Beware of The $100 Million Pitcher, Causes "Teams to Flirt With Doom"

Daily News writer Anthony McCarron had an article in today’s paper that is getting a lot of attention about the drawbacks of signing a pitcher to a big contract.

“Long-term contracts for pitchers are generally considered risky by baseball executives, but when deals reach the $100 million mark, teams flirt with doom. In the brief history of $100 million contracts for pitchers—there have been only four, including Kevin Brown who signed a seven-year, $105 million deal with the Dodgers before the 1999 season—every pitcher except Johan Santana last season has been plagued by injuries, ineffectiveness or both,” wrote McCarron.

All of that is true, but aside from the large contracts there are big differences between these pitchers and CC Sabathia.

First there was Kevin Brown. Brown was a highly talented pitcher who was fresh off of taking his Padres to the World Series in 1998. Then at the age of 34 he signed with the Dodgers for seven years and $105 million. He had two good years and then went in the tank.

This was a stupid deal the Dodgers made, I mean who in their right mind would give a pitcher that old that much money over seven years? Sabathia is on the right side of 30 and on top of that is left handed.

Then there was Mike Hampton, who was a decent pitcher but probably a bit overrated. It was also Colorado who offered up the contract and it probably took all of that $121 million to persuade him to pitch in that homerun haven. He was left handed, but certainly not at the level of Sabathia.

Barry Zito was the third pitcher to get such a big contract. Zito is left handed, at the time he was in his 20s, and he was a Cy Young winner. All the things you would want in a $100 million pitcher. The biggest problem with Zito is that he made his reputation five years before he signed the deal. During the final four years in Oakland he had an ordinary 55-46 record and the velocity on his fastball was dropping fast. There should have been more question marks surrounding him, but the Giants were desperate to make an impact move as they were getting ready to lose Barry Bonds. In the end they paid the price.

The last of the $100 million pitchers is Johan Santana who fits the model of the young, left handed, Cy Young award winning pitcher. Santana is probably the pitcher here who most resembles Sabathia, and he is the only pitcher on this list who hasn’t been a bust. There is still time for the Mets to regret the deal, but so far things look good for the Metropolitans.

The point of this post is simply to give some context to these contracts. Nobody should throw $100 million around like it ain’t no thang, but when the right pitcher comes around you do what you have to do.