AGRI Biz

The Pittsburgh Pirates' Bobby Crosby made $5.3 million at shortstop this past year for the Oakland A's, but the Pirates have signed him for $1 million plus incentives. One of the reasons was that they let go of Jack Wilson last summer for two question marks, Ronny Cedeno and Jeff Clement. And how much was Jack Wilson re-signed for by the Seattle Mariners? $10 million for two years, plus a $600,000 ...

The decline of the Cleveland Indians over the past two years, from playoff contender in 2007, to league average in 2008, to cellar dweller in 2009, has been perhaps the most dramatic in the major leagues. And it (mostly) came from a different source than I thought. Indian batters tend to be among the better ones in the league on traditional metrics, even in 2009. But their contribution hovers around league average ...

Jason Bay. Lyle Overbay. No, they don't play for Tampa Bay. But they may be playing for the city on the (Puget) "Sound," if the Seattle Mariners, or at least Mariners writers like Andy Augur, have their way. In 2009, the Mariners were something like No. 7 in the American League playoff sweepstakes. That was despite American League-leading team pitching. But "offense" is something that the Mariners have historically lacked; they were ...

Word is that the Yankees will not "tender" (salary arbitration) for their injured former-ace, Chien-Ming Wang, thereby prematurely making him a free agent. The idea is to get him to a lower base salary, with incentives. That's a penny-wise, dollar-foolish move that may backfire. Although they pay top dollar for sought-after athletes, the Yankees have always been chintzy with less popular players such as Wang. For instance, after his splendid ...

One of these men IS a Red Sox. The other WAS a Red Sox, having been made available by the Pittsburgh Pirates who failed to protect him off waivers, and then having been traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Willy Mo Pena. One was a league MVP in 2008. The other has, at times, been kind of a marginal player in the game. One of these men might unkindly, but reasonably accurately, ...

You (probably) can hold out for more than the $15 million a year Boston is reportedly offering you, Jason Bay. Based on his hitting, Jason Bay would be a "five win" (above replacement, or WAR) player. At $4 million a WAR, (the going free agent rate), Bay should be worth something like $20 million a year, at least for the first two years. (Maybe with third and fourth year cuts to ...

The New York Yankees have a number of great homegrown players. They include shortstop Derek Jeter, pitchers Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, and catcher Jorge Posada. I'd even include World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, given that the Yankees is the only American team that he has played for. Consider him "drafted" from a "collegiate" level Japanese team. And the Yankees sure pay these people well to live in New York City. Jeter ...

You don't want to pitch CC Sabathia against Cliff Lee. So the Yankees found out in the first game of the Word Series, which they lost, 6-1 (trailing 2-1 on Sabathia's watch). This is the reason why the strategy of pitching Sabathia (and others) on three days' rest appears to be working. This, in spite of the fact that starters on three days' rest are 12-36 in playoff games since 1999, ...

Freddy Sanchez is a good "sport." The Pittsburgh Pirates' management is not. Sanchez re-signed with the San Francisco Giants at a total of $12 million for two years, or $6 million per. This compares to the $10 million that FanGraphs values him at for 2009 alone. My readers know that I would have gladly offered Sanchez $12 million for ONE year. Given a limping second half, after his strong first half, that ...