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May 10, 2013While We’re Waiting…Ranking Kyrie’s value, the Tribe’s rotation, and Browns rookie camp
May 11, 2013One of the calling cards of the Mark Shapiro/Chris Antonetti front office era has been the one-year lottery ticket type players. Some came via the minor league deal, given a chance to make the roster in Spring Training. Others got one-year guaranteed contracts. Some came with nice price tags attached, some were incentive-laden. Most of them didn’t work out like the Indians had hoped.
Looking back, the hits were home runs.
In 2005, the Indians rolled the dice, one-year and $7 million for veteran right-hander Kevin Millwood, a Scott Boras client who thought he would get a big time multi-year deal. When that didn’t show up, Boras brought him to Cleveland and advised him to go out and show everyone what they were missing. Millwood not only won the American League ERA title, but he was the rock of the 2005 Indians staff. CC Sabathia, then a 24-year old budding star, still to this day credits Millwood and the season they spent together as the time when he truly “learned how to pitch.”
Millwood took 2005 and parlayed it into a five-year deal worth $50 million with Texas.
Also in that 2005 season, the bullpen featured two, low-risk, high-reward signings coming off of injuries.
The Indians signed Bob Howry in January 2004. They knew he would miss most, if not all of the season because of shoulder issues. But they saw a real opportunity to rebuild a guy who could help their pen in 2005. He made 36 appearances after the break in 2004 and pitched well. Scott Sauerbeck didn’t pitch in the majors in 2004 at all. The Wahoos took a flyer on him as well in April of that year and let him work his way back into shape.
Fast forward a year later, and the duo was a part of arguably the best and deepest bullpen in the league. The loaded pen featured closer Bob Wickman, Rafael Betancourt and Howry from the right side, Arthur Rhodes and Sauerbeck from the left.
In December of 2003, the Indians took a one-year, $1.1 million flyer on a veteran second baseman looking for work. His name was Ronnie Belliard. Ronnie was known to carry a little extra weight, played in a strange alignment at second base, and didn’t have much patience at the plate. In 2004, Belliard was solid, playing 152 games and hitting .284. The Indians brought him back for two more years and watched him become one of the more underrated Indians during that era. On that ’05 team, Belliard hit .280/.325/.450 with 17 homers and 78 RBIs. Ronnie was a real spark-plug and a noted White Sox killer. When the Indians fell out of contention in ’06, Belliard was dealt to St. Louis at the deadline where he won a World Series ring.
Another member of that 2005 team that the Tribe hit on was starter Scott Elarton, a reclamation rotation member who ended up making 31 starts that season and was solid in the five hole. He too came over on a minor-league deal.
What about Joe Borowski and his 45 saves in 2007? The Indians got him on an incentive-laden one-year deal thanks to an elbow injury that the Indians knew could flame out at any time. It did of course, in 2008, after they gave him $4 million more. He never pitched again.
But for every Howry, Sauerbeck, Borowski, or Belliard that the Indians hit on, there were at least two misses. And the misses where gigantic, Russell Branyan-esque whiffs. And I won’t even put Branyan on this list.
The one that always sticks with me is a right-handed starter named Jason Johnson.
For those who don’t remember, Johnson was a below .500 “innings-eater” who pitched in Baltimore and Detroit for seven years and was a free agent with a 50-81 career record with an ERA of 4.83. The Indians were looking to upgrade the back end of their rotation in 2006 after the 93-win season and for some strange reason gave this journeyman a guaranteed $3.5 million one-year deal.
Johnson was so bad, the Indians let him go in June after 14 starts where he went 3-8 with a 5.96 ERA.
Over the last decade plus, when the Indians bullpens were bad, the team was horrific. The next year they would usually try to find a veteran or two to try and fix the problem on the cheap. In 2006, the Indians made the mistake of letting Howry walk to the Cubs on a three-year, $12 million deal. The bullpen never really recovered. In 2007, they tried to replace the Howry spot and Bob Wickman with former White Sox Closer Roberto Hernandez (not Fausto Carmona). They handed him $3.3 million to compete for a late inning role, even the closers spot, with others including Borowski.
By the end of June, Hernandez was released with an ERA over six in 28 appearances.
Want more? How about everyone’s favorite first baseman Casey Kotchman? The Indians spent the entire winter heading into last season trying to find a bat for first base or the outfield. After passing on a three-year deal for Josh Willingham, missing out on Carlos Beltran who got two years and $26 million from St. Louis, and losing out to Tampa Bay on a one-year deal for Carlos Pena, the Indians gave $3 million to the defensive wizard Kotchman.
We all know how that turned out.
Casey was a nice guy who played hard every game. He lived up to billing with the glove, but at the plate he was painful to watch. Kotchmania hit .229/.280/.333/12 HR/55 RBIs in 142 games and kind of became a target to angry Tribe fans who wanted more from the front office. They wanted more and they got Kotchmania and a washed up Johnny Damon.
The former Yankees and Red Sox star was at the end of the line. Everyone knew it except for the Indians and Damon. Agent Scott Boras couldn’t find a deal to his liking all Winter and Spring and by mid-April, the offensively challenged Indians panicked and brought Damon in on a one-year, $1.25 million deal. It took him two weeks to work himself back into game-shape but he was a shell of his former self. Defensively, he was the anthesis of Kotchman at first. His arm was shot in 2007, and this was 2012. With the bat, he just never could come around (.222/.281/329 in 62 games). It just wasn’t there anymore. The Shelley Duncan/Damon left field platoon did more harm than good and Damon was released in August. He was never picked up and is still looking for work.
I could go on.
