Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 12, 2007
Centerfield Magnet

There must be some attraction between centerfielders and the west coast:

The San Francisco Giants have signed Gold Glove center fielder Aaron Rowand to a five-year contract, club Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Sabean announced.

...

"Aaron (Rowand) is an all-around player who is coming into his prime and helps us check off two boxes -- an extremely talented defensive center fielder and a middle of the order presence," said Sabean. "His ability in center field definitely plays to our ballpark and will help provide more stability to our pitching staff. His no nonsense approach on the field and in the clubhouse will be welcomed."

If he produces like last year, he will be a middle of the order presence. But that was a career year for Aaron. This will be the first time he's playing in a park that fairly neutral for hitters. I'll update when his salary is announced.

Update: SI has the AP article reporting five years, $60 million. That strikes me as right. In the analysis I did for SportingNews.com, I had all three centerfielders getting between $11 and $13 million for five years, so it's a good deal for the Giants.


Posted by David Pinto at 04:28 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Well, the Giants desperately needed to do something to boost their outfield and lineup, but I can't say a 5-year deal for Aaron Rowand would be my first choice. He's at the age where a lot of players start declining rapidly. He may earn is keep for a couple years, but he's likely to be a millstone by 2010 or 11. But he does bring you that Ecksteinian guttiness and grittiness.

Now, if Sabean goes and trades one of his best young pitchers for Hideki Matsui, then I'll really start questioning his sanity.

Posted by: jvwalt at December 12, 2007 04:42 PM

Let me be the first person that says, "LOL" in the direction of Ken Williams and the White Sox. How about stop flapping your gums about what you are going to do and actually do something? Idiots.

Posted by: SS at December 12, 2007 05:00 PM

I'd say Ken Williams isn't the one who should be laughed at for this deal. Rowand's a glorified 4th outfielder who hit his 90th percentile projection in PECOTA last year. Now the Giants have him through his age 34 season and he'll probably have to move to a corner before then. I'm not really sure how this can be viewed as a good signing.

Posted by: Jared at December 12, 2007 07:26 PM

I don't really see it as a good one either. Rowand is more than a 4th outfielder, but he's not worthy of a 5-year deal. How many times have we seen a guy have a career year, become a free agent, and then come back to earth pretty quick? Rowand's got this type of thing written all over him.

Posted by: Tom G, ballssticksstuff.com at December 12, 2007 11:59 PM

Johnny Damon showed the intelligence of the long deal for a CF. Good luck SF. Four years at $12 mil was a joke. We love Rowand, but he has an unrepeatable career year.

Posted by: Joe in Philly at December 13, 2007 12:36 AM

Also:

Does Rowand's name appear in the Mitchell report?
Good timing, Aaron.

Now the Phils need a RH bat. 3B or RF is not important. It's a RH bat that can play either position. With a 2B and SS that can hit that good, you need a glove at great one vacancy and a better than average bat in the other.

Posted by: Joe in Philly at December 13, 2007 12:48 AM

I always wonder about guys who sign big contracts with teams with no chance of winning in the foreseeable future. I agree that he's good CF now and a pretty good R bat but he's not going to make them a winner and they've got a lot of other things to deal with - I guess their $60 m is about the same as anybody elses but finishing last every year has got to be a little discouraging - why not take a short term deal and come back into the market?

Posted by: Bandit at December 13, 2007 09:38 AM
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