Originally Posted by
Sloppy Joe
The first round of splurging feels like it will be a huge failure though.
I'm starting to worry about this myself.
Adrian Gonzalez sucked in the limited time he was a Dodger, and hopefully that's an aberration and not typical. He did hit a bit better during the final week or so.
Josh Beckett was decent but isn't likely to be worth anywhere near the money they're paying him.
Carl Crawford's success or failure is yet to be seen, but I am skeptical that he can come back and be close to what he once was. I felt his contract was even overpriced at the time he signed with Boston.
And Nick Punto... WTF? All he was good for was ripping off players' jerseys at the end of the game. Somehow he hit for a decent average as a Dodger, but it seemed he always choked when up in a key spot.
Then there's Hanley Ramirez, who started out well, but then was pretty much striking out in every at-bat in September.
Andre Ethier was given a big extension, but he has never proven himself to be an elite player, but rather just a good player who gets injured fairly easily.
The Matt Kemp contract was huge but at least I agreed with it. He really is a great player, and it appears that his bad second half was the result of an injury they were hiding from the pubilc. Yes, it would be awful if he comes back and is never the same player, but at the time they signed him to the huge contract, he didn't have an injury history and really looked like a special player -- which he can easily still be for years to come.
I am just worried that they will keep throwing around $ and then will come to the realization that the team is losing big money, and will tighten up the pocketbook for years to come until these bad contracts expire.