Actually fans are pretty sharp. They will show up if the team is a winner. Signings like these usually ensure a team doesn't win for reasons already stated. You cant spend like this and succeed unless you are the yankees. And they have 1 title in 10 years. They will never be relevant signing a few big names and punting the rest.

My team the astros have made this mistake and it dooms them to nowheresville. They signed big name, getting older guys and it killed them. Carlos Lee was Jason Werth of a few years ago. They gave him a 6 year 100 million dollar deal and have regretted ever since. He now takes up 20% of their payroll and cant be moved. Tejada was acquired in a trade (where they gave up nothing, he was a salary dump) but his 15 million a year made him and Lee added to berkman and Oswalt almost 70% of a 100 million dollar payroll. Since McClane was an idiot who wouldnt rebuild despite an aging, decling team they won just enough games to be a semi-playoff contender but never really was good enough. They have drafted terribly which adds the the misery and part of the reason is ownership wouldnt pay above slot for players and wound up with lesser players than they should have.

There are those that would argue Ed Wade is the biggest problem in Houston, although they love him now on WIP.:zz:

Lee is using the Nats to get the 7th yr he wants from Texas or NY. Texteira did the same last yr. So they have to overpay. In this case it was length of service as the Phils supposedly offered just as much per yr for shorter period. Did I think it was a great signing- no. But lets look at it this way. Nats have what they believe are their top 3 rotation guys in Strassburg, J. Zimmerman and Storen. Zimmerman is 2nd yr of TJ surgery, Strassberg will be another yr. Their defense was one of the worst. LaRoche and Werth give them huge boosts defensively- which will lead to less unearned runs, lower pitch counts, and more importantly allow this young staff to have the confidence that they dont have to throw the perfect pitch, that the defense will make the play behind them.

This move is about preparing this team for 3 yrs when the Phils run ends. And if they are really throwing the $$ that everyone is reporting at Lee, then Lerner doesnt seem to be cash strapped at this time.

We in Philly love Ed Wade because he gave us Oswalt AND 12 million dollars for J.A. Happ.

The problem is that three years from now Werth and Lee will be 35 going on 36 and slowing down.

Washington has virtually no staff to speak of. They have Zimmerman who should (needs to be) better, Hernandez who is a longshot to repeat his year, Lannan who has a 75 mph fastball and no one else who threw 90 innings.

Offensively they are offensive. The starting SS and CF barely break .300 in OBP with little power. The get zero from 2nd base. La Roche is one of the lower ranked 1st baseman offensively. Who knows what they will get from left field. Flores and Ramos may be able to provide some hitting from behind the plate but are still question marks. They have nothing off the bench to even platoon.

Lee and Werth are fine as pieces of a rich contender. Washington is neither though suddenly are trying to spend like drunk sailors.

Of course it is hard to sign guys when you arent a contender but they should be targeting cheaper options or guys still in their 20's. Try to put something together for Zack Grienke. Make a huge play with the Lee money for Felix Hernandez next season. Sign a few stop gap vets to 1 or 2 year deals like Derrick Lee or Pena and flip them at the deadline if they are producing.

Frightenly enough that was more than I thought they would get. Wade is not a star though I do understand he works for an idiot.

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/new...s_stl&c_id=stl

Be interesting to see if Berkman can hold up playing the OF fulltime given he struggled to run last year.

It's only a mistake if his signing and potential failure prohibits them from adding payroll.. My understanding is the family is extremely wealthy WAY more then the Yanks ownership.. If they really dont give a crap about P/L and only care about making the franchise a success on the field..Then who gives a dam about 40mil xtra over 7 years..

Dan Snyder hasnt made a good signing EVER yet the Skins always have money to waste on anything on the Xmas list.

They may be wealthy but they dont have 20% of the revenues that the Yankees do. That is why there is a great chasm in baseball payrolls that isnt found in other team sports.

The thing is that overpaying guys doesnt make them better or younger. The extra 40 million could be an entire bullpen outside of a closer for 4 years. If they signed Joey Votto to the same deal it is a home run. Werth is an upgrade in right field. But at the plate he isnt really an upgrade over Dunn who Chicago got for 70 million less. If Lerner has the stomach to sponsor a $150 million dollar payroll, well I give him credit and say thats great. But i still think they are going to regret this contract like the Cubs regret the Soriano deal.

Chuck you miss the point... In a lifetime of bad 140mil contracts they will never be less then billionaires.. Basically if they want to sign Crawford for 150 and Lee for 200 it doesnt matter..It's not 400mil this year its 400mil over 7 years ... On 4 bil they earn 400mil a year plus you really think an extra 7 or 37 mil a year in suspect spending matters..

