB. Guys with a career era+ of 102 (average), can get 11 mil a year. That means scrubs can get 5-6 mil. This only continues to show that pitching is diluted, and 24 teams never sounded better.

Contraction might be the best thing for baseball...

WTF man. Attendance/revenue is soaring throughout baseball and you want to contract teams because the bottom end of pitching staffs are diluted. The bottom end of pitching staffs traditionally aren't that good.

I wouldn't pay 12M/yr for Silva, but life goes on. To a large extent, 80% of this offseason's FA's are signed to similarly bad deals. It's the way baseball is. Make it to FA and you will get overpaid typically.

[Yoda]

Probably should have waited until next winter. Look at the SP list (courtesy of mlbtraderumors):
A.J. Burnett (32) - can opt out after '08 season
Paul Byrd (38)
Ryan Dempster (32)
Jon Garland (29)
Tom Glavine (43)
Orlando Hernandez (43)
Randy Johnson (45)
John Lackey (30) - $9MM club option for '09 with a $0.5MM buyout
Esteban Loaiza (37) - $7.5MM club option for '09 with a $0.375MM buyout
Braden Looper (34)
Derek Lowe (36)
Greg Maddux (43)
Pedro Martinez (37)
Matt Morris (34) - $9MM club option for '09 with a $1MM buyout
Jamie Moyer (46)
Mark Mulder (31) - $11MM club option for '09 with a $1.5MM buyout
Mike Mussina (40)
Brad Penny (31) - $8.75MM club option for '09 with a $2MM buyout
Oliver Perez (27)
Andy Pettitte (37)
Kenny Rogers (44)
C.C. Sabathia (28)
Johan Santana (30)
Curt Schilling (42)
Ben Sheets (30)
John Smoltz (42) - $12MM club option for '09
Tim Wakefield (42) - perpetual $4MM club option
Woody Williams (42) - $6.75MM club option for '09 with a $0.25MM buyout
Randy Wolf (32)

[Big Pimpin]

The sad part is the state of MLB. Guys with a career era+ of 102 (average), can get 11 mil a year. That means scrubs can get 5-6 mil. This only continues to show that pitching is diluted, and 24 teams never sounded better.

BP, things were bad for Seattle once Piniella/Gillick left. The bad part is Chuck Armstrong is still here. Seattle was lucky last year. They really should have went 79-83. The Angels getting Hunter, and Kuroda going to LA, surely makes this year a real longshot.

It just blows my mind that they'd pay $12M a year for average. It's like Bavasi doesn't really understand that you can build a team through the draft and trades. I will say that you're right about Armstrong. As bad as things appear to be, until Armstrong and Lincoln go I don't really expect anything to change. And it's tough to blame Bavasi for wanted to "win now" when the guys above him basically give him a renewable one-year contract. It's like every year he has to be in "save my own ass, long term consequences be damned" mode.

Like him saying that they want Morrow to start but if he doesn't make the rotation out of ST then he'll go into the big league bullpen as opposed to the Tacoma rotation, because he's "not going to learn anything there." Unbelievable. You want him to start then he should probably learn how to be a starter somewhere. You think? I want a change in ownership that guts the entire leadership group and just starts over. Then maybe we can get a real GM that can have a real plan that he's allowed to try. Until then I think we're pretty much doomed, as sad as that is.