Miguel Tejada just signed a 1 year deal to play 3B for the Orioles – not sure for how much. He hasn’t played third before, but he should be able to be a better fielder there than he was at short.
Baltimore made out great on their deal with the Astros 2 years ago – they saved 28 million dollars on Tejada’s salary and paid out approximately 2.8 mill of that to Luke Scott, who alone, had more RCAA and win shares than Tejada over the past 2 years – as well as Matt Albers, Troy Patton (who has been injured) and Dennis Sarfate (who was not exactly successful as a starter.)
Actually, I’ve been meaning to check out the totals of that particular (STUPID) trade, so here goes (note – I don’t get Bill James, so I can’t get Win Shares any more, because THT no longer carries stats and you have to go to Fangraphs, which doeasn’t have WS.)
Miguel Tejada: OPS+ of 92 and 109 over 666, 673 PA: averaged 86 runs, 28 doubles, 2 triples, 15 HR, 21 BB, 60 K, 31 GIDP (actually 32 – all time NL record, and 29, 2009 NL record), 76 RBI: .298/.326/.435/.761 – averaged 74 wRuns Created and averaged (-) 8.2 and 8.7 RCAA each year. Salary for 2 years was 28 mill.
Luke Scott: OPS+ of 111 and 115 over 506, 536 PA: averaged 64 runs, 26 doubles, 2 triples, 24 HR, 54 BB, 103 K, 5-6 GIDP, 72 RBI: .257/.338/.480/.818 – he averaged 71 runs created/year (fangraphs.com) and was 6.5 and 11.0 Runs Created Above Average. Salary for 2 years + 2.83 mill
Matt Albers: 49 IP in 2008 – 3 (lousy) GS: 38 IP in relief with a 2.28 ERA, overall 127 ERA+ and 1.33 WHIP. In 09, 67 IP over 56 games with a 5.51 ERA, overall 89 ERA+ and a 1.73 WHIP – probably because the BABIP went from .258 to .355, even though he increased K/9 and decreased HR/9. Salary over 2 years – 1.09 mill
Dennis Sarfate: 79.2 IP (4 GS – 15.2 HORRIBLE innings, and 53 G in relief) in 2008: as reliever, 65.2 IP, 3.38 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, .195 BAA; overall ERA+ of 94. In 09, he was hurt a great deal, pitched only 23 innings, had a 5.09 ERA in 20 games over 23 IP with a 1.52 WHIP. Total salary 0.8 mill over 2 years.
Troy Patton: missed all of 2008 after shoulder surgery (thank you Cecil Cooper); 2009, threw 63 innings of 1.99 ERA/1.09 WHIP ball at AA, then 44.2 innings of 6.45 ERA/1.70 WHIP ball at AAA. Who knows what will happen next year. Salary for 2 years – 0.643 mill.
Mike Costanzo: minor league 3B who had a .728 OPS at AAA in 08, was demoted to AA in 09 and had a .606 OPS. No great loss. Minor league salary – he’s not on the 40 man = pennies.
Salary for Tejada – 28 mill: Salary for the 5 guys combined – 5.363 mill.
Just THINK what Drayton could have bought for 23 mill – like, say, pitching which was better than Russ Ortiz/ Mike Hampton. Or even a manager/pitching coach worth more than a coupld bucks. Or even gotten a couple of great draft picks who he would have to overpay.
sigh
Tags: Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, MLB, Orioles
Where did you hear we get a sandwich pick? I was under the impression we would get nada since we didn’t offer him arbitration.
The price and duration of this contract makes panic signing Pedro Feliz look pretty bad.
you are right – sorry
the astros, unfortunately, were correct not to offer him arb because his 2009 salary was 14 mill and the probability of him accepting arb was extremely high and he is not worth near that much.
and even if he had signed some expensive multi year contract with someone else, i am STILL not happy with signing pedro feliz. i’ve had enough of washed up ex-phillies and crappy old veterans
The Astros were correct to not offer him arbitration but totally screwed up on not trading him when they could have. They were under the delusion they were in the running up through August when they were NEVER in the running. I don’t care where they were in the standings…we all know how bad they were this year. They weren’t competing for anything. Even if they managed to trade him for some middle of the road young players, it’d still be better than what they were left with. Which is nothing.
Well, not exactly nothing. They do have a $23 million hole in their pocket. We still have to see how Ben Zobrist and Mitch Talbot work out. Because that could easily replace this as the worst trade in Astros history. But, for now, this is the WORST trade in Astros history. Even worse than that third-worst trade, Buchholz and Taveras for Jensen. This team is just pathetic.
oh austin,
this trade is INCREDIBLY worse than the jennings trade.
nobody except for drayton thought that the 09 team was competitive, and i believe he was fronting if he actually stated that he thought the team could compete for the playoffs at all. it’s my opinion that drayton cared first and foremost about the gate and thought that fewer fans would show if he traded tejada (admitting the suckulesence of the team). it is why he refused to play young players in september, after all.
if benny zobrist has another good year, that will be the SECOND worst trade evah.
almost every bad trade i can think of in the past 20 years has come AFTER drayton threw gerry out on his ass for daring to suggest that baggy/biggio worship would destroy the team’s ability to compete (and perhaps telling drayton that if he thought that beltran would agree to sign here if any other team wanted him, he was delusional…)
to put it mildly, drayton is a lousy GM
A lousy GM, I would agree, but he’s still the best owner the franchise has ever had. If for no other reason, that the team is now respected.