If the Nats become a real team and break even all is good? In Wash if they become a significant team the revenue will be around to support the crazy spending.

The Pirates might be the best value in baseball.. They earn a ton, spend little, and you can still take your your fam of 4 to the gane for 100 bux in box seats.. The same game event at Yanks is 1500.. the Pirates have zero shot of winning but everybody in Pitts can bring their kids to a game and sit in prime seats.. You want to watch the Yanks vs. Baltimore on a tues in July in great seats? Perhaps 1500 will get it done for the night...

Yeah but where is the plan here Freddy? The Nats don't have the revenue stream yet to support moves like this. How many more games is Jason Werth going to win you? How many more seats is he going to fill?

Wouldn't a more viable plan be to reduce ticket prices, promote the entertainment product and patiently grow a longterm contender? Wouldn't it have been smarter to keep Dunn and overpay him as he was already a popular player in this area?

Werth is a third tier player at best and by no means remotely close to being any kind of draw.

I have no interest in the owners personal fortune. There just isnt a whole lot of evidence that owners in any sport are real willing or happy to eat big contracts time and time again.

Sure the bottom feeders have shown that you can make a profit by spending as little as possible and collecting the shared revenue. No one is debating that. The issue here isnt if Lerner has the money to spend. It is that spending money unwisely on long term contract to less than proven guys is almost always detrimental to your team, it almost never works.

Here is the teams starting staff as of now
Livan hernandez
John Lannan
Jordan Zimmerman
Jason Marquis
Yuneska Maya
or
JD Martin

Think adding Cliff Lee makes them a contender?

Here is their lineup presently
Jason werth
Nyjer Morgan
Josh Willingham
Ryan Zimmerman
Ian Desmond
Danny Figeroa
mystery 1st baseman/ M. Morse/A. LaRoche
I. Rodriguez

Werth and Zimmerman are solid players. Uh thats it.

Wasting tons of money trying to win 78 games instead of 69 is still a waste. You have to spend money to contend, not buy ultra high on 30 something players.

Agreed. With so many (relatively) cheap, short term options available why not wait till a real star player comes on the market? Sign Derrick lee to play first. Give him 10 million for a 1 year deal. Take a shot on a japanese guy and try to pave the way to take a shot at Yu Darvish next year. They have a 5 star catching prospect that should be ready in 2012. Play Flores and Ramos instead of Pudge and try to elevate their stature and deal them to a team looking for a young catcher. Sign cheap guys like they did with Capps and flip them to contenders in need. Look what Seattle did with Lee last year. Traded away 3 non-star prospects for Lee and then flipped him for a 5 star prospect at the deadline.

Supposedly Boston signed Carl Crawford 7 years/142 million.

I think the Sox are clearly the frontrunners for the world series with these last two moves and I don't see who can touch them on paper even if the Yanks sign Lee.

They are still suspect at short, behind the plate and in middle relief but that is one potent lineup in that little league ball park. Middle relief shouldn't be hard to fill. The key will be at catcher. They desperately need a catcher (or two) that can handle that staff.

You have to give them credit for spending the cash to catch up with the yanks. I don't want to hear anything about buying championships though.

Seriously, all the names they could of used, and they go for Nyjer?

...and the beat goes on....

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/ml...ory?id=5900903

If the above happens, I will not be happy. It would be nice if they dumped somebody like Shields, not Garza, to make room for Hellickson in the rotation. They'd better get a ton from the Cubs for him.

Why not.. I hate the sox but their fans are great and they missed the playoffs.

The Nats tickets are pennies compared to the Yankees or some other teams. Things aren't cheap down here, but it's nothing like New York.

Indians signed Jack Hanahan. Evidently it's not the columbus zoo guy who goes on Letterman. who knew.

he should add one more "a" to the end of his last name.

Chicago Cubs
Four-Star Prospects
1. Brett Jackson, OF
2. Trey McNutt, RHP
3. Chris Archer, RHP
Three-Star Prospects
4. Josh Vitters, 3B
5. Hak-Ju Lee, SS
6. Chris Carpenter, RHP
7. Hayden Simpson, RHP
8. Reggie Golden, OF
9. Jay Jackson, RHP
10. Robinson Lopez, RHP
11. Brandon Guyer, OF

