[閒聊] The 25 Worst Free Agent Signings of the Last 25 Years
MLB Free Agency: The 25 Worst Free Agent Signings of the Last 25 Year:
(原文說明在此排行榜下方)
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01. Barry Zito 7 Years $126 Million
02. Andruw Jones: 2 Years $36.2 Million
03. Roger Clemens 1 Year $28 Million
04. Jason Schmidt 3 Years $47 Million
05. Bobby Bonilla 1 Year $30 Million
06. Chan Ho Park 5 Years $65 Million
07. Darren Dreifort 5 Years $55 Million
08. Denny Neagle 5 Years $51 Million
09. Albert Belle 5 Years $65 Million
10. Ken Griffey Jr 9 Years $116.5 Million
11. Manny Ramirez 2 Years $45 Million
12. Gary Matthews Jr 5 Years $50 Million
13. Richie Sexson 4 Years $50 Million
14. Aaron Rowand 5 Years $60 Million
15. Mike Hampton 8 Years $121 Million
16. Kevin Millwood 5 Years $60 Million
17. Carl Pavano 4 Years $40 Million
18. Roger Clemens 1 Year $22 Million
19. Juan Pierre 5 Years $44 Million
20. Vince Coleman 4 Years $11 Million
21. Aramis Ramirez 5 Years $75 Million
22. Julio Lugo 4 Years $36 Million
23. Carlos Beltran 7 Years $119 Million
24. Alfonso Soriano 8 Years $136 Million
25. Juan Gonzalez 2 Years $24 Million
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MLB Free Agency: The 25 Worst Free Agent Signings of the Last 25 Years
By Ryan Rudnansky (Featured Columnist) on November 15, 2010
Boy, what a task this was! There have been so many dollars and little sense
thrown around in baseball in the last 25 years, it was difficult to narrow it
all down to just 25!
But after numerous hours of research and head-scratching, I present to you
all the 25 Worst Free Agent Signings in the Last 25 Years.
Disclaimer: This list is based on a combination of money spent for the
player, the production that ensued (or didn't), and whether the entire
contract was picked up by the team (some players that were traded had their
contracts forwarded to another team, thus taking a little sting out of the
burden the original team had to carry).
In short, how much the player hurt the organization was the main determinant.
You may realize Alex Rodriguez and Kevin Brown aren't on this list, despite
their giant contracts. This is because they were largely dominant during the
extent of their contracts (Brown had some injury problems, but in four of the
five years he was with LA he had a 3.00 ERA or lower-his last two years were
picked up by the Yankees when he was traded).
25. Juan Gonzalez: 2 Years, $24 Million
When Juan Gonzalez signed his two-year, $24 million contract with the Texas
Rangers before the 2002 season, the Rangers were hoping he would be the same
player he was when he earned the nickname "Juan Gone" when he first started
in the big leagues with the team.
But Juan Gone was older and more frail, and he played in a combined 152 games
in the two seasons with the team, including hitting only eight home runs in
the first year.
By the end of it all, the Rangers were hoping Juan would simply be gone.
24. Alfonso Soriano: 8 Years, $136 Million
Alfonso Soriano just finished his fourth year of his $136-million contract.
Despite two solid years to start off in 2007 and 2008, Soriano clearly isn't
the same player as he once was.
This year Soriano batted .258. Last season he batted .241. He no longer hits
the 30-plus home runs he used to, and he's lost the speed that once made him
a greater threat.
The Cubs finished fifth in the NL Central this year, and it's not getting any
better.
Plus, no one's going to want to trade for a 34-year-old aging outfielder.
Soriano still has four years left and about $76 million left on his contract.
23. Carlos Beltran: 7 Years, $119 Million
Carlos Beltran started off this whopper of a contract hitting .266 with 16
home runs in his first year. He had three solid seasons after, but the last
two years have been far from solid.
He followed his 81-game, 10 home run campaign in 2009 with a 64-game, seven
home run season this year in which he hit .255. Like Soriano, his speed has
rapidly diminished.
