Santonio Holmes on Fiesta Bowl Officiating
January 6, 2009While We’re Waiting…
January 7, 2009Remember when I dropped about 1,000 words on why the DeRosa signing was more important than a middle-of-the-pack starting pitcher? But I finished by saying that I would expect a few more moves before the season kicks off? Well, it looks like we have more of the latter.
The Cleveland Indians signed free-agent pitcher Carl Pavano to a one-year contract Tuesday.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Carl. Freaking. Pavano. I love the fact that New York blew nearly $40 million on the guy. And on the cover, this one sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I admit, the last name I really want to see on the hill in a close game against Miguel Cabrera is “Pavano.”
But read into it a bit. “Low base salary with incentives” is what the rumors are leading us to believe, and is a contract similar to what also-injury prone Mike Hampton recently signed. I wish every player would be willing to do this, but unfortunately it takes a guy to have one of the biggest stigmas in the league like Pavano (or Hampton) to get it done.
While it was five seasons ago, Pavano was once a guy that won 18 games with an ERA of 3.00. And that wasn’t even the year that he was the World Series hero against the Yankees. Of course, he was also the same player that had his work ethic questioned by teammates and was showered with boos by an entire fan base. Those of you that were hoping for Brad Penny to be your “Millwood” before he signed with Boston, you may have just that in Pavano. And if you don’t, it only cost the Tribe a couple of dollars.
If you ask me, I say low risk, high reward. Feel free to disagree.
(And no, I won’t be following this up with an Alyssa Milano post. Sorry.)
Pavano Signs With Tribe [ESPN]
28 Comments
I think I agree Scott. Once I get over the horror of the name, I think this deal should be, as you say, low risk. Let’s keep the guaranteed money to between $1 and $2 million.
High reward, though? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
High reward for the money.
As mentioned in a conversation with Vince Grzegorek, if he can put up 100 innings his numbers shouldn’t be too far off from those we received from Paul Byrd last season prior to trading him to the Sox. He’s never been a big K/9 guy, but his WHIP/ERA has been fairly solid. No, he won’t put up Millwood-type numbers, but if healthy he’ll be serviceable. And with what SPs are getting paid this winter, serviceable is a pretty high reward for $1 million…
He was actually pretty impressive at times when he did pitch this year. Went 4-2, sure the ERA was high but I think that was from two really bad outings from what I remember. I mean, sure…what the hell let’s try it.
Wouldn’t it be sweet justice (and a blow for small market teams) if Pavano at $2 million outperforms CC at $1 billion (or whatever it was the Yankees paid him)?
Looks like with incentives, the deal could be worth up to $6.8 million…
well i like the agressive offseason that we continue to have and i must say that this signing is intruiging. we have a derth of young pitchers who will be pushing pavano and he should come out with a chip on his shoulder. he hated playing in ny and now he comes to a team that is perfect for his rebound project. hes not the answer to our starting pitching but he could be a nice surprise.
go tribe!
p.s. manny rameriez anyone? i doubt hed sign a bargin deal but why not?!
“Looks like with incentives, the deal could be worth up to $6.8 million…”
And assuming that he has to perform to reach them, I’m all for it. 18 starts and 130 innings before they even begin to kick in.
Great low-risk signing. I can see Pavano being solid at the back end of the rotation. Don’t sleep on Anthony Reyes, either. He has serious potential. We are quite lucky to have Mark Shapiro at the helm.
Not sure what he has to do to max out those incentives, but given the going rate for SPs if he somehow gives the Indians about 150+ innings of league-average baseball he’s worth the money.
And really, chances are he can’t pitch worse than Jeremy Sowers did last year…and if he does, we can replace him with…uh…Jeremy Sowers.
Yes, I did want Brad Penny. But I’ll take Pavano. If the guy shows up to Arizona and can’t pitch, he won’t make the roster and we won’t have to worry about how much his contract was worth. Can’t have enough competition for starting pitchers in camp if you ask me.
So, with Lee, Carmona, Reyes, Pavano and Zach Johnson (out of options) it looks like we have our starting 5 sort of set.
I’m still guessing we let Laffey, Sowers, Lewis and Huff battle with Zach for that last spot (that will be gone once Westbrook returns).
Wondering how the teams that lost out on Pavano (reportedly Toronto and Washington) feel about our other back-end guys and if they would be willing to deal. You know Shapiro will find out.
i personally like this signing. He wasn’t all that bad last year. If the guy can stay healthy, i believe he still has some productive years in him. I have a strong feeling that skip is gonna make him earn his roster and/or rotation spot in spring training. No gimmies just cuz he’s been productive when healthy.