Nine More:
12. Robinson Chirinos, C: This converted infielder is improving defensively, and he can really hit.
13. Marquez Smith, 3B: He's a bit of an older prospect, but Smith can provide power and defense at the hot corner.
14. Wellington Castillo, C: He has a plus arm and power; and could turn into nice backup or second-division starter.
15. Rafael Dolis, RHP: He's another power arm in a system full of them; scouts want to see him in relief.
16. Ben Wells, RHP: This seventh-round pick was late-riser in the spring; he has low-90s heat with projection.
17. Brett Wallach, RHP: The ex-Dodger arm could move up with more consistent control; his stuff is plus.
18. Darwin Barney, UT: He'll never be a star, will rarely start, but Barney could play a decade in the majors.
19. Austin Reed, RHP: One of the talks of Arizona, scouts love his size and arm action.
20. Alberto Cabrera, RHP: This long, skinny Dominican has plus-plus velo, but needs to refine his secondary stuff.

Scutaro is ok at SS. I think they are going to try to resurect Saltamacchia with Varitek as his tudor. Who knows what bullpen arms they will add but an interesting project is former 1st round pick Andrew Miller who they traded a minor leaguer for. They non-tendered him but are thought to be bringing him back at a lower salary and are going to try him out of the bullpen.

The key for them is they added Crawford and Gonzalez AND still have a ton of almost ready prospects to move when they need to. I wouldn't be too surprised if they made another trade with SD for a RP.

Saltamacchia? Thats like putting a cheap steering wheel on a maserati. I don't know how he calls a game but that sure is a pretty temperamental staff with guys like beckett and lackey.

Lester, bucholz, lackey, beckett and daiseke. Thats pretty formidable even before you mention the kids that they will be working in.

I wouldn't screw around with catcher if I were Theo. You just spent all of that money on two guys and you have a 50 million dollar rotation. Overpay in propects via trade for a good vet and call it a day. I read somewhere that they were looking at Russell from LA.

Thanks for the info. The rumor seems to have quieted down a bit in the last day or so, but if it goes through, I now have a sporty refernce list. Should I be concerned if the "prospects" the Rays get aren't in the top 20?

Supposedly they are looking at Martin. He comes reasonably cheap but has stunk the last 2 years at the plate and is coming off of hip surgery which caused him to miss the last part of last year. Of course the yankees are also interested in him so who knows if Boston is just driving the price up. I would think that with a veteran staff and Varitek as a security blanket, catching wont be a major issue. I will go on record now as saying that whoever signs Martin will be underwhelmed.

Not really. As long as they are on the list they are actual prospects. This is Kevin Goldstein's list and he is the best guy out there, at least in regards to publicly available information.

I dont understand why they are wanting to get rid of Garza unless they think better to sell high on him? His K rate did dip but that was coming off an abnormally high rate for him in 09. He is eligible for arbitration but i dont think he can become a Free Agent till 2014.

It came as an absolute shock to me. Since I haven't heard anything other than that rumor I posted from ESPN, I will treat it as a rumor.

None of the local "media" have picked up on it. They are too busy trying to assess blame for the Crawford exit. Which is a monumental waste of time.

The exodus of free agents from Tampa isn't surprising, but a trade of Garza would be.

The New York Post's Joel Sherman reports that the Rays have been "uninspired" by offers for Matt Garza and are likely to wait until July and see what the market will offer then.
NBCSports.com's Craig Calcaterra has heard that the Cubs are in on Garza, so we'll have to see if they're willing to satisfy the Rays' demands. Garza made $3.35 million this past season and is under team control through the 2013 season, so the Rays, even in cost-cutting mode, don't have to be aggressive in trade talks for the right-hander just yet.

I dont think the Crawford deal will hurt too much if Jennings can play as advertised. Even if they had the money, that is too much for crawford especially when you have a minimum slary guy ready to replace him. And even Pena hadn't really played that well last year. The tough thing will be replacing the bullpen.

the state tax situation in NY as opposed to Texas could be the straw for the Rangers

Jenks to RED Sox.

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/mlb...ory?id=5926886

And Kerry Wood back to Cubs

Cliff Lee back to Phillies.

(see dala.. I am a dick)

Babe Ruth to the Yankees

He's done enough.

No love for Greinke to the brewers. Finally a legit starting rotation. Greinke, Gallardo, Marcum, and Wolf. Nice to see Melvin and Antanasio put the chips in the pot for once. Watch out for the crew in 2011.

He means 3011.

Well, it appears to be done. Garza and Perez for 4 of Cannon's top 12. Obviously a wait and see type trade.

The Rays desperately need offense at catcher. With Barlett gone, SS depth can't hurt.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/ml...ory?id=5998431

Archer will be definitely the one to watch.
It will be interesting with Chirinos.
As for the other 2...bleh!