The Mets have placed fourth in the NL East the last two years.
22. Julio Lugo: 4 Years, $36 Million
Granted, in Julio Lugo's first season with the Red Sox under the contract,
the Red Sox won the World Series.
But it wasn't because of Lugo. Lugo was originally expected to be Boston's
leadoff hitter when he signed this contract. Instead, midway through the
season, he was dropped to the bottom of the order. He batted .237 with eight
home runs and a .294 OBP for the Red Sox.
The second year he hit .268 and committed 16 errors in just 82 games before
he fell to injury. The third year he hit .284 before being traded at the
deadline to the St. Louis Cardinals. The next year the Cardinals sent him to
Baltimore, where he belonged.
21. Aramis Ramirez: 5 Years, $75 Million
Hmm...another failed contract from the Cubs...I wonder why they lose so much.
Aramis Ramirez started his contract off on a good note in 2007 and 2008. His
next two years...not so much.
Ramirez played in just 82 games in 2009. In 2010, he hit .241.
Well, at least he has another year to make it up...for $15 million.
20. Vince Coleman: 4 Years, $11 Million
Getting almost $3 million a season back in 1991 wasn't too bad. But Vince
Coleman wouldn't even be worth that today, or the league minimum, the way he
played-or didn't- from 1991 to 1994.
Despite never hitting higher than .279, having absolutely no power, and
playing in about 70 games in each of his first two seasons, those weren't
even the worst parts of Coleman's tenure with the New York Mets.
In a 1993 season Mets fans will probably never forget, Coleman was the
epitome of a walking disaster. First, he injured star pitcher Dwight Gooden's
throwing arm by recklessly swinging a golf club in the team clubhouse.
Just three months later, Coleman thought it a good idea to throw a lit
firecracker into a crowd of fans waiting for an autograph in an LA Dodgers
parking lot. He injured three children, including a 2-year-old, and was
suspended for the rest of the season.
Coleman was traded-with cash- to Kansas City the following year.
19. Juan Pierre: 5 Years, $44 Million
I've always liked this scrappy little dude, but for a guy with virtually no
power, five years and $44 million is a lot to take in all at once for me.
Dodgers manager Joe Torre must have agreed, because he made Pierre a bench
player and proceeded to go after Andruw Jones (more on him later) and Manny
Ramirez (more on him later) before he would ever make Pierre his Bona fide
starter.
Pierre was traded to the Chicago White Sox before the 2010 season for two
minor leaguers.
18. Roger Clemens: 1 Year, $22 Million
Sure, the contract in 2006 with the Houston Astros was prorated, so Clemens
only got $12.5 million, but the fact is he pitched for half a season-starting
in June- and only had 19 starts. Nineteen starts for $12.5 million? That's
just bonkers.
Clemens did come out with a 2.30 ERA, but he averaged under six innings per
game, and he never pitched into the eighth.
His ERA didn't seem to matter, either, as he garnered only seven wins, and
the Astros didn't make the playoffs, 1.5 games behind the NL Central-leading
St. Louis Cardinals.
17. Carl Pavano: 4 Years, $40 Million
Whenever the Yankees spend a lot of money on a player that fails miserably, I
just start cackling and grinning like a ghost. Usually when someone's around
me when I do this, they look at me with a scared expression on their face and
start backing away slowly.
But this was exactly my reaction when the whole Carl Pavano experiment went
awry for the Yankees back in 2005. Coming off an 18-win season with Florida,
the Yankees believed Pavano would be one of their aces on the back of a
four-year, $40 million contract.
Wrong. Pavano had only 17 starts for the Yankees in 2005 due to shoulder
injury, and got blasted with a 4.77 ERA and a 4-6 record.
The injury ended up costing him the entire 2006 season, and he had only nine
starts in his final two years of the contract.
Talk about your all-time backfires.
