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Newey
Newey^2483
Re: Most Critical Stats for Building a Winning Team <FONT COLOR=BLACK><b>[</font>Reply to #<a href="read.pl?1-4278">4278</a>]</b>
2/20/07, 4:46pm
And by the way...none of the aforementioned pitchers earned $100 million dollars in their contracts.  That was the sum of their combined contracts.

Adam Eaton
3 yr - $24.5 M
Career ERA+ - 92 (8% above League Average)

Jason Marquis
3 yr - $21 M
Career ERA+ - 94 (6% above League Average), including 3 of his six full years with ERA+ better than league average

Gil Meche
5 yr - $55 M
Career ERA+ - 96 (4% above League Average)

Putting them all together, we've got 11 yr @ $100.5 M, or roughly $9.14 M/year.  All three pitchers are entering either their Age 28 or Age 29 seasons, and all have attained the magic number of 6 years of service time to become eligible for free agency for the first time.

Let me preface the next statements with this:  As a GM, I don't think I would sign Gil Meche or Jason Marquis to deals of this magnitude and I haven't had time to look at complete salary data for starting rotations from last year.  But in this day and age, I don't think $9 M/year is a completely unheard of price.  Especially for 3 guys that have been as close to league average   
over their 6-year careers.

You have to realize that while these three pitchers may not be top-of-the-line, true Ace pitchers, half of all Major League pitchers over the past 6 years performed worse than this triumvirate.  It's this other half of MLB pitchers that teams can take a chance on and get bargain-level prices for. 

[Newey from Cincinnati/OH]
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