[新聞] Beane's blueprint calls for pinching pennies
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Beane's blueprint calls for pinching pennies
It was dank and dark Wednesday afternoon in the Bay Area, which does dank and
dark as well as anywhere.
In the home of the Oakland A's general manager, three-week-old twins were
awake and hungry, two bottles were warming, a pair of dogs were barking at a
stranger's stirrings at the front door and the telephone was ringing. A tiny
daughter in one arm, sustenance in the other, the phone wedged between his
shoulder and ear, Billy Beane laughed at the moment of chaos.
He could. Amid personal bedlam, there was professional order.
After all, he's 11 pitchers ahead this offseason, having acquired 13 by major-
league trade, minor-league trade, small free-agent signing or waiver claim
and lost two (Dan Haren being the notable one).
Meaning, ultimately, the free-agent starters out there – the likes of
Bartolo Colon, Josh Fogg, Livan Hernandez, Freddy Garcia, Kyle Lohse, Steve
Trachsel, et al – will be somebody else's to sign, repair, pay, hope for and
live with.
So, even with a season ahead that looks a lot like a rebuilding exercise for
the A's, there won't be any flyers on Colon's elbow, anxiety over Garcia's
shoulder, trepidation over Lohse's ERA, or concern for Odalis Perez's life-
style.
Beane has his own issues – Rich Harden's health, Joe Blanton's standing at
the top of the rotation, Chad Gaudin's toe/hip, Dallas Braden's assimilation
– but generally at a fraction of the cost, say, that Lohse is expecting or
Hernandez might pull.
In the weeks leading to the offseason, general managers began expressing
their dissatisfaction with the options available with which to rework – or
even supplement – their starting rotations. And now, in late January, we
appear to be experiencing the rare offseason in which GMs and their owners
resist the burdens of the overpriced and over-rated starting pitcher. Of
course, one man's refusal is another's collusion (and more than one agent has
recently attempted to further such a notion), but it's just as likely everyone,
for the moment, saw enough of Carl Pavano, Jason Schmidt, Matt Clement, Eric
Milton and Adam Eaton to draw their own conclusions.
So, we see the Arizona Diamondbacks talk Beane out of Haren. We see the
market juiced by the availability of Johan Santana and Erik Bedard. We see a
couple big free-agent deals – Carlos Silva got $48 million over four years
from the Seattle Mariners and Japanese import Hiroki Kuroda three and $35.3
million from the Los Angeles Dodgers – but otherwise we see restraint, at
least as far as baseball practices it.
As they've played it thus far, general managers are wary of the injured and
skeptical of the statistical spike. Sure, Hernandez pitches a lot of innings,
but how many of them are good ones? Sure, Fogg slayed a few dragons, but the
man's a career .500 pitcher (with a 4.90 ERA). Somebody's been slaying him
back.
Beane probably won't have a great rotation, particularly if Harden can't get
and stay healthy, but he won't be overpaying it, either.
“It really came down to the cost of free agents, period, and the cost of
pitching,” Beane said between living-room dustups. “It's nothing new, but
it's even more critical if you're a club like us.”
Rather than patch the rotation with back-end starters hoping for mid-range
(or higher) salaries, Beane chose to feather in prospects. A lot of them.
Of the free-agent market in general – and this one in particular – Beane
said, “It was part of our thinking. We have to almost entirely home-grow our
pitching. And we're going to deal in bulk.”
The same decision is being made by many large-market clubs. The New York Mets
have dabbled in – and still could end up signing – Lohse, Hernandez or
another free agent, but thus far seem more inclined to take a chance with
Mike Pelfrey or Philip Humber. Across town, Yankees GM Brian Cashman could go
Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy three through five, which is
far more desirable than dragging in a veteran pitcher or two who A) might be
only marginally more effective, at best and B) would cost 10 or 20 times more.
Rick Hahn, assistant general manager for the Chicago White Sox, said there
are factors dampening the values of free-agent starters.
“Obviously, revenues are up and player compensations are up, so I believe
the expectations for all players are up,” he said. “There are higher
expectations because of the revenues in the game. But, while players at the
elite level are fine, there doesn't seem to be similar growth on the back end.
So, there might not be a meeting of the minds as far as expectations go.”
Then, the still-bubbling availabilities of Santana and Bedard might have
conspired to keep a few starter-starved teams – the Yankees, Mets, Chicago
Cubs, Cincinnati Reds – from turning to the free-agent arms. Teams appear
willing to spend on a premier pitcher, but perhaps aren't as enthused to use
some the same resources, either cash or players, until it becomes absolutely
necessary.
So, you get the safe one-year contracts (Clement, Jason Jennings, Jon Lieber,
Josh Towers, Kip Wells, Randy Wolf, Mark Prior, Brett Tomko) and a lot of
standing around.
And, as Beane said, “In this environment, there's no such thing as a bad one-
year deal.”
Even that, he'll leave to the other guys.
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