Danks, Sox bridge gap

Start feeding him money.
Start feeding him money.
John Danks became the last arbitration-eligible player to sign a 2010 contract, agreeing to a one-year deal worth $3.45 million.
My first reaction was that there would be no long-term deal this year.  Then I realized that Tuesday was the deadline for arbitration filing, and Danks is undergoing his examination today.  Consider this a stopgap measure.
Over at South Side Sox, Colin put together a list of more comparable pitchers beyond Mark Buehrle and Jon Lester.
**********************************
Christian Marrero Reading Room:
*Now that Danks has signed, the Cheat updated his handy-dandy payroll chart.
*I’ll say this for Scott Linebrink: At least he’s not resorting to a convenient excuse to explain his failures:

“If I had a nickel every time I heard I was tipping pitches, I wouldn’t have to draw a salary,” Linebrink said. “That’s one of those scapegoats that can be used for pitchers.
“Everyone tips. Hitters are good enough, especially with up-close video, where they can slow it down and zoom in and see if you are squinting one eye on a certain pitch. You might be doing it subconsciously, something not too glaring. I was told that last year by a few people. I kind of laughed at it.”

*New Era continues to make terrible caps, as evidenced by the new spring training lids.
*Mark Gonzalez rounds up the action from the winter mini-camps. Among the developments:

  • Carlos Quentin is said to have fully recovered from plantar fasciitis.
  • Dayan Viciedo is using Camp Cora to work at first, not third.
  • Don Cooper said Erick Threets “seems to be the most interesting cat.” He’s officially on the radar.

*Jim Thome and Paul Konerko did some bonding.  Odds of Thome crashing SoxFest increase.

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knoxfire30

3.45 jimbo
Great work by the cheat, love the payroll spreadsheet, I had the sox at 98.95 so I will be interested to see where I am off by a little.
Would it shock anyone if Linestink came up with like 50 innings of 3.00 ERA ball this year? The way relief pitchers go that could happen or he could completely implode, I admit watching him last year was bizarre he had velocity but somehow lost movement and control. Maybe coop can iron him out.
Also happy about Viciedo at 1st with Allen and Fields traded and Konerko in the last year of his deal it was hard to see who else fit at first, especially with improved reports about Flowers defense.

striker

I’d put my money on a Linebrink turnaround. He stuff is still there.
I always argue that relievers have a small margin for error and ERA isn’t a good measure for them (though I’m not arguing that point for Linebrink).
Who is better, a reliever with a 5.00 era or a reliever with a 5.00 era? At first glance you’d say they both suck. But if you looked at their game logs and they both pitched 9 innings, pitcher A gave up 5 runs in one outing but was flawless in the other 8. Pitcher B gave up 1 run in 5 outings. Now seeing the game log you see pitcher A was the better pitcher being flawless 8/9ths of the time. And even though his era was 5, he was still an affective pitcher. Pitcher B wasn’t as affective, giving up a run in 5/9 outings.

knoxfire30

Hahaha that didnt take long, here comes the first “in the shape of my life” newsfeed of the offseason.
SI’s jon heyman is reporting this about andru jones

sars

mlbtraderumors.com usually keeps a running tally come spring training of players that make these claims; lost 10, 15, 20 pounds, best shape of my life, working on a new pitch, etc. etc.

duke

That cap does suck. But what about their more standard looking one?
http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2626712
I’m curious because the last two Sox caps I got were Twins ’47 caps, and they faded so quickly. Do New Era caps have the same problem?

cushinglee

New Era hats hold up pretty well.
The thing about the “spring training hat” is this is the third one they’ve come out with in the last six or seven years…it’s just another way for New Era to get the fan’s money. Why do major league players need a spring training hat? Is the hat not as “real” as an actual game hat?

oralsoxpodcast

I’m right there with ya Jim regarding the New Era major league hats. I won’t buy those hats anymore. They sit too damn high. I got the barons hat too (prompted by your link), which is just right. Let’s keep up this “hat stove” talk!