A couple of things to be thankful for today...
The Rangers didn't sign Ryan Franklin...he has signed a 1 year, $2.6 million deal with the Phillies.
Hmmm...a sub-mediocre flyball pitcher joining the rotation of a team with an extremely homer-friendly home park...that should work out well...
Perpetual purported potential Ranger pitcher Shawn Estes is a Padre, meaning we've ducked that bullet. Estes is a lousy pitcher, who the Rangers have supposedly flirted with time and again because he pitches a lot of innings and is a groundball pitcher. Of course, he also walks a ton of batters and doesn't strike many guys out, which is why he has been consistently crappy over the years...
Shawn Estes is also a perfect example of how, if you are lefty and have a good season early in your career, you can make a ton of money without actually being any good the rest of your career. Estes had a great year in 1997, posting an ERA+ of 130 and winning 19 games at age 24 for the Giants. Baseball reference's salary info says that Estes has made $21,335,500 in his career, with $20,975,000 of that coming after 1997.
And yet, since 1997, Estes has never had better than a 100 ERA+. He's only had an ERA+ better than 90 three times in that span, with a 4.98 ERA overall during that time period, despite pitching mostly in good pitchers parks.
But he continues to collect nice paychecks. He's made over $20 million since the beginning of the 1998 season for being a bad pitcher. And he apparently will get paid well again for the 2006 season.
Amazing...
Meanwhile, despite reports yesterday that Jose Lima had signed one year, $1.5 million deal with the Padres are not true...
I was surprised when I saw the news, since I think the Padres have a pretty astute front office, the Castilla/Lawrence trade not withstanding...so the fact that it is seems to a hoax supposedly generated by Jose Lima to try to increase interest in him from other teams is a bit reassuring...
But hey, it gives me an excuse to link the picture of Jose's wife again...it's Lima Time!!!
