I'd like to nominate Andruw Jones for one of the three outfield spots
18M contract 209 at bats, 3 HR .158 batting average.
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I'd like to nominate Andruw Jones for one of the three outfield spots
18M contract 209 at bats, 3 HR .158 batting average.
Mike Hampton's signing by Colorado...very bad fit in Coors...then became injured and injured and injured. He'll make a fine addition as a LHP.
The reason i wouldn't put this on the list is because it's short-term.Quote:
Originally Posted by nuzzy62
For a title like "worst free agent contract ever", I think it needs a combination of length AND cost AND lack of production and/or injury.
Mr. Barry Zito
Andruw still has next year to waste another $18M. It's certainly the worst $18M ever spent in one yearQuote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
I have to agree with Zito as they overbid themselves and offered that huge long term deal for someone many had pinned as way overrated well before the signing. At least everyone wanted Hampton.
Jason Schidmt's 3-yr 47M deal looks pretty bad so far too
For your consideration................................................................... ........Carl Pavano
I don't have the exact details on the contract, but I remember when Kansas City signed Mark Davis to a fat contract after his monster year with San Diego and he was a total bomb. I nominate him as the closer, or at worst the lefty reliever.
Darren Driefort has to be on this list.
Adam Eaton. 6.29 era in 2007, bad year in 2008, and a era above 7 in the minors!
That was horrible. And then was it Colorado or Florida that were paying part of his salary for the next few seasons (after the trade) when he was pitching for the Braves?Quote:
Originally Posted by cron007_m
Although I do think they got a better deal paying him to pitch elsewhere than pitching for the Rockies. :p
Darren Dreifort had the added benefit of getting Gary Sheffield pissed off. That signing was disaster for the DodgersQuote:
Originally Posted by YEAH DAAAAWG
The worst contract that could have been (or the best contract that never was?)...
When the Detroit Tigers offered Juan Gonzalez an eight-year, $140 million extension... he would have just been hitting free agency this fall. Passing that up was probably the dumbest move ever by a baseball player since he would only make $38,625,000 since then. (Although Matt Harrington's saga comes close.)
Both:Quote:
Originally Posted by BINGLEBOP
Colorado to pay $49M ($20M signing bonus, $8M in 2001, $8.5M in 2002, $2M in 2003, $2M in 2004, $2.5M in 2005, $6M buyout in 2009).'
Florida to pay $23.5M ($7M of 2003 salary, $8M in 2004, $8.5M in 2005).
Atlanta to pay $48.5M ($2M of 2003 salary, $2M in 2004, $1.5M in 2005, $13.5M in 2006, $14.5M in 2007, $15M in 2008).
Atlanta was on the hook for 2006-2008, but both Colorado and Florida were paying his salary for his first couple of years in Atlanta.
After a bit of research...
The deal Chan Ho Park got from the Rangers was awful. Tom Hicks is crazy.
Denny Neagle's deal with the Rockies around the same time they signed Hampton. He was never effective.
Albert Belle destroyed the Orioles after they signed him to that monster deal. They lost Palmeiro, Alomar, and Belle ended up physically unable to play baseball before the contract was up.
Carlos Silva!
The M's have to look forward to three more miserable years of the Bus
I second Silva. And most of Bill Bavasi's signings.
How did Florida get into the Hampton mix? He never played for them.
He was traded to them on November 16th 2002 and then was traded to the Braves 2 days later.
I'm going to be different and say Arod....when he's 40(!) he'll still have 61 million left on his contract.Quote:
Originally Posted by nuzzy62
Some NY pundit, btw, predicted the Yankees wouldn't be able to stand having him around for four more years at the latest and would have to eat most of his contract to get rid of him. I don't know about all that...but...
I don't think we can honestly evaluate any deals that are still early in their lifespan, as really anything could happen, and it's way too early to evaluate long-term deals that were just recently signed.
I will take this as the worst deal signed that I can remember (although the Renteria deal with the Sox was bad - especially when they traded him to the Braves picked up the cost & he played like as AS!)Quote:
Originally Posted by cron007_m
Mike Hampton had to be the worst. It was too much money, at a high altitude, and it was waaaaaay too longQuote:
Originally Posted by cron007_m
the BEST part of th whole thing... FLORIDA made out like bandits!!!... they traded I THINK 35-40 million in total contracts and got Hampton.Code:Transactions
June 4, 1990: Drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 6th round of the 1990 amateur draft. Player signed June 4, 1990.
December 10, 1993: Traded by the Seattle Mariners with Mike Felder to the Houston Astros for Eric Anthony.
December 23, 1999: Traded by the Houston Astros with Derek Bell to the New York Mets for Roger Cedeno, Octavio Dotel, and Kyle Kessel (minors).
November 4, 2000: Granted Free Agency.
December 12, 2000: Signed as a Free Agent with the Colorado Rockies.
November 16, 2002: Traded by the Colorado Rockies with Juan Pierre and cash to the Florida Marlins for Charles Johnson, Preston Wilson, Vic Darensbourg, and Pablo Ozuna.
November 18, 2002: Traded by the Florida Marlins with cash to the Atlanta Braves for Tim Spooneybarger and Ryan Baker (minors).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The transaction information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Last transaction is September 30, 2007.
