Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 11, 2008
What Did the Red Sox See?

Bartolo Colon made another nice start tonight, allowing one run over six innings while striking out seven. Boston went on to a 6-1 win. It makes me wonder what the Red Sox saw that other teams didn't, and which scout recommended the signing. That person should get a raise.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:12 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I don't know that the Sox scouts saw anything more than a veteran pitcher down on his luck who could be signed cheaply. It was a low-risk gamble. The Sox always sign a few veteran pitchers; some work out, and quite a few of them don't.

Posted by: jvwalt at June 12, 2008 07:07 AM

It's more like what did colon see - a make good contract with an escape clause with the World Series champions.

Posted by: Bandit at June 12, 2008 07:23 AM

The Sox got lucky, but were willing to take a chance. Other reclamation projects, like Jeremy Giambi, haven't worked out. I'm still betting that Colon breaks down in a month or so, but he's been a tonic for a team hit by injuries. Which makes me think that the Sox front office, typically, isn't giving the complete story on Dice-K. Now he's supposedly out until the start of July; August is probably more like it.

Posted by: Russ Smith at June 12, 2008 07:39 AM

I think the answer is pretty simple: the Red Sox can afford to gamble on players like Colon; most other teams can not.

Posted by: Zippercat at June 12, 2008 08:36 AM

maybe they're smarter than everyone else. Any team in the majors could afford to take on the low risk deal they made on Colon. Maybe that's simplifying it, but with the lack of starting pitching and looking at some of the guys who are starters in the majors, it shocks me that nobody else was willing to make such a low-risk deal.

Posted by: Tom at June 12, 2008 08:44 AM

Not sure what Colon's deal looks like (baseball-reference doesn't have a 2008 salary figure), but I'm guessing this simply good luck. The Red Sox and Yankees have signed the injured veteran pitcher looking to rehab for a few months in the past--Wade Miller, Matt Clement, Jon Lieber--largely because they can afford to pay a few extra dollars on a deal that essentially offers no downside. In this case, I don't think it's a case of them being smarter but having deeper pockets. That's not to say those teams aren't smarter--the Red Sox in particular have made excellent player development decisions over the past few years--but deep pockets are a huge benefit.

Posted by: WillClark4HOF at June 12, 2008 09:16 AM

Not to nitpick Will, but the Clement deal doesn't really fit here. When the Sox signed him he had started 30 or more games for each of the previous 6 seasons, and even started 32 that first year with the Sox. He was signed to be the number 2 behind Schilling. Clement didn't fit the "injured veteran" role until his second year with the Sox when the wheels came off and he made 12 total starts.

Posted by: Ben at June 12, 2008 10:29 AM

It looks like he got just over $1 million for making the major league roster. I'm sorry, but that has nothing to do with deep pockets. Any team in baseball could afford that.

Posted by: Tom at June 12, 2008 10:51 AM
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