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Yankees sign John Olerud after Seattle releases him
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As much as I hate the Yankees, it's a good signing by them. They have some good bats in the lineup already and as someone else mentioned, Tony Clark is not an everyday player, even he will admit that. Olerud won't turn your team into an instant contender but he certainly won't hurt your team at all if you already have a good team built.
Edit: you also have to realize that he wears a batting helmet when playing in the field....that in itself is enough to like the guy.
Edit: you also have to realize that he wears a batting helmet when playing in the field....that in itself is enough to like the guy.
ThePresence
Elite Member
He wears that because he had an aneurysm in his brain that almost killed him. He had surgery and protects his head with the helmet.
ThePresence
Elite Member
How is that cool? He's wearing it to protect his noggin, not to be cool.
:roll: Love the contribution this post made to the thread...
Anyway, speaking truthfully is no excuse. They lost 75% of an excellent pitching staff in the offseason and got only hitting to make up for it. It has bitten them in the ass time & time again this year, and is exemplified (as is their hitting prowess) by their immense number of come-from-behind wins. And yet they continue, at George's behest, to ignore pitching.
jman19
Lifer
Again, please tell me how signing Olerud interfered in any way with the Yankees pursuing a pitcher? The Diamondbacks wanted an arm and a leg for Schilling; the Yanks turned those players the D-Backs wanted into Vazquez and A-Rod. Not exactly sure how that's a bad thing, especially since A-Rod has been the best position player on the team this year. Oh, and if Vazquez would be a "9-9" pitcher somewhere else, please tell me how the best FA pitcher from last year, Colon, would fare on the team given his pretty awful showing so far? Gimme a break, the Yanks have done what they can with what they have. Money is nice, but since the farm is barren, the Yanks can't just go and get any pitcher they want.
RabidMongoose
Lifer
I like John Olerud, he's one of my favorite MLB players. Great player, great guy. Hope he works out for the Yankees!
Despite what you think, even the yankees don't have unlimited funds to pay players with, that's what Olerud has to do with pitching. An arm and a leg for Schilling when they desperately needed pitching was too much, but twice that was ok for Rodriguez? 😕 You're not making much sense.
jman19
Lifer
Ok, so let me know what pitchers were out there to be signed when the Yanks picked up Olerud. And like I said, the same quality of players that were wanted for Schilling (the D-Backs wanted Soriano, Nick Johnson, Juan Rivera + prospects) were used to get Rodriguez and Vazquez... so tell me how that's "twice as much" for A-Rod. You're the one not making much sense.
The Yanks lost Pettite because they were being stupid but he's not helping the Astros right now, especially since he is injured. Clemens hosed the yanks by retiring and coming back. David Wells wanted out and was not likely to come back anyway after the book he wrote.
I would say there was not much the Yanks could do besides Pettite and even in his case, he's not doing too well.
The Yanks didn't have much to work with in the form of minor leaguers for trades so the best they could have done was sign free agents. And like others have said, there weren't too many good ones out there, especially to longer term contracts (ie Colon).
The point is, there are very few quality pitchers available, and those that are available are way over priced. You can probably only count 5-10 pitchers that are a sure thing, everybody else is a crapshoot. For once, I was glad Yanks signed Vazquez. Even if he's not dominant, he has good enough stuff, isn't afraid to throw it and is pretty young.
GagHalfrunt
Lifer
Even that might be generous. How many pitchers other than Randy Johnson are sure things? Schilling is a workhorse, but was under 500 in both 2000 and 2003. Pedro is dominant, but fragile, moody and a cancer in the clubhouse. Brown is nearly as dominant as Pedro, when he's healthy he might have the best stuff in the game, but he's on the DL constantly. Kerry Woods and Mark Prior are even worse, lots of potential while living on the disabled list. Colon had a big year in 2002 and has been only 4 games over .500 since then. Jason Schmidt has had a few good years, but before 2002 he was getting a good W-L percentage with bad ERAs. He's about the closest thing to Johnson as a sure thing. Clemens has been remarkable healthy and tosses tons of innings. He's 42 though, you can't build a staff around him not can you guarantee he's going to hold up through the dog days, eventually the tank has to run dry. Andy Pettitte was certainly closing in on being a sure thing, his stretch from 96-2001 was as good as anyone. Since then he's been fragile and pitched only 130 innings in 2002, has spent significant time on the DL this year and his ERA is up almost a full run.
Other than Johnson, none of the other great pitchers is even close to being a sure thing, he's on a completely different level from anyone else in the game. And even he was hurt last year, threw about 150 innings less than his career average and went 6-8 with an ERA over 4.
$100,000!!! What?!?!
The M's paid him 7.7 Million this year. It has to be more than $100,000. Didn't he say he was retiring?
RabidMongoose
Lifer
I believed that the Mariners essentially released Olerud. He was free to sign with any team. I believe that the Mariners would pay what he was owed to them this season minus whatever his new team pays him.
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