Baseball Musings: Pacific Marlin

December 01, 2004

Pacific Marlin

The San Francisco Giants have signed closer Armando Benitez to a 3-year contract.

With some creative financing, Sabean and assistant Ned Colletti hooked a 6-foot-4, 229-pound Marlin. It was a done deal because Benítez and agent Mike Powers, like Vizquel, backloaded the contract to give the Giants payroll flexibility.

"The contract is spread over five years, including the signing bonus," Colletti explained. "The 2005 season is the lowest point of the contract."

Negotiations progressed swiftly, accelerated by Hermanson's contract demands for a two-year deal in the $6 million range. Apparently realizing a solid closer was the missing link this season, the Giants didn't take the easy way out.

"It was pretty obvious why we went in this direction," Sabean said, calling Benítez "a dominant force." With Vizquel and Benítez in the fold, Sabean said the team "can address what we need in the outfield and lineup."

I'm not a big Benitez fan. I still remember the game at Yankee Stadium where he hit Tino Martinez after giving up a HR to Bernie Williams. The Orioles were in the process of blowing a 5-1 lead. It was 5-4 with two men on in the bottom of the 8th when Armando came in to try to get Bernie Williams. Bernie took him deep for a 7-5 lead. That was bad pitching. But then he shows his utter stupidity by plunking Martinez! I just wouldn't want someone with that type of judgement as my closer. It doesn't seem to bother the Giants, however.

Benítez comes with a modicum of risk. He was on the disabled list in August with a sore elbow and had to pass a physical examination Tuesday in Florida before his signing was official. And, despite a career 2.85 ERA, his past has been spotty.

Benítez blew key games with the Mets in 2003 and virtually was booed out of New York. He also pitched with the Yankees and Seattle Mariners before signing with Florida as a free agent. He also has had problems during the postseason, posting four saves in 10 chances and a 3.56 ERA in 28 games.

"He was more comfortable in the Florida atmosphere," Sabean said, explaining Benítez's career season. "I think he'll have the same atmosphere here, in a pitcher's ballpark. I'm not going to hold his past against him.

Well, Shea is a pitcher's park and he wasn't comfortable there. Maybe Sabean should hold his past against him a litte bit. Especially his recent past which has seen a drop in Benitez's K per 9 two years in a row. He still strikes out more than enough batters to be effective. If the slide continues, however, I wonder if he'll still be effective through the length of the contract.

Posted by David Pinto at 09:47 AM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Benitez stinks as a big game closer. IT seems every time he came up against the Yankees in a post season critical game, he blew it. Why couldn't Boston or some such playoff caliber AL team have signed him? Damn.

Posted by: Robert at December 1, 2004 10:50 AM

"I just wouldn't want someone with that type of judgement as my closer." That seems like a pretty abusrd thing to say for someone who should understand that "closer" is a made-up designation. He has saved games at an acceptable rate ever since he went to the Mets. I'm not saying you have to like him or respect him, but I doubt that affects his performance too much.

As for that performance, his K rate has actually dropped for 5 straight years. He was also clearly hit lucky this year, as his K rate declined and his hit rate was dropped 40%. At the same time, he walked very few batters, and his K/BB rate was among the best in his career. He may be maturing as an older pitcher who has lost a couple mph off his fastball.

Benitez is no Gagne, but he has 1 season with an ERA above 3.00 since he moved to the Mets. I'd be pretty happy with him as the closer of my team.

Posted by: Man of Leisure at December 1, 2004 10:53 AM

Good luck Giants. Have fun watching Armando save nearly every game in the regular season only to blow critical games down the stretch and in the post-season. As a Mets fan I still suffer from Post-Armando Blown Save Syndrome.

Here's just a sampling of Armando's key blown saves:
99 NLDS game 4 (Mets bailed him out)
99 NLCS game 6 (somewhat excusable because he pitched two innings in back-to-back games)
2000 NLDS game 2 (bailed out again)
2000 World Series game 1 (not so lucky this time, cost the Mets the game and they never quite recovered)
2001 - two critical games down the stretch against Atlanta. The Mets were one out from sweeping the Braves and pulling wihin two games of first, and he blows a three-run lead. Then six days later he blows another huge lead in Atlanta and that pretty much ends the Mets season.
2003- blows four saves early in the season and single-handedly propels the Mets' tail spin into oblivion.

And to be fair, here are all the major saves he did nail down in the post-season:
2000 World Series, game three.

Posted by: paul at December 1, 2004 12:05 PM

Bush comment steals show. Bush thanked the hospitable Canadians for waving at him "with all five fingers."

Posted by: polltroll at December 1, 2004 12:30 PM

Yeah, Benitez was "hit lucky" last year. But the guy doesn't walk as many people any more, and it seems that he really has more control.

He's one of the top 6-7 closers in the game. Last year, Herges was a disaster, and Hermanson was acceptable. Had the Giants had Benitez, they'd have won the division going away.

You have to consider them the NL West favorites now.

Posted by: Tim Schultz at December 1, 2004 12:45 PM

This line from the article you quoted made me laugh out loud:

"Benítez comes with a modicum of risk."

That's possibly the biggest understatement of the offseason.

Has the countdown started yet for when the backloading of contracts/payroll flexibility of today becomes the bloated, unmovable contracts of tomorrow?

Posted by: Mike H at December 1, 2004 02:06 PM

Heh. If Sabean likes, I can send him a picture of my head with arrows pointing to each gray hair engendered by Benitez while he pitched for the Mets.

On the upside for me personally, he'll be a big help in preventing Bonds from retiring with a championship ring.

Posted by: mikeski at December 1, 2004 03:09 PM

I don't know how many times I watched Benitez pitch when he was an Oriole. Most of the time, after each fastball, he would crane his neck to how fast the pitch was (there was a radar reading on one of the smaller scoreboards in the outfield). A complete whack job. He would get into jams and still look back to see the MPH. Enjoy, SF.

Posted by: Yatt at December 1, 2004 05:21 PM

Benitez has always been the anti-Jeter. This is especially true in New York, where the Yankees epitomized winning and the Mets epitomized expenisive underachievement. One thing I hope everyone can agree on, though, the opinions of New York beat wirters and talk radio hosts mean absolutley nothing. I think it is hardly fair to blame the Mets 2003 on Benitez. Am I crazy, or has this guy had a better career than the Troy Percival?

Posted by: josh at December 2, 2004 09:04 AM

You can't blame the entire 2003 season on Benitez, but his blown saves early in the season (in fact I think he had three in one series against the Expos) got their season off to a poor start that they never recovered from. It would be absurd to claim that if it were not for Benitez the Mets would have been pennant contenders, but he almost single-handedly killed their season before it even started.

Again, he has absolutely tremendous regular season numbers. But he is completely unreliable in pressure games as my comments above show (I also forgot a blown save he had in Philadelphia towards the end of the 1999 seaosn when the Mets were freefalling out of the playoff race).

Posted by: paul at December 2, 2004 10:36 AM

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