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The $50 million dollar man

By Adam J. Morris

Flash back to Jim Reeves' assessment of the first series of the season:

Tom Hicks flew in here from Liverpool, England, on Monday, presumably with the $10 million he saved by not re-signing Gary Matthews Jr. this past off-season jingling around in his pocket with a few extra British pounds in his loose change.
What the Angels got for their $10 million was Matthews' usual spectacular defense in center field and a three-game sweep of the Rangers to open the season.

I'll let you figure out who got the best end of the deal.

* * *

Suddenly, the $50 million the Angels will pay Matthews over the next five years doesn't seem quite so extravagant.

GMJ's lines the past four years:

2004 -- .275/.350/.461, 101 OPS+
2005 -- .255/.320/.436, 96 OPS+
2006 -- .313/.371/.495, 119 OPS+
2007 -- .259/.322/.430, 101 OPS+

So...GMJ has gone back to hitting about as well as he did before his fluky 2006 season.

And that "spectacular defense" has GMJ ranked dead last (by quite a bit) in the A.L. in ZR and in RZR.

So, yeah, that $50 million still seems pretty extravagant. For all the whining that ensued when GMJ left, at this point, it looks like it was the right decision to let him go...