16. Kevin Millwood: 5 Years, $60 Million
When the Texas Rangers signed Kevin Millwood to be their ace back in 2006,
they were a desperate bunch. They had no pitching and their offense had to
score basically 10 runs a game to win.
Despite pitching to a 4.52 ERA his first season under the contract, the
Rangers were happy with that, evidenced by his 16 wins. His next two seasons
the Rangers weren't happy with: a 5.16 ERA and a 5.07 ERA.
Millwood was traded the following year, in 2009, to Baltimore—where he
belonged.
15. Mike Hampton: 8 Years, $121 Million
When Mike Hampton signed his eight-year, $121 million contract with the
Colorado Rockies in 2001, it was the largest contract in sports history at
the time. The fact that the Rockies had to pay for only two years of it is
his only saving grace.
In Hampton's first year, he had a 5.41 ERA. In his second, he had a 6.15 ERA.
He was traded to the Marlins, and then to the Braves after the 2002 season,
and his contract was inexplicably picked up off the hands of Colorado.
For the lack of a better word, "Why?"
14. Aaron Rowand: 5 Years, $60 Million
It would be easy to look at Aaron Rowand's 2007 season with Philadelphia-in
which he hit .309 with 27 home runs- and deem him fit for a big free agent
contract.
Those who knew him better, however, saw that Rowand had hit more than 20
homers only twice in his career, including 2007, and wasn't the power bat the
San Francisco Giants needed. Not only that, he was getting older, his best
years were probably behind him, and he would start losing speed in center
field as well.
Unfortunately for Giants fans, GM Brian Sabean apparently didn't see any of
this, inking Rowand to a five-year, $60 million contract and penciling Rowand
in as his starting center fielder.
In the first year of the contract, Rowand hit .271 with 13 home runs. In his
next season, his average dipped to .261.
It wasn't until 2010, when Rowand was hitting in the low .200s, that manager
Bruce Bochy decided to pull the plug. He installed a 32-year-old center
fielder named Andres Torres who hadn't had a full season in the Bigs yet for
the former All-Star- the rest is history. It's safe to say Rowand will be
relegated to the bench the last two years of his contract or be traded.
13. Richie Sexson: 4 Years, $50 Million
Richie Sexson had some monster years in the Majors, with two seasons of 45
homers and 120-plus RBI.
The problem is, after two big seasons under the lucrative contract with the
Seattle Mariners, Richie Sexson all of a sudden was done.
His next two seasons he hit .205 and .218 respectively. By the trade deadline
in 2008, the Mariners had lost all hope and released him with still a year
left on his contract. The Yankees signed him for 28 at-bats, released him and
we never heard from Richie Sexson again.
12. Gary Matthews Jr: 5 Years, $50 Million
When searching for their next center fielder for the 2007 season, the Los
Angeles Angels didn't look at Gary Matthews Jr.'s career record of hitting in
the .250s or the fact that he wasn't a true power hitter or the fact that he
was getting older.
They looked at one thing and one thing only: his career year in 2006 with
Texas, hitting .316 with 19 bombs.
For being stupid enough to believe Gary Matthews would live up to this
contract, the Angels organization deserved what came next.
For the first three years, Matthews hit in the .250s (shocking!) and hit
eight and four home runs in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
Despite Matthews being traded to the Mets after the 2009 season with two
years left on his contract, the Angels had to pay all but $2 million of his
entire contract. Ouch.
11. Manny Ramirez: 2 Years, $45 Million
Manny Ramirez was signed to a two-year, $45 million contract by the Dodgers
after being picked up in 2008 from the Boston Red Sox.
In his first season with the Dodgers, Manny Ramirez didn't even play the
first 50 games. Why? Because he was suspended by Major League Baseball for
testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Talk about making an
entrance.
But when he came back from suspension, Ramirez led the Dodgers to the NL West
title. Despite playing only 66 games for the Dodgers the next year, what
Ramirez did in 2009 cannot be ignored, as he batted .290 with 19 home runs in
just 352 at-bats.
