14 thoughts on “links for 2007-12-18”

  1. If nothing else, a reasonable extension makes him more tradable in the future. I hope they can work something out.

  2. As much as Neshek scares the heck out of me on the mound, I really like him. All the interviews are very humble — he’s clearly a serious baseball geek taking advantage of being in the big leagues. I wish he played for the Tigers.

  4. As much as I like Nate, He’s a great guy but to have him on a 3-5 year deal for his inconsistant performances, is a bad idea. Nate would be Inge part 2. We are trying to get rid of a bad contract now, we don’t need another one. There will be a FA pitchers market in ’09 we need to wait and see how things are in ’09 before we do anything with this year’s rotation except Verlander and Willis. We do need to sign willis this year. Nate is good but just doesn’t have the best performance EVERY outing for a 3-5 year extension worth $15-30 million.

  6. I agree, Steve. Pitchers with stats like Robertsons are all over the place. He’s really just mediocrity personified. We need to make sure we pay him like every other mediocre pitcher is paid, and if he doesn’t like it than he’s replaceable. Heck, Bazardo could probably put up those numbers over a year. I think he should be paid a small premium over the average simply for his loyalty and clubhouse presence, but nothing substantial. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have him in the rotation, but let’s not make him another Inge.

  7. 3 years/$12 mill or 3-4 years/$10-$14 mill with performance incentives is a reasonable price for a well-liked, dependably average pitcher. Look at Carlos Silva with a reported 4/$44 offer in hand. Put his stats next to Nate’s. Tell me who’s who.

    All stats for last four years: innings, ERA, WHIP
    A) 203/188/180/202, 4.21/3.44/5.94/4.19, 1.43/1.17/1.54/1.31
    B) 196/196/208/177, 4.90/4.48/3.84/4.76, 1.40/1.36/1.31/1.47

    Who do you want? Gun to my head, I probably go with A. Except for:

    Cost per year on a four year contract:
    A) $11 mill
    B) $4.5 mill, maybe $5 mill.

    I think it makes sense to do what seems like overpaying for Nate, given the expense of signing a comparable pitcher.

  8. It’s all about the money for Nate. At 3 years 15 mil he’s frankly a bargain. Kyle Lohse is going to get more than that. If it’s too much then he could be a millstone. But it’s not like we have a bunch of kid pitchers pushing for rotation slots. Not any more.

    Inge had a bad year and people are saying he’s 30 and could turn into a .215 hitter again. I suspect he has a couple more 25 HR years in him. I wish they would keep him and work a deal after he goes on a hot streak. They could run him out at SS, C and CF just to show off what he can do. GMs love that stuff, especially with a hustle guy like Brandon. But I expect he will be gone by the end of spring training at the latest.

  9. PS: I meant to include that the Inge signing looked like a good deal 1 year ago. Now it’s a problem, or at least that’s what other GMs want DD to think. Keep him awhile and pump his value.

  10. I very much doubt Inge has more 27 HR years in him. Somebody pointed out — correctly, I think — although I never cross verified the claim, that Inge’s “career year” production came mostly off fast balls, and mostly when the score was skewed one way or another and the pitches really didn’t matter.

    If any pitcher ever views Inge as a threat, I suspect they’ll just start pitching him like they did all 2007.

  11. Well, a lot of mistake hitters have had very good careers. Pitchers with control issues will miss the corners early in the count and then come in with fastballs. More guys than Inge have made a living off that. Inge is streaky; 2007 was mostly a bad streak. 2005 and 2006 had a lot of good. I don’t see any fundamental difference in how he was pitched to in 2007. I suspect he got just about as many good pitches to hit last year as he did the years before. He didn’t hit as many. It happens. His 2005/2006 performance was so completely out of character from his earlier career, and plausibly related to his issues with catching, that I think it truly reflected a new level of ability. 2007 was closer to 2006 than it was to 2003/2004. I think he’ll hit some more bombs and play plus defense for whoever gets him. That’s worth 3 years 15 mil in this market. I just hope they hold him awhile to convince other teams of his value so they can get value in return. If he struggles again what have they lost? It doesn’t sound like they can get much of anything right now and that’s a joke. He is at least a valuable reserve. And this is coming from a guy who was a loud advocate for letting him go 5 years ago because he would never hit. He proved me wrong.

  14. Inge hit 18 HR’s in 2006 when the game was within 3 runs or less. I’d hardly say that’s beating up on junk after a blowout game. And looking at the numbers from that year, he actually was worse as the score became more of a blowout.

    He also was terrible vs. power pitchers, ‘eh’ vs. average pitchers, and mashed vs. finesse pitchers. Usually we think of finesse pitchers who don’t throw a ton of fastballs and are crafty with breaking stuff, and that year he was crushing balls off of finesse pitchers to the tune of .304/.339/.576 in 235 plate appearances against them.

    So, basically all of that are misnomers against his 2006 season.

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