No Alyssa Milano? I’m out!
Love this signing. He looks solid with the Yankees when he pitched last year (except for a couple of starts…but the guy was rusty…he’d just been injured for 2 years).
This feels like the Millwood deal – low base with incentives. I hope he nails every one of them.
Worst case scenario – we get nothing out of the guy. His ceiling? 20-25 starts, 10-12 wins, mid 3’s ERA (maybe better)? Not too shabby for a pickup that wouldn’t draw any attention if the guy hadn’t flamed out in NY.
I have no objection to this, and think that even if it doesn’t work out, we’ll be fine with one of the others not in the original starting five at the beginning of the season.
Jason-
Great comparison to Millwood deal! Hopefully this deal works like the Millwood one did. Guy had a killer (in a good way) ERA!
This is the sort of signing I’ve been clamoring for. Personally I’d like one more of these. I am not sold on ANY of the back-of-the-rotation guys.
not too sure what to think of this… not a biad signing for the money really, but I was kind of thinking they would go the route of trading for a right hander who could be a legit #3 starter but if PAvano can regain half of that 04 years form it would be nice to have him and it would work out great if he held down that spot in the rotation until Jake come back. (healthy I hope, although I know that’s a stretch) I’m glad to see our front office realizing that by sitting back last year in the offseason it kinda hurt us, and they are making a few good moves to make sure we stay in contention this year.
I read the Plain Dealer comments just to get all fired up before I come here and calm down with the level-headedness that is quite refreshingly pervasive here.
I LOVE Shapiro’s aggressiveness for the 2009 season as much as I loathed his passiveness before the 2008 season. I am convinced that he learned something from the status quo that-injuries aside-had the Tribe out of it before the All-Star break.
I cannot think of another GM this offseason that more methodically went after his goals/needs and squeezed every ounce of value out of his finite available resources. And we didn’t pay Casey Blake $17 mill for three years to boot!
Anyway, WFNY, can you just go ahead and award Mark Shapiro Off-Season Baseball Executive of the Year? For what it’s worth, on paper, I am JACKED for this season.
Not much else to say other than “low risk-high reward” I think expecting him to be a #3 starter after Cliff and Fausto like Shapiro said per Anthony Castrovince’s blog is a bit much. I think this is much the rotation should look like:
1. Cliff Lee
2. Fausto Carmona
3. Anthony Reyes
4. Aaron Laffey
5. Carl Pavano
I would just like to say I broke this story. (see the last Indians post)
I’d rather stick Pavano in the 3-spot and let him him work his way backwards. DANG. That Westbrook injury takes this staff from VERY GOOD to slightly-above average (but with potential – in both ways).
I love this move by Cleveland, Pavano gives us a veteran pitcher who MIGHT become a good number 2 or 3. Worse case he gets injured early and takes a few million from us. I was waiting for the iNdians to sign at least one starter this off-season and I would rather have a guy who won 18 games one year then a bunch of young lefties that are just clones of each other.
According to Paul Hoynes’ article, “If he’s healthy, he’ll be in the rotation,” said GM Mark Shapiro.
So he’s on the roster and in the rotation already. That’s a lot of faith in a guy who in four years managed only 15 more innings than CC racked up with Milwaukee alone (130.2 innings). I’m skeptical but then again I was skeptical when Cliff Lee won a spot in the rotation out of camp last year and that worked out okay.
Thanks for lack of Alyssa Milano followup post. Her forearms are only slightly less hairy than Robin Williams, slightly. Just sayin.
Hard to get excited by a project. But it’s low cost, low risk type move. Pavano as a 4 or 5 isn’t horrible.
@ # 19 RexHadnot’sUnbentKnees
Ya wow the Plain Dealer comments are redic. People over there really must be deppressed cuz they have nothing good to say ever! Its really a travesty people dont see the value or worth in this signing… or in the Indians as a team. I understand its been a while but like pac said, “keep your head up.” LETS GO TRIBE!!
now go get Xavier Nady
I see the Tribe designated Michael Aubrey for assignment to free up a spot on the 40-man for Pavano. OK with me, cuz I always thought Aubrey was a stiff.
But, it got me thinking: other clubs have a few stiffs sitting on their 40-man as “just in case” releases, when new guys come in.
If the Tribe were to add another player now, who is player #40 that gets “designated for assignment”? I realize it can sometimes be a player at the same position as the incoming one, but that was not the case for the Pavano/Aubrey swap. Is #40 finally Marte?
I’ve never been impressed by the way the Tribe front office manages minor league player options and the 40-man…