Salaries Leaders
1993 Seattle Mariners $109,000
1994 Houston Astros $129,000
1995 Houston Astros $135,000
1996 Houston Astros $275,000
1997 Houston Astros $1,420,000
1998 Houston Astros $2,250,000
1999 Houston Astros $4,125,000
2000 New York Mets $5,750,000
2001 Colorado Rockies $10,500,000
2002 Colorado Rockies $9,503,543
2003 Atlanta Braves $13,625,000
2004 Atlanta Braves $14,625,000
2005 Atlanta Braves $15,125,000
2006 Atlanta Braves $14,503,543
2007 Atlanta Braves $14,500,000
Career (may be incomplete) $106,575,086
then flipped him 1 MONTH in the OfFSEASON to atlanta and got 2 prospects and only paid 23.5 Million PLUS never had to face him really in a division rival's uniform lol.
so... SOMEONE made out in the Hampton deal... t00 the tune of at least 15 million!!!
based on this.. it saved COLORADO 30 million and FLA 23 Million... and had he not been hurt... it would have ben an AWESOME deal for atlanta... what 4 year about 45-50 million for a former 20 game winner. its almost hard to say it was bad for anyone except ATLANTA... alto the $$4 Hampton was paid for his 6+ era was pretty bad lol.
I have a feeling that Andruw Jones will be reunited with Bobby Cox next year, with the Dodgers eating most of the $18M owed to him.
keep him
too much money- agreedQuote:
Originally Posted by RedsoxRockies
waaaaaay too long- agreeeeeed
high altitude- So, some players just aren't cut out to play in Denver because of the high altitude?
I don't understand why he's worst than Zito. At least Hampton was heavily pursued and would have gotten a similar deal elsewhere. Zito was bad BEFORE they signed him and they really did bid against themselves as nobody was going to give him anywhere close to the deal SF did.Quote:
Originally Posted by RedsoxRockies
What is worst...
- Paying a ton for a stock that everyone agrees is a great buy and having it tank
- Paying MORE than market value on a stock everyone is iffy on and having it tank
you cant compare... zito is 2 years into his deal he still has 5/7ths of the deal left.. if 2 years into the pavano deal he was hurt then the last 2 years he won 18-22 games each there would be no way you could say it. you have to wait AT LEAST until the endQuote:
Originally Posted by dickay
This is true, but dickay is right in that the Zito deal was horrible the moment it was signed. A lot of bad free agent contracts are only bad in hindsight. Jason Schmidt, for example. Getting a top-of-the-rotation pitcher for way less money AND length than other, WORSE pitchers were getting, was an absolute steal for the Dodgers. In retrospect, the deal looks horrible because Schmidt got injured, but at the time of the signing, the deal was really, really good.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheNamelessPoet
The worst signings are the ones that are bad from the get-go AND turn out bad.
I disagree.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheNamelessPoet
I almost posted a response to houstons quote earlier regarding something similar, but didn't want a controversy because I agree with the thought behind his and your post here, but its case by case. I think Zito's contract, although incomplete, can and should be included in this discussion. We can all agree I think with strong confidence that Zito is not much better than what he has performed. Now he could go out and win the Cy Young next year, in which case yes I'm wrong, but I feel with strong confidence that he just ain't that good. I think that is fair.
Couple that with what I said earlier, that it was a bad deal from the beginning because most of baseball thought he was greatly overrated and they paid far more than anyone else was offering.
So yes, I guess its going out on a limb that he will continue to be a poor contributer.....but thats a bet I'd be willing to make. And if he doesn't show marketable improvement over his contract....then hands down I feel he's a worse signing than Hampton, because at least Hampton was highly pursued and many felt was a can't miss.
Yeah, my post you're referring to was sparked by the statement about including A-Rod's deal in this type of discussion. You can't fully evaluate deals until they are at or near completion, but you can make educated "guesses" about how a contract will turn out.Quote:
Originally Posted by dickay
Like you said, the chances are great that Zito's contract is going to turn out to be a disaster. It's been a disaster so far, and while we can't say for sure that the contract will be horrible upon its completion, it's pretty damned sure that it will. Like I said in my above post, it was a bad from the start.
A-Rod, though, is a whole different case. He's clearly worth the money currently (unlike Zito), he's an all-time great player (unlike Zito), he's the type of player that usually ages extremely well (unlike Zito), etc. It's WAY too early to make any judgment about whether or not his contract will turn out poorly, but, just like it's safe to assume that Zito's deal will be horrendous, it's a good guess that A-Rod's deal will likely be perfectly fine.
both good points. Hampton WAS persued by many teams... Zito was but not even CLOSE to that contract
Well if your bringing up Renteria to that may as well Add Lugo to the list, the played horrible for 1 1/2 years and has 2 full years left a 8M ish, and if Lowrie plays anywhere near as good next year Lugo won't sniff the field.Quote:
Originally Posted by FRENCHREDSOX
thats true... man what happened to lugoQuote:
Originally Posted by gRYFYN1
The thing is Lugo is still (for now) a Red Sox whereas Renteria went to the Braves & PLAYED well for them & was paid integrally by the Sox....also as said elsewhere Lugo has been average but could rebound....Quote:
Originally Posted by gRYFYN1
Renteria was a bust as a Red Sox,no hindsight just a testimony to what he did as a Sox & return on the investment.
Atlanta paid Way less actually -Quote:
Originally Posted by TheNamelessPoet
the rest being paid by the Rockies & Marlins (Marlins paying 30 million but removing the 52 million owed to Wilson & Johnson who went to Denver) - so it cost them 48.5 million for 6 seasons or in other terms 1.386 million per win as a Brave,Zito has cost 0.857 million per win (21 wins - 2 year salary 24.5 million)Quote:
They will pay him $2 million in 2003, $2 million in 2004, $1.5 million in '05, $13.5 million in '06, $14.5 million in '07 and $15 million in '08.