Pavano Opts for Surgery

[Centerfield]

Finally official despite everyone knowing for weeks.

Story: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2880745

The article says he will likely miss all of next year too, meaning for their $40 million the Yankees got 19 starts...$2 million per start. What a country.

Worst return on a free agent signing ever? I'm having a hard time thinking of a worse one.

[Centerfield]

An afterthought...if you're a Red Sox fan, Carl Pavano is nothing but good news. He was the centerpiece of the deal that landed them Pedro Martinez...and he had the decency never to live up to the promise with the Expos to ensure no one in Boston ever regreted the deal (not that they would have anyway.) He had a good season in Florida, leading the MFY's to dump money on him that would go largely wasted.

[Frayed Knot]

[u:6f3ef13c30]Final NYY totals[/u:6f3ef13c30]:

19 starts
111.3 Innings Pitched
5 wins - 6 losses
4.77 ERA
141 Hits
18 HRs
60 Ks
20 BBs
1 CG - 1 Shutout
1.45 WHiP

[metirish]

Pavano has a 5-6 record with the MFY,hell of a lot of money for 5 wins or 19 starts,which ever way one chooses to look at it.

] Ken Davidoff's five worst free-agent signings: 5. LHP Mike Hampton, eight-year, $121-million contract with Colorado Rockies, Dec. 9, 2000. Mr. Denver School System himself, the lefthander ditched the Mets for the huge bucks and claimed he did it to enrich his children. He was so miserable pitching at Coors Field that the Rockies felt compelled to trade him to the Braves after just two years, and he is now in the process of sitting out his second straight full season with elbow problems. 4. LHP Denny Neagle, five-year, $55-million contract with Colorado Rockies, Dec. 4, 2000. Bad, bad month for the Rockies, who rewarded Neagle for an uninspiring Yankees half-season with this outrageous deal. Neagle made just seven starts in 2003, and those were his last in the major leagues, as his career ended with an unseemly arrest in the Denver area. 3. RHP Chan Ho Park, five-year, $65-million contract with Texas Rangers, Dec. 23, 2001. The ace of the Dodgers, Park never won more than nine games and never pitched more than 1452/3 innings in a season for the Rangers, who traded him to the Padres in the middle of the 2005 season. 2. Darren Dreifort, five-year, $55-million contract with Los Angeles Dodgers, Dec. 11, 2000. The Dodgers put a great deal of faith in a pitcher who never had reached the 200-inning mark. That backfired when Dreifort never reached the 100-inning milestone as a very rich man, missing the entire 2002 and 2005 seasons. He served as an effective reliever for part of 2004, before going down with yet another injury. 1. Carl Pavano, four-year, $39.95-million contract with Yankees, Dec. 22, 2004. He quickly alienated his teammates, his superiors, his agent, his fiancée, the media and fans. He fooled the Yankees into signing him, then fooled them into believing he could work as a regular starter in 2007. He missed all of 2006, pitched just twice this year and will almost certainly miss all of next year. Otherwise, he turned out to be a great acquisition

[Guest Edgy DC]

The Kevin Appier siging is looking like the best of a bad lot of pitcher signings in December 2000.

[Frayed Knot]

Unlike some of the above, the Pavano signing didn't neccesarily look like a turkey when it first happened, and normally I'd say a pitcher getting hurt as often as he has been recently is a bit sad.
But in this case - even though this injury is shirley real - Pavano has come off like a real ass practically since he showed up here, even to the point of admitting that he wasn't always working too hard to get back into action. It's cases like his which give fans the image of players getting the big contract and then sitting back and collecting.

I'd be surprised if he ever pitches in the big leagues again even though he'll theoretically be healthy again at age 33.

[metirish]

I would say it's a toss up between Neagle and Pavano,Hampton's was/is a terrible deal but a few teams are paying the money.

[Centerfield]

It seems like with all the other deals referenced there, the other teams got something for their money, even if it was largely ineffective pitching. I've just can't think of a guy who signed a four-year deal and took the field less than Pavano (and wasn't very good when he did).

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wayne Garland?

[Guest Edgy DC]

That Mark Davis deal was pretty stinging for its time.

[Guest Rotblatt]

]He fooled the Yankees into signing him

How did he fool them, exactly? I don't see how you can blame Pavano. The Yankees are the stupid fucks who signed him to the contract . . . And he had an EXTENSIVE injury history, with problems affecting both his shoulder and elbow, causing him to miss the equivalent of about two full seasons between 1999 and 2002.

Anyway, assign blame to where its due, sportswriter. Unless, that is, you also want to blame Mo Vaughn for our contract with him, in which case, I might reconsider.

[metirish]

] The Yankees are the stupid fucks

I like that....

[seawolf17]

Fool nothing. He was one of the top, if not the top, FA pitcher out there. There were lots of teams after him, not just the Yankees. Yes, they probably overpaid, but a lot of that is hindsight now. I know that I thought it was likely a mistake at the time, because he was moving from the NL to the AL and was likely to be worse, but I don't know that anyone expected it to be this bad.

[metirish]

I'm sure the squid can find out thoughts on this deal in the archives....

[Willets Point]

Hey, it's another Yankee thread on the front page!!

[Guest Rotblatt]

]I know that I thought it was likely a mistake at the time, because he was moving from the NL to the AL and was likely to be worse, but I don't know that anyone expected it to be this bad.

Well, that's true--I don't think anyone expected he'd get as little service tmie in as he did. Still, given his injury history and lack of a proven record, it was a pretty risky move by the Yankees, even at the time. The fact that they ended up with almost the worst possible outcome seems like a pretty just result from my perspective!

In all, Pavano had had just one good year prior to his signing with the MFY--his walk year--and had only 2 seasons where he stayed healthy enough to pitch over 200 innings. Granted, they were the two consecutive years before becoming a free agent, but still--that's a pretty big risk .

FA Pitchers signed between the end of 04 and the beginning of 05 that I could find easily:

Pavano: 4 years, 40 M w/ option
Matt Clement: 3 years, 25.5 M
Radke: 2 years, 18 M
K. Escobar: 3 years, 18.75 M
Russ Ortiz: 4 years, 33 M
Jon Lieber: 3 years, 21 M
Kris Benson: 3 years, 22.5 M w/ option
Matt Morris: 3 years, 27 M w/ option
Jaret Wright: 3 years, 21 M w/ voidable 3rd year
David Wells: 2 years, ~8M?
Paul Byrd: 2 years, 14.25M w/ option

No one else that I found even got $10M a year, much less for 4 years!

[Frayed Knot]

No, but he was also considered the best of that bunch and had numerous suitors prepared to offer him at least close to what he finally got.

- Clement & Ortiz from that list turned out almost as awful
- Benson, Wright, & Wells were better but still not worth their contracts

[Willets Point]

]FA Pitchers signed between the end of 04 and the beginning of 05 that I could find easily: Pavano: 4 years, 40 M w/ option Matt Clement: 3 years, 25.5 M Radke: 2 years, 18 M K. Escobar: 3 years, 18.75 M Russ Ortiz: 4 years, 33 M Jon Lieber: 3 years, 21 M Kris Benson: 3 years, 22.5 M w/ option Matt Morris: 3 years, 27 M w/ option Jaret Wright: 3 years, 21 M w/ voidable 3rd year David Wells: 2 years, ~8M? Paul Byrd: 2 years, 14.25M w/ option

And that's the way they became the Benson Bunch.

[Willets Point]

Yankeeography: Carl Pavano.