What the heck were the Junkees thinking when they resigned him this past offseason? I know the pitching market was thin, but come on!
Here's the thing about the Moose that we've been saying for years here on YD: The guy will show flashes of brilliance every now and then, making you think that if he could just put it all together, you'd have a Cy Young winner. Yet he never does. So he'll toss a few 2-0 gems, but he'll follow that up with a stinker.
This year, though, those gems have been few and far between. Granted, he pitched well in his couple of starts against Texas, but other that that he's been a disaster. Got bombed by Baltimore in April, roughed up by the White Sox earlier this month, and most recently, pummeled by the Red Sox. He's 38 years of age, so there's an excellent chance that he's done.
Looking back, he's had a couple of good years for Old York. 2001 was very good, with an ERA of 3.15, and 2003 was pretty good as well. I guess you'd have to throw 2006 in there based on the numbers that count (don't care that he won 18 games in 2002 with an ERA north of 4), but he has not been the ace that he was supposed to be. He gives up a lot of hits, a good number of home runs (at least 20 each year), but he doesn't walk a lot of guys, which is probably why he gets away with a lot.
It's hard to imagine him being this bad the rest of the way, but hey, you never know.
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He actually would have gotten more money from several other teams. He was coming off a season where he was one of the top pitchers in the league and better than Wang in every category except total Wins (and run support?).
It was considered a bargain at the time. It still might turn out to be, considering all the pitchers who got $10-12 mil a season who are career league average to below average pitchers. Even if he keeps pitching the trend of 2 good starts, 1 terrible- it might work out well. He is definitely trending up and he cant control what the pen does or when Torre decides to pull him.
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