Tigers close to signing Benoit

[Skin Blues]

Sign Soriano for $10M+/yr, get 1.6 WAR. Sign Benoit for $5M/yr, get 1.5 WAR. Pretty simple. Relief pitchers are extremely overpaid, but closers to a much greater extent, so the value is in middle relievers. Spending >10% of your budget on somebody that will pitch in 5% of your innings is not a wise move.

[mweir145]

Developing your own relievers is the way to go. You'd generally like to avoid spending this much on one of them.

[Skin Blues]

Yeah, that's the ideal route. Judging by how many horrible starters turn into good relievers, there's not a real good reason to spend a lot on them. I've read that the Jays are one of the top contenders for Soriano, but I REALLY hope that isn't true. I wouldn't mind Putz though, if he's cheap.

[dAnzac]

This will totally put Detroit over the top, World Series champs next year, book it.

AHAHAHA

made me laugh (and wasn't a canned joke)

Benoit will be bringing the Rays their first of many supplemental draft picks in the 2011 draft.

ChadQuallsChadQuallsChadQuallsChadQualls

[Dan Lambskin]

Developing your own relievers is the way to go. You'd generally like to avoid spending this much on one of them.

this...but if Illitch is willing to blow that kind of dough on an RP i'm guessing it's not stopping him from spending elsewhere...alledgedly they are in serious talks with Dunn

[RedSoxNation04]

Sign Soriano for $10M+/yr, get 1.6 WAR. Sign Benoit for $5M/yr, get 1.5 WAR. Pretty simple. Relief pitchers are extremely overpaid, but closers to a much greater extent, so the value is in middle relievers. Spending >10% of your budget on somebody that will pitch in 5% of your innings is not a wise move.

You can throw last year's WAR out there all you want, but on a three year contract for this much money, you're expecting a LOT from Benoit...just doesn't seem like a wise use of money when the Tigers have other holes to fill. Like Mweir said, it would make more sense to develop your own guys to fill out your bullpen. Just my opinion...

[AquaMan2342]

Sign Soriano for $10M+/yr, get 1.6 WAR. Sign Benoit for $5M/yr, get 1.5 WAR. Pretty simple. Relief pitchers are extremely overpaid, but closers to a much greater extent, so the value is in middle relievers. Spending >10% of your budget on somebody that will pitch in 5% of your innings is not a wise move.

You can throw last year's WAR out there all you want, but on a three year contract for this much money, you're expecting a LOT from Benoit...just doesn't seem like a wise use of money when the Tigers have other holes to fill. Like Mweir said, it would make more sense to develop your own guys to fill out your bullpen. Just my opinion...

Zumaya and Perry have been unreliable. Schlereth will be our lefty this year and it looks like Coke might move into the rotation. It's not that we haven't been developing our own guys, it's that they either haven't worked out (Perry) or are made of paper (Zumaya). I assumed we would make at least one bullpen signing this offseason and with Benoit's peripherals I am pretty satisfied. Too much money? Yeah, probably, but Detroit usually has to overpay anyways.

[thomasps3]

In recent years, the priority on finding useful setup guys has been what has driven the market for their prices. One good year turns into a reliever getting rewarded with a 3 year deal, like Shields in LA, Brandon Lyons in Houston, Chad Bradford for 3 years back in 2007, Kyle Farnsworth in 2008. I mean, what it looks like to me is that teams are willing to gamble on relievers with extra years because of the huge benefit they reap if it does pan out, where a seemingly small investment can cover up a shortage of quality starters, which is where teams can very easily cripple their finances if someone doesn't pan out. At the very least, Benoit has shown he can handle the pressure of being an 8th inning guy, and since his contract overlaps Valverde's for a year, he may be able ot step in in 2012 and be their closer for what would then be cheap closer money....but just a hypothesis...

[AquaMan2342]

In recent years, the priority on finding useful setup guys has been what has driven the market for their prices. One good year turns into a reliever getting rewarded with a 3 year deal, like Shields in LA, Brandon Lyons in Houston, Chad Bradford for 3 years back in 2007, Kyle Farnsworth in 2008. I mean, what it looks like to me is that teams are willing to gamble on relievers with extra years because of the huge benefit they reap if it does pan out, where a seemingly small investment can cover up a shortage of quality starters, which is where teams can very easily cripple their finances if someone doesn't pan out. At the very least, Benoit has shown he can handle the pressure of being an 8th inning guy, and since his contract overlaps Valverde's for a year, he may be able ot step in in 2012 and be their closer for what would then be cheap closer money....but just a hypothesis...

I totally agree that this is their strategy.

[MTUCache]

Zumaya and Perry have been unreliable. Schlereth will be our lefty this year and it looks like Coke might move into the rotation. It's not that we haven't been developing our own guys, it's that they either haven't worked out (Perry) or are made of paper (Zumaya). I assumed we would make at least one bullpen signing this offseason and with Benoit's peripherals I am pretty satisfied. Too much money? Yeah, probably, but Detroit usually has to overpay anyways.

My sentiments exactly... they've tried to develop a handful of young guys who haven't panned out recently for all of their bullpen roles (Figaro, Ni, Perry, and of course Zumaya), they've got some guys up-and-coming that they're hopeful about (Schlereth, Turner, Weinhardt), but none of these guys has a concrete role in the bullpen. Nobody is proven, nobody can be trusted, although they've all shown flashes of brilliance at one point or another.

If Leyland has shown nothing else, it's that his high sense of loyalty to his favorite players pegs them in roles for FAR longer than they sometimes deserve. He's not all that interested in mixing-and-matching during the season and letting these guys compete for their spots after the season starts. Whether it was Jones/Rodney or now Valverde/Benoit, he's going to stick to the formula until it's obvious to everyone that it doesn't work. The rest of these guys can all compete for the situational gigs and the 6th/7th innings, and if Zumaya does make it back for a while he can shore things up a bit.

I look at this as a bit of evidence that they're focusing on the present now, rather than the future. If they were satisfied with another building year they would have given all these kids another chance to win this job for themselves.