http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives...-draft-don.htmlBelow are the top 40 starters in baseball, by ERA, the second "column" indicates how they were acquired by their current club, and finally their 2008 salary.
Cliff Lee (2.43) Minor League Trade $4mm
Justin Duchscherer (2.54) Minor League Trade $1.2mm
Tim Lincecum (2.60) Draft $390K
Jake Peavy (2.61) Draft $6.5mm
Roy Halladay (2.64) Draft $10mm
Edinson Volquez (2.73) Rookie Trade $390K
Johan Santana (2.75) Pre-Free Agency Trade $17mm
Brandon Webb (2.85) Draft $5.5mm
Ryan Dempster (2.92) Free Agent $6mm
Dan Haren (2.96) Pre-Free Agency Trade $4mm
CC Sabathia (2.99) Pre-Free Agency Trade $11mm
Chad Billingsley (3.10) Draft $390K
John Danks (3.11) Minor League Trade $390K
Joe Saunders (3.14) Draft $390K
Jair Jurrjens (3.15) Minor League Trade $390K
Jeremy Guthrie (3.15) Waiver Claim $700K
Ben Sheets (3.16) Draft $12mm
Armando Galarraga(3.17) Minor League Trade $390K
Jon Lester (3.17) Draft $390K
Tim Hudson (3.17) Pre-Free Agency Trade $15mm
Cole Hamels (3.22) Draft $500K
Felix Hernandez (3.23) Int'l Amateur $500K
Mike Mussina (3.35) Free Agent $11mm
Shaun Marcum (3.36) Draft $390K
Carlos Zambrano (3.38) Int'l Amateur $15mm
Ervin Santana (3.39) Int'l Amateur $400K
Matt Cain (3.57) Draft $400K
Matt Garza (3.63) Minor League Trade $390K
Jamie Moyer (3.64) Free Agent $6mm
Paul Maholm (3.64) Draft $400K
Ricky Nolasco (3.67) Draft $390K
Tim Wakefield (3.67) Free Agent $4mm
Jamie Shields (3.68) Draft $400K
Nick Blackburn (3.71) Draft $390K
Gavin Floyd (3.75) Minor League Trade $390K
Todd Wellemeyer (3.79) Waiver Claim $1mm
John Lannan (3.81) Draft $390K
John Maine (3.82) Minor League Trade $450K
Aaron Cook (3.86) Draft $5mm
Mike Pelfrey (3.91) Draft $390K
DRAFTED / Int'l Amateur: 21
FREE AGENT SIGNING: 4
Minor League/ Rookie Trade: 9
Pre-Free Agency Trade: 4
Waiver Claim: 2
So four out of the top 40 starting pitchers by ERA were acquired via free agency. Now let's take a gander at how the top 10 rotations by ERA were built, compared to how your Rangers built their opening day rotation.
Now let's move on to look at the clubs with the ten best team ERA's by starters this year.
Cubs (Zambrano, Dempster, Lilly, Harden, Marquis) -- 3 free agents ($21mm)
Mets (Santana, Maine, Martinez, Perez, Pelfrey) -- 1 free agent ($8mm)
D-Backs (Webb, Haren, Johnson, Davis, Petit) -- 2 free agents ($23mm)
Rays (Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Sonnanstine, Jackson) -- 0 free agents ($0)
Brewers (Sabathia, Sheets, Suppan, Parra, Bush) -- 1 free agent ($7mm)
Blue Jays (Halladay, Burnett, Marcum, Purcey, Litsch) -- 1 free agent ($11mm)
Athletics (Duchscherer, Gallagher, Braden, Smith, Eveland) -- 0 free agents ($0)
Angels (Lackey, Santana, Saunders, Weaver, Garland) -- 0 free agents ($0)
Red Sox (Beckett, Matsuzaka, Lester, Byrd, Buchholz) -- 1 free agent ($8)
Dodgers (Billingsley, Lowe, Kershaw, Kuroda, Stults) -- 1 free agent ($8mm)
... and then there's the opening day rotation of the Rangers, who supposedly don't spend any money on pitching.
Rangers (Millwood, Padilla, Jennings, Gabbard, Mendoza) -- 3 free agents ($27mm)
So the Rangers spent more money on free agent starters than any of the top-10 rotations in baseball, and where did it get them? Three of the top 10 (including, very notably, the Angels) didn't spend a single dime on free agent pitching.
