Saturday, May 18, 2013
At Home Plate
Posnanski's worst contracts
Written by At Home Plate Staff (Contact & Archive) on August 13, 2009
  

Joe Posnanski, now a senior writer with SI.com, has named his worst 11 contracts in baseball.

His process for selection included three stipulations: 1) The player must have one more year at $10+ million remaining, 2) Injuries would not take away from what a player has accomplished and 3) Past production would help the cases of players.

Here's the list.

11) BJ Ryan - Free agent, signed by Blue Jays
10) Jeff Suppan, signed by Brewers
9) Travis Hafner, signed by Indians
8) Kerry Wood, signed by Indians
7) Alex Rios, signed by Blue Jays
6) Gary Matthews Jr., signed by Angels
5) Alfonso Soriano, signed by Cubs
4) Carlos Silva, signed by Mariners
3) Barry Zito, signed by Giants
2) Jose Guillen, signed by Royals
1) Vernon Wells, signed by Blue Jays

A couple of things to take away from this list. First, the Blue Jays -- and, by extension, J.P. Ricciardi, signed some horrible contracts. They're spending their money stupidly in an attempt to catch teams who have lots of money to spend and are spending their money wisely.

Second, there are five pitchers on this list and six position players. I thought pitchers would've taken a larger majority on this list, but it seems as if bad contracts are spread evenly amongst all players. Kind of odd: There are two closers on this list. That's important because we all know closers can be found cheaply in your Major League bullpen right now (Frank Francisco/CJ Wilson), the free agent market or cheaply through trades (Joe Nathan).

Third, the Indians have two players on this list. It seems kind of interesting that they're considering one of the better-run franchises but they gave Wood and Hafner huge contracts. The Hafner deal was understandable in that he was at least a superstar hitter before his body began falling apart. Wood, not so much.



Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
Reddit! Del.icio.us! Mixx! Free and Open Source Software News Google! Live! Facebook! StumbleUpon! TwitThis Joomla Free PHP
 

At Home Plate Podcast

To listen to or download the latest At Home Plate Podcast, please click here.
To subscribe, click the icon below
Podcast Feed

Donations

If you like At Home Plate, you could show your appreciation by donating a small amount to our team. Thank you very much!

Amount: