Loading ...The AP reports that Kyle Lohse signed a one year 4.2M contract to avoid arbitration. That’s a raise from the 3.95M he won in arbitration from the Twins last season. This was his last year of arbitration, and he appears to be looking to cash in on free agency next season. Hopefully he will pitch well enough to be tradeable at the trade deadline so we can get something out of him before he leaves.
Harang and the Reds traded arbitration figures. Harang is asking for 5.5M and the Reds have offered 4.25. Harang made 2.35M last season. Both sides have expressed the possibility of exploring a long term contract. Let’s hope they can wrap Harang up for about three years.
So if both Lohse and Milton are in contract years, we may have one of the best rotations in baseball this year…
Both defense and pitching are much better. The big question now is how to get great offensive production out of right field. Wouldnt it be great to see Hamilton make up for lost time.
If I’m Aaron Harang and I see the numbers Lohse is getting, my price just went up.
If this goes all the way to arbitration (which I doubt it will and hope it doesn’t) there’s no way the Reds win this case.
so much for the histerics about lohse getting 6+.
I’d offer harang something around 4/30 with incentives or a limited no-trade.
Daedalus,
that is a very good point about contract years.
I said $5M myself, I think, but I\’m not convinced he\’s worth $4.2M. Is he the guy that put up a 2.78 ERA in August or the guy that put up a 6.46 ERA in September or somewhere in between?
I think it\’ll mostly depend on what they get for him down the stretch…
Mediocre pitching sure is expensive…
Another example of ham-fisting, by Krivsky: “Lohse, my old Minnesota pal, here’s $4.2M.” “What, Harang? Our best pitcher? I guess I can offer you $50k more than Lohse, since you’ve been here a while longer.”
I don’t think it is so much ham fisting as it is economic fact. Next year will be the year Harang will be due the big raise. That is when it will be determined how badly we desire to keep him, if we can at all.
I swear that I am not the author of this.
I know you didn’t write it, but I’m sure you were the creative director.
He does make some good points. However, you can think of it this way: Milton is making Harang’s money this year. Once Milton’s contract runs out the Reds will have much more flexibility to pay Harang what he is worth. Why not try to get Harang on the cheap this season? The best course of action would be to sign Harang to a long term deal with a low value ‘07.
I agree wholeheartedly that the best idea is to sign Harang. Harang over Lohse any day. No doubt about it. But it is a matter of economics. Look at what year in arbitration both pitchers are in. Next year is Harang’s big pay day. I hope they lock him up for 3 or 4 years. I know what he said, which was the proper thing to say, but I am of the belief that unless we are talking Zambrano plus type of money right now, which I don’t think we would or could do, this is the deal he wanted. It’s not as simple as ‘he’s the better pitcher, let’s just pay him more’. It’s about your arbitration year. Lohse was ahead of him and just got his sooner, that’s all.
I misspoke a bit, it’s not just about your arb year, but I believe that even though Harang says he’s interested in a long term deal, I’m sure he is aware that he could get back home next year and earn a heck of a lot of money. I could be wrong, and hope I am. I would try to sign him for a 30-40 mil 4 year deal. I still think that for him if he signs a one year deal this year with the Reds, he believes he could beat that deal next year. Being a higher arb year, he probably could. Now, there is always the possibility something might happen to make him not worth the big payday later; but that is a chance I think he will take.
There are pros and cons in pricing Harang. All of his numbers are up, but he still isn’t near the Schmidt, Carpenter, Oswalