Weaver An Angel; Nats Screwed
Jeff Weaver has signed a one-year $8.4 million contract with the Angels.
It's of interest on several levels to Nats fans. First, Weaver has always been under the radar in terms of a Nats pickup, to fulfill Bowden's "pitching, pitching, pitching" mantra. Unfortunately, with the Soriano trade there just wasn't enough money for him.
Not to beat a thorougly dead horse, but if the Nats hadn't traded for Soriano and hadn't signed Ramon Ortiz, they'd have saved $8.6 million. Which would you rather have? Brad Wilkerson and Jeff Weaver or Alfonso Soriano and Ramon Ortiz?
While I'm much more open to the possibillity that Alf will be a decent player than some of the other Nats blogs, the trade wasn't made in a vacuum. And when we consider these sorts of details, you have to wonder what the thought process was in the Nationals 'think tank'. (Beyond: Strikeouts Bad! Fire Bad!)
The other major impact it has is that it makes one of our first-round picks go bye-bye. We were scheduled to receive the Angels first-round pick for their signing of Hector Carrasco. Because Jeff Weaver is ranked higher than Carrasco, the Dodgers get it instead. Additionally, because he's a Type-A, a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds magically appears out of thin air, pushing the Nats later picks further down.
C'est la vie!
Thanks to frequent commenter Sam for the heads-up!
It's of interest on several levels to Nats fans. First, Weaver has always been under the radar in terms of a Nats pickup, to fulfill Bowden's "pitching, pitching, pitching" mantra. Unfortunately, with the Soriano trade there just wasn't enough money for him.
Not to beat a thorougly dead horse, but if the Nats hadn't traded for Soriano and hadn't signed Ramon Ortiz, they'd have saved $8.6 million. Which would you rather have? Brad Wilkerson and Jeff Weaver or Alfonso Soriano and Ramon Ortiz?
While I'm much more open to the possibillity that Alf will be a decent player than some of the other Nats blogs, the trade wasn't made in a vacuum. And when we consider these sorts of details, you have to wonder what the thought process was in the Nationals 'think tank'. (Beyond: Strikeouts Bad! Fire Bad!)
The other major impact it has is that it makes one of our first-round picks go bye-bye. We were scheduled to receive the Angels first-round pick for their signing of Hector Carrasco. Because Jeff Weaver is ranked higher than Carrasco, the Dodgers get it instead. Additionally, because he's a Type-A, a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds magically appears out of thin air, pushing the Nats later picks further down.
C'est la vie!
Thanks to frequent commenter Sam for the heads-up!
posted by Chris Needham at
2:09 PM
3 Comments:
I highly doubt that Weaver would have taken $8.5M to play in DC. I strongly suspect that he took the Anaheim deal at a discount so that he could play with his brother close to their home in Northridge, CA. Figure closer to $9.5M would have been needed to get him here. $9.5M for what he brings to the table would have been overpaying him IMO.
By
JammingEcono, at 2/15/2006 3:08 PM
It's illustrative of an example though. Take out Weaver and insert Millwood. There WAS some money to play around with there, and most of it's going to Soriano.
Interestingly, there was some talk that Weaver didn't want to sign with the Angels because he felt he'd be blocking his brother's path to the majors.
By
Chris Needham, at 2/15/2006 3:10 PM
Well, they do in that if you have five competent ones who are performing decently (imagine that!), then there's probably no room to try a rookie, especially if you're in the middle of a pennant race.
As it is, this probably bumps Carrasco from the rotation to the pen.
By
Chris Needham, at 2/15/2006 3:53 PM
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