Sunday, June 28, 2009

Heyman Picks The Best and Worst FA Signings

Jon Heyman came up with his listsa of the best and worst free agent signings heading into this season and here's his lists:

First for the best:

1. Raul Ibanez, 2. Trevor Hoffman, 3. Francisco Rodriguez, 4. Orlando Hudson, 5. Mark Teixeira, 6. Brad Penny, 7. CC Sabathia, 8. Ivan Rodriguez, 9. Brian Fuentes, 10. Randy Johnson, 11. Adam Everett, 12. Randy Wolf, 13. David Eckstein, 14. Adam Dunn, 15. Felipe Lopez.

And now the worst:

1. Milton Bradley, 2. Oliver Perez, 3. Pat Burrell, 4. Manny Ramirez, 5. Kerry Wood, 6. Kyle Farnsworth, 7. Orlando Cabrera, 8. Jason Giambi, 9. Ken Griffey Jr., 10. Edgar Renteria.

As you can see two Yankees signings made the top 15, Mark Teixeira at number 5 and CC Sabathia at 7. Here's what Heyman had to say about the two of them:

5. Mark Teixeira, Yankees 1B. OK, $180 million for eight years isn't exactly a bargain basement price. But it's all good so far. The best thing isn't that he's second in the American League with 20 home runs after the notoriously slow starter turned in his usual putrid April. Nor is that he's helped the entire Yankees infield, which spent the past several years worrying about Jason Giambi's defensive deficiencies. It has to be that the signing still gets under the skin of the Red Sox higherups -- though Boston has won all its games against the Yankees thus far this year, Red Sox owner John Henry showed he hasn't forgotten, writing on his twitter page, "MT curse.'' That ill-advised tweet may in itself be its own curse.

...

7. CC Sabathia, Yankees starter. Some thought the Yankees crazy to pay $161 million over seven years for the heavy lefty. But except for his nervous debut in Baltimore, he's been well worth it. Beyond that, they absolutely had to have him. Without him, their ace is probably Joba Chamberlain, who should be in the bullpen (but that's a debate for another day).

Amazing how the Joba debate even found its way into this article... Anyway, good to see two new Yanks make the list. While the Yankees did spend a ton of money this past offseason, they actually look like they spent it properly this time around, unlike many of those past mistakes signings. Besides the two guys mentioned above, A.J. Burnett has also been very good, especially lately, and trading for Nick Swisher has also turned out to be a big move - the guy has the third highest OPS on the team.

What do you guys think of the list?

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...

i think its fair, i cant argue too much. ibanez, hoffman, krod and hudson have played great. i still think tex should be like 2 or 3 on the list, but maybe its because im such a big yankee fan.

he's saved so many errors for our defense and with all of his diving stops he has probably taken away possibly 10-15 runs this year just with baserunners that never reached bc of his sparkling plays or great error saving scoops... his bat has come alive and he is 2nd in the league in homers