Hit 41 HR, get $3 million platoon deal

Chris Carter hit 41 HR last year for the Brewers.

He was then strangely non-tendered (despite the Brewers being a crap team anyway), and nobody wanted him, because a power-hitting 1B with a bad AVG was just not a player anyone desired.

After a long offseason, the Yankees finally signed him for a paltry 1 year, $3 million, and he will likely have a platoon role with the team.

I realize he only hit .222, but geez... you'd think averaging a HR better than every 4 games would be enough for some team to take a crack at him for more money and a full-time role.

I don't get why the Brewers didn't just keep him. What else were the fans coming to see?

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Chris Carter hit 41 HR last year for the Brewers.

He was then strangely non-tendered (despite the Brewers being a crap team anyway), and nobody wanted him, because a power-hitting 1B with a bad AVG was just not a player anyone desired.

After a long off-season, the Yankees finally signed him for a paltry 1 year, $3 million, and he will likely have a platoon role with the team.

I realize he only hit .222, but geez... you'd think averaging a HR better than every 4 games would be enough for some team to take a crack at him for more money and a full-time role.

I don't get why the Brewers didn't just keep him. What else were the fans coming to see?

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same thing with brandon moss...

i remember local sports radio talking how the cards should resign brandon moss for ~3 yrs/$45mill+ during his hot streak in the middle of the season, and then the same talking heads were saying they should non-tender him

the value of a defensive liability, high strikeout, low average/obp, power hitter has hit an all-time low

considering how much money some guys are getting, you'd think a bad team would value them at least greater than $3 million/yr

they are all looked at like mark reynolds now

He strikes out a lot, nothing special defensively, mundane baserunning, and he doesn't hit for average.

But, you would think that a guy that can hit the long ball (35-40 HR potential yearly) would get more than 1 yr 3 million and a role playing job. Especially in the market we have currently were deadbeats are getting 12 nilly a year.

I'm with you druff.

Reminds me of Dave Kingman

a cogent article

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...-dig-long-ball

Investigating

Those guys are occasionally helpful at getting you to post-season, if surrounded by solid hitters, but they kill you in post-season against good pitchers. Baseball is just getting smarter.

Like, the entire post-season, I wanted anyone but Napoli at the plate. And he always seemed
to come up in a spot where all you wanted was someone to move a runner along, or not hit into a double play. And Napoli is better than that dude, and a great clubhouse guy, which supposedly this guy isn't. But it's sad when you'd kill to have Coco Crisp up rather than your cleanup hitter.

So I get it. What are you willing to pay for a pinch-hitter when down 3 runs in the 9th with 2 on and 2 out? Guys like him have little value other than that. They usually feast on bad pitching and hit 2 HRs in games you win by 9 runs anyway.

He can only be an everyday player on a bad team, and bad teams usually are going young.

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Originally Posted by BCR

Those guys are occasionally helpful at getting you to post-season, if surrounded by solid hitters, but they kill you in post-season against good pitchers. Baseball is just getting smarter.

Like, the entire post-season, I wanted anyone but Napoli at the plate. And he always seemed
to come up in a spot where all you wanted was someone to move a runner along, or not hit into a double play. And Napoli is better than that dude, and a great clubhouse guy, which supposedly this guy isn't. But it's sad when you'd kill to have Coco Crisp up rather than your cleanup hitter.

So I get it. What are you willing to pay for a pinch-hitter when down 3 runs in the 9th with 2 on and 2 out? Guys like him have little value other than that. They usually feast on bad pitching and hit 2 HRs in games you win by 9 runs anyway.

He can only be an everyday player on a bad team, and bad teams usually are going young.

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That explains why contenders don't want him, but it doesn't explain why had teams (including the Brewers, where he just came from) didn't.

Look at a list of players getting $3m, and most of them are borderline useless.

You have a guy popping 40 HR, he's worth having on your squad for the fan value alone. 81 home games per year, and the fans want to see something interesting other than the team repeatedly losing. Even Benjamin, seeing his first MLB game, watched the Dodgers get beat down 5-1 by the lowly Padres, but the highlight for him was Yasmani Grandal's solo shot.

Also, if your fairly good team is weak at 1B or DH, you can do a lot worse than a .222/41 HR hitter.

I can tell you from betting MLB that this guy saved my ass several times during the year when I had underdog bets on the Brewers.

Its pretty much the going rate right now for a 1-tool player, cases like Carter just raise eyebrows because HR's are still the sexiest stat in baseball. In reality, Carter is about as valuable to a team as Brendan Ryan is.

Pedro Alvarez is arguably a slightly better version of Carter and remains unsigned. Matt Wieters is the ~10th best hitting catcher in baseball and remains unsigned because his framing/overall defense/handling pitchers sucks. Mark Reynolds (whose first 5 years of his career is eerily about the same as Carters) saw his 1 tool dip a bit the past 2 years and signed a minor league deal.

raise your sons to be a starting pitcher

they can lose half the games they pitch and make $15m/yr

As someone who remembers the good ole years with the Dodgers, it is sad to see that Matt Kemp seems to have hit this "useless" territory also, despite putting up decent HR #s. Last year he had pretty good HR and RBI #s on the braves, but you look at his WAR and he is practically the worst clean up hitter in the league.

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Originally Posted by verminaard

As someone who remembers the good ole years with the Dodgers, it is sad to see that Matt Kemp seems to have hit this "useless" territory also, despite putting up decent HR #s. Last year he had pretty good HR and RBI #s on the braves, but you look at his WAR and he is practically the worst clean up hitter in the league.

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Unsurprisingly, I didnt pay much attention to Padres or Braves games last year, so I didn't see Kemp much, but it sounds like he has turned into a complete statue in the OF.

What I find fascinating lately is the different career arcs between 5-tool SS's and 5-tool CF's. The SS's, once they lose a bit of speed/fielding (always the first 2 to go), seem to be able to switch positions easy and continue being productive players. Arod going to 3B, Hanley going all over the diamond, Nomar briefly going to first. Although not a SS, Miggy going from 3B to 1B.

The CF's seem to be just dropping off a cliff at young ages once they slow down just a bit. Kemp still hitting ok, but cant move. Andruw Jones got fat, transformed to an only elite power hitter for a couple seasons, then everything went away. Carlos Gomez took awhile to hit his prime, was great 3 years, and now cant do anything. McCutchen is being moved to the corner OF after his first bad year last year, where his hitting also dropped off. Its happened to all these guys right in the middle of what many consider your prime in baseball, around age 30 or so.