I feel like in every scenario Manny Ramirez gets off the hook because of his
raw talent. Sure enough, he escaped my Top 10 because of what he did in 2009.
But at $22.5 million a year, having a lost season in 2010 puts him at No. 11.
10. Ken Griffey Jr: 9 Years, $116.5 Million
As much as I loved Ken Griffey Jr. as a player, and admired the fact that he
was never discussed in steroids talks, his contract with Cincinnati in 2000
was doomed from the start and was for many a sad thing to see unravel. His
time in Cincinnati was essentially his fall from superstar status.
He did have four strong seasons under the contract (2001, 2005, 2006 and
2007), but the other five were mediocre at best.
After a big season in his first year, Griffey began to have injury problems
after that. In his next three seasons, he never played more than 83 games in
a season.
His last season in 2008 before he was traded to the Chicago White Sox at the
deadline was hard to watch, as Griffey-clearly on his last legs- batted .245
in 102 games. He was blasted in media outlets and hometown newspapers for his
apparent lack of effort on the field, probably best demonstrated by CBS
Sports' Gregg Doyel comparison of the 2010 team to the team Griffey was a
part of:
"It's a different Reds team than the older, beer-bellied softball teams of
recent years. Those Reds were Ken Griffey and Adam Dunn lounging on the
clubhouse's leather couches, hitting home runs, misplaying balls in the
outfield and thinking they had it all figured out, when all they knew how to
do was lose."
In all nine seasons Griffey was with the Reds, they never once made the
playoffs.
9. Albert Belle: 5 Years, $65 Million
Before the 1999 season, slugger Albert Belle signed a five-year, $65 million
contract with the Baltimore Orioles, becoming baseball's highest paid player
at the time. Two years later, he retired at age 34 as a result of
degenerative osteoarthritis in his hip. Baltimore had to make a spot for him
on the 40-man roster for the next three years in order to keep most of what
Belle would have made.
Sportswriters didn't do him any favors upon his exit.
"Sorry, there'll be no words of sympathy here for Albert Belle," wrote the
New York Daily News' Bill Madden in 2001. "He was a surly jerk before he got
hurt and now he's a hurt surly jerk....He was no credit to the game. Belle's
boorish behavior should be remembered by every member of the Baseball
Writers' Association when it comes time to consider him for the Hall of Fame."
When you're not appreciated in talent-deprived Baltimore, you know you've
done something wrong.
8. Denny Neagle: 5 Years, $51 Million
Denny Neagle's years with Colorado from 2001 on made you wonder what were the
Rockies thinking signing this guy and was that extra $1 million really
necessary?
In 2001 and 2002, Neagle had an ERA over 5.00. In 2003, he started only seven
games due to injury (with a 7.90 ERA), and he missed the entire 2004 season
due to ligament and elbow surgeries.
Neagle's contract with Colorado came to a dramatic close in late 2004 when a
Denver policeman ticketed him for soliciting a woman for oral sex. The
Rockies canceled the final year of his contract citing a morals clause.
The Rockies finished fourth or worst in the NL West all four years he was
with the team.
7. Darren Dreifort: 5 Years, $55 Million
Despite never having an ERA under 4.00 as a starter, the Los Angeles Dodgers
found it wise before the 2001 season to offer Darren Dreifort a five-year,
$55 million contract.
Just 16 starts into his shiny new contract, Dreifort had to be shut down for
the season and have elbow reconstruction surgery. It wasn't like he was
pitching that well either, with a 5.13 ERA. The surgery kept him out until
the 2003 season.
After 10 starts in 2003, Dreifort's arm complications arose, and he was shut
down again. He had a 4.03 ERA at the time.
Dreifort was made a reliever in 2004. That didn't help him either, posting a
4.44 ERA in 60 games.
In 2005, Dreifort was shut down for good.
Dreifort only pitched for three of the five seasons of the contract. He
retired after it.