This off-season, the Indians threw a bunch of things at the wall and hoped a few of things would stick. While Daisuke Matsuzaka hasn’t come around and Matt Capps didn’t make the bullpen, two others have made a huge splash.
Mark Reynolds falls more into the Millwood category since he was an established veteran. Like Millwood, he was on a mission with something to prove. All he has done has become the middle of the order right-handed force the team lacked so badly in 2012. He leads the AL in homers with 11 and has been much more patient at the plate than advertised. His strikeouts are down and his average (.291) and on-base percentage (.367) are up.
Yesterday’s winning pitcher Scott Kazmir, who we featured earlier today, has the look of the guy who shot to all star status om his early 20’s in Tampa. At age 29 and seemingly on his last chance, Kazmir could be the middle of the rotation savior for an Indians team on the come.
What will happen to Reynolds and Kazmir after the season is anybody’s guess. If they both continue down this path the rest of the season, they could be pricing their way right out of town. Reynolds is on a one-year, $6 million deal. Kazmir came in on a minor league deal and would certainly command a hefty raise, especially considering he is still just 29 years old.
But let us enjoy the now. Both guys love playing for Francona and are enjoying this first six weeks.
At the very least, we know that these two are not Casey Kotchman and Jason Johnson.
(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
26 Comments
Maybe the F.O. is able to extend these guys and Francona could be a big reason why they stay. It’s not like either of them has Boras as their agent…
A few years ago we signed a formerly decent-hitting third baseman recovering from a bad elbow (?) on the same kind of deal. He went to the minors to rehab. He never came back. We’d occasionally get an update, like “still rehabbing, on IR.” And no one ever mentioned him again. And I can’t even remember his name.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Brett Myers=MISS
smart business. all of these guys are coming on relatively cheap deals who may be able to replicate past successes. even when they fail, it usually is not affecting the overall talent we would have had around them.
my one gripe is the constant churn of bad pitchers being given mediocre pitcher contracts. i’ll never complain about giving a Kazmir a minor league flier deal or throwing a cheap $1mil deal at Raburn. but, wasting $7mil of our budget on a guy like Myers is not smart.
just like Derek Lowe last year. and Roberto Hernandez (exercising his option basically was the same thing as giving him a 1 year deal).
Mark DeRosa? Or…?
No, DeRosa actually played. I keep thinking Howard Johnson, but that was a Mets guy,
Maybe not 3 weeks ago. But a few more outings like that and Boras will be robo-calling Kazmir like Bob Sugar.
But he’s an “innings eater”! He literally eats innings! Can you imagine if our lousy bullpen had to pitch an extra inning every five games to spell a different starter? Disaster!
Nick Johnson at 1B?
It’s not just the bullpen. It’s preventing the Gomezes and Seddons from having to get major league hitters out.
A healthy Myers could at least keep your team in the game.
What about a Bauer or Carrasco? I’d theoretically rather have them starting and giving less innings at a cheaper price.
Yes!! It was only 2 years ago and already forgot. Looks like he came back and played like 30+ games for Baltimore last year. Tribe kind of gave him a full season paid rehab. Like Grady, but way way cheaper.
I was wracking my brain to remember, then when you said Howard Johnson, I got it. I remember being pretty bullish on the Nick Johnson signing, thinking that he could be a nice contributor when healthy. But then he was never healthy and I forgot about him as well.
not to mention all the better starting pitcher options on the market whom we passed over to frantically sign Myers early. we misjudged the market badly with him.
I think Myers deserves a little more time before we call that one a miss. Let’s see what he can do if/when he’s healthy. Three starts (especially three starts where he was likely pitching hurt) are not enough to properly judge a veteran pitcher with a previously good track record.
I think Myers was a good gamble, even if he doesn’t pan out. The Indians aren’t going to be good this year without a good rotation. There’s a good chance that Myers would be good, but he’s on a really club-friendly contract. If he’s good, they have the team option and bringing him back next year. If he’s not, they’re likely out of the race by then anyway and he’s bought an extra year of Bauer by delaying his service clock.
I really like the uniform that Millwood is wearing in that photo.
The team used 10 starting pitchers last year and eight so far this year. The chances of getting by those just those two as depth were slim to none.
You can keep saying this, but it doesn’t make it any truer.
Here is the list of FA SP available at the time Myers signed for similar or fewer dollars. Karstens, Jurrjens, Liriano, Marcum. There is nothing pretty to see there.
and I’ve given the full list. you used to say that “there was no way we could have predicted they would sign those deals”
fact of the matter is we could not have gotten much less for our $7mil investment so far in Mr. Myers.
and some of the other guys you are leaving off the list that signed for near the same (or less) $$/year as Myers:
Guthrie
Iwakuma
Blanton
Correia
Feldman
Baker
McCarthy
Jurrjens was signed to a $1.5mil “prove you are healthy” deal. We did that with Kazmir/Dice-K, so we didn’t with him.
Karstens to $2.5mil deal. I’ll pay him that over $7mil to Myers any day.
Liriano to a $1mil deal. Marcum’s shoulder scared teams off apparently and he signed a $4mil deal with the Mets.
Even if what you say were accurate (it’s not see above), then we vastly overpaid for Myers compared to these contracts.
Karstens and Liriano have yet to pitch. Those don’t look like they will be productive deals.
None of those guys were on the market when Myers signed. You want to say that they could have struck quicker and tried to get one of those guys, I’m on board. But “frantically” is an awful term to use when describing the Myers signing. None of those guys were passed over for Myers. If they were passed over, it was to focus on the Bauer and Aviles/Gomes trades, and to sign Reynolds and Swisher. Myers was inked after all of that.