Locking up young pitching: A report surfaced Saturday that the Athletics had agreed to a multi-year contract with their opening day starter Trevor Cahill. The 23-year old was set to be arbitration eligible for the first time following the 2011 season.
It also marks the second time this week that a team has locked up a young pitcher to a multi-year contract, as the Tampa Bay Rays signed Wade Davis to a four-year guaranteed deal that could reach as long as seven years.
All these signings, including Oakland's contract with Brett Anderson last April, marks a sort of sea change going on in baseball right now. Teams are trying to sign guys younger and younger for a long time, with the hope that they'll earn back that money as the player matures.
It's a strategy that works very well for small market teams. I wonder if the Astros will pursue something similar with Jordan Lyles, assuming he finally makes his debut and pitches with enough promise to seem like he could stick around for years. New ownership (probably Jim Crane) could try to run this team more like a mid-market team, instead of with the lavish, post-World Series payroll. I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or not, but it's definitely a trend that bears watching.
Ed Wade's Philly Phascination is bunk: I say that for one reason and one reason alone. If Ed Wade pulled every player he wanted off from Philadelphia, why hasn't he plucked up Gregg Dobbs yet? That guys was the quintessential player that Wade haters would point to as a bad acquisition.
He's never been flashy and is frequently looked at as a sub-par starter, but played for years with the Phils. In fact, Dobbs was even freely available this winter. He didn't sign a minor league contract with the Marlins until January 11.
Was there a place for Dobbs on this team? Probably not. He could have filled the veteran off the bench role that Geoff Blum did and drive us all crazy for being on the team instead of Matt Downs. Oh, what could have been?
Marlins payroll growing: Because of the boom-bust cycle to the Marlins since their 1997 World Series title, it's easy to forget that they do spend money. In fact, Florida's Opening Day payroll was up to 57 million this season, which is the highest it's been since 2005.
Meanwhile, the Astros payroll is going the other way quickly. After nudging over 100 million for the first time in franchise history in 2009, Housto has just over 80 million committed this season. That number will probably go up a bit in the offseason as Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence hit higher arbitration paydays, but it's still as low as it's been since 2005.
Say one thing about Drayton: he got over that "cheap" label in the past decade. Now, if only he had spent his money a little more wisely...
Comment of the Day: This one is pretty self explanatory, given the past couple of games...
this is gonna be a very long season.
"That's funny. You like Samurai Swords, I like Baseball!"
-Hatori Hanzo
by allphilla on Apr 9, 2011 9:15 PM CDT reply actions
My sentiments exactly...
Comment Leaderboard: As usual, here's a look at who was in the game thread last night and the top posters therein.
Roll Call: clack, mike_o, Joe in Birmingham, Silentjay, timmy_, MadMartygan, allphilla, jmike, Matt3511, War_damn_eagle, AllenOU, Subber10, BustaPozee, twinkilling0303
| Name | # of Posts |
|---|---|
| mike_o | 38 |
| Joe in Birmingham | 31 |
| MadMartygan | 23 |
| jmike | 22 |
| War_damn_eagle | 18 |
| Matt3511 | 15 |