6. Chan Ho Park: 5 Years, $65 Million
The Texas Rangers weren't necessarily wrong to ink Chan Ho Park to a
long-term deal in 2002 given their history of bad starting pitching and the
fact that Park had two solid seasons pitching prior to the contract.
But what followed was an absolute nightmare.
In his 3-and-one-half seasons with Texas, Park's best ERA was 5.46. And in
2003, in which he had only seven starts due to injury, he gave up 25 earned
runs in nearly 30 innings pitched.
He was traded to San Diego in 2005, thus ending the Chan Ho Park experiment.
His contract with Texas was one of the biggest ever given to a pitcher at the
time.
5. Bobby Bonilla: 1 Year, $30 Million
You may think of Bobby Bonilla's five-year, $29 million contract with the
Mets as a horrible contract, which it was. He hit .249 in the first year of
it and helped inspire sportswriter Bob Klapisch's book, The Worst Team Money
Could Buy: The Collapse of the 1992 New York Mets.
But you ain't seen nothin' yet.
In 2000, the New York Mets agreed to buy out the final year of Bonilla's $5.9
million contract. What they did next will go down in history.
The Mets, in efforts to save money for the time being and bring in new
talent, agreed to pay Bonilla in 11 years time: with interest, of course.
Well, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, that time has almost come. The
total damage? $30 million. The Mets will have to pay Bonilla $1.2 million a
year for the next 25 years.
Good luck getting fresh talent now, New York.
4. Jason Schmidt: 3 Years, $47 Million
After being a workhorse for the San Francisco Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates
throughout his career, Jason Schmidt was rewarded by the Los Angeles Dodgers
after the 2006 season, with a three-year, $47 million contract despite
getting older.
Bad idea. This is how his career with LA went:
2007. Three starts. Trip to DL. Three more starts. Trip to DL, out for 2007
and 2008 season.
2009. Began season on the DL. First start: June 20. August 7: placed on DL.
Shortly after: retirement.
Jason Schmidt only had 10 starts in his entire three years with the Dodgers.
That's $4.7 million a start.
3. Roger Clemens: 1 Year, $28 Million
Roger Clemens' pro-rated contract with the New York Yankees in 2007 was
officially worth $18.7 million, as he started the season on June 9.
He made 17 starts, with a 4.18 ERA and only six wins.
In Game 3 of the ALDS, when the Yankees needed him most, Clemens lasted
2-and-one-third innings—giving up three runs- before reaggravating a
hamstring injury.
The Yankees eventually lost in the ALDS, four games to one, to the Cleveland
Indians. The CLEVELAND INDIANS.
2. Andruw Jones: 2 Years, $36.2 Million
Three months into his two-year, $36.2 million contract, Andruw Jones was
benched by manager Joe Torre to be a spot starter the rest of the way in
2008. He batted .158 in 75 games.
Before the 2009 season, he was outright released.
Need I say any more?
1. Barry Zito: 7 Years, $126 Million
The fact that the San Francisco Giants won the World Series in 2010 makes
this contract a little easier to bear for Giants fans. But not much easier,
given that Barry Zito wasn't even included on the Giants roster for the
entire postseason.
This contract was the greatest example in baseball history of what not to do
when it comes to signing a free agent.
The numbers stick out instantly, but what really made this a horrible signing
from day one in 2007 was it was done in complete desperation, with the
organization grasping for a star to lead the Giants to the postseason in what
turned out to be Barry Bonds' last season.
Barry Zito was a good pitcher who the Giants were hoping would be
miraculously spectacular once he donned the orange and black. He was neither
good nor spectacular...he was dreadful.
In Barry Zito's first four seasons with the Giants, he has never had an ERA
under 4.00. In 2008, he had an ERA of 5.15. His win-loss records the past
four seasons are as follows: 11-13, 10-17, 10-13 and, in 2010, 9-14.
What's more, it would be a shock if anybody took this contract off the
Giants' hands in the next three years—not when there's still $54 million
left on it.
Well, there you have it, the 25 Worst Free Agent Signings of the Last 25
Years. Let the controversy begin.
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