By the way, you want to see what a rotation made up of the five most expensive free-agent starter signings over the past two years looks like?
1) Barry Zito (7-15; 5.43 ERA) (7 years / $126mm)
2) Jason Schmidt (disabled list all year) (3 years / $47mm)
3) Gil Meche (10-9; 4.13) (5 years / $55mm)
4) Carlos Silva (4-14; 6.36) (4 years / $48mm)
5) Jeff Suppan (8-7; 4.62) (4 years / $42mm)
How about trades? Let's take a look at each of those 13 trades to see whether the clubs who traded prospects for veteran pitchers are happy with their decisions.
1) The Indians traded veteran ace Bartolo Colon to Montreal for minor leaguers Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and Brandon Phillips. A crippling disaster for the Expos / Nationals buying the veteran.
2) The A's traded veteran reliever Luis Vizcaino to Texas for minor league pitcher Justin Duchscherer. A disaster for the Rangers buying the veteran.
3) The Reds traded rookie OF Josh Hamilton to Texas for rookie pitcher Edinson Volquez. A push.
4) The Mets traded minor league pitchers Deolis Guerra, Phil Humber, and Kevin Mulvey and outfielder Carlos Gomez to the Twins for veteran pitcher Johan Santana. Too early to tell. Guerra, Humber and Mulvey are all strong prospects and Gomez is the Twins' starting center fielder at age 22.
5) The Diamondbacks traded minor leauge lefties Brett Anderson, Dana Eveland and Greg Smith; minor league infielder Chris Carter; and minor league outfielders Aaron Cunningham and Carlos Gonzalez to Oakland for high-quality young major league starter Dan Haren. Too early to say for sure, but the A's seem to have done very very well here, getting two quality big league starters and young outfielder with All-Star potential in Gonzalez.
6) The Brewers traded minor league slugger Matt LaPorta to the Indians for veteran ace C.C. Sabathia. Win-Win
7) The White Sox traded young major leaguer Brandon McCarthy to Texas for minor leaguer John Danks. Obviously, looks horrible for the Rangers buying the more veteran guy.
8) The Braves traded what was left of veteran shortstop Edgar Renteria to Detroit for minor leaguers Gorkys Hernandez and minor league pitcher Jair Jurrjens. Clear loss for the Tigers buying the veteran.
9) The Tigers traded Mr. Anonymous Organizational Filler Material minor league outfielder to Texas for Armando Galarraga. This basically amounts to a waiver claim.
10) The Braves traded LHP Dan Meyer, RHP Juan Cruz and Charles Thompson (?) to the A's for Tim Hudson. A massive win for the Braves buying the veteran.
11) The Rays traded OF Delmon Young to the Twins for Matt Garza. Sort of Hammy-for-Volquez lite. The Rays certainly look like they got the upper hand so far, but this could easily turn out to be a win-win wash.
12) The White Sox traded veteran starter Freddy Garcia to Philadelphia for minor league pitcher Gavin Floyd. A massive loss for the Phillies buying the veteran.
13) The Mets traded veteran starter Kris Benson to the Orioles for minor leaguer John Maine. Another huge loss for the Orioles buying the veteran.
In most of those deals, you had a club trading a young starter (and usually much more) for a veteran player. With the exception of the Hudson deal, the club buying the veteran for the minor league pitcher has come out on the losing end of the deal.
Three of these deals -- the Santana, Haren and Sabathis deals -- have a chance to give their current clubs a World Series this year, but at what appears to be enormous cost. Those are the kinds of deals that make sense for a club with a legitimate shot at winning right now, damn the future.
Six of these deals gave the team selling a veteran player a young pitcher who currently ranks among the top 40 in ERA. And what did they get for those stud kids (Lee, Jurrjens, Maine, Floyd, Danks and Duchscherer)? Bartolo Colon (no playoffs for Montreal that year), Edgar Renteria (no playoffs for Detroit this year), Kris Benson (no playoffs for the Orioles that year), Freddy Garcia (Philly made the playoffs last year, but Garcia won just one game all year), Brandon McCarthy (ahem..) and Luis Vizcaino (traded four days later for a vortex of suck named Jesus Pena).
Yes, yes. Not every trade for a veteran goes badly. Not every free agent pitching signing turns out horribly. But a lot of them do.
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This was a really good read.