| Carl Setterlund. 27th December, 2005 - 4:17 am
 Recent word has come that the Texas Rangers have reached an agreement with free agent pitcher Kevin Millwood on a five year contract worth $60 million. Millwood of course led the AL with a 2.83 ERA pitching for the Cleveland Indians last year. Keep in mind that while Millwood did post an impressive ERA last year, he is in no way a dominant pitcher and virtually all of the baseball community admits that he is not a number one starter on a team with a decent (or better) pitching staff. Lastly, store in the back of your head that many predict Millwood will suffer from arm trouble within the next few years.
This move comes just days after trading bargain Chris Young to the Padres in a 6-player deal for Adam Eaton. Now, talent-wise this trade wasn’t so bad, but then you need to consider that Eaton is due to receive a new contract somewhere in the region of Jarrod Washburn’s four year, $37 million deal in the next year.
The Rangers’ financial decisions just don’t make much sense. It’s hard to believe that the people making these moves are professionals. You know who is a real, smart man when it comes to what he does? Scott Boras, who just got his client (Kevin Millwood) the richest deal of the offseason, matching the $60 million Paul Konerko received. Paul Konerko who is a 40 home run, 100 RBI player fresh off of winning a World Series. That’s the league of player Millwood is getting paid to perform like, except that (no offense to Kevin Millwood) he is not anywhere near the player Paul Konerko is.
Boras is the same agent who got Texas to agree to give mega bust Chan Ho Park a five year, $65 million deal in 2001. This is the same agent who got Alex Rodriguez a 10-year, $252 million contract from the Rangers that same year.
The Rangers and owner Tom Hicks don’t seem to understand the famous concept of not putting all your eggs in one basket, especially when three of those eggs are inconsistent and/or injury prone pitchers who you can’t completely depend on. When will they learn to spread the wealth? Obviously, they haven’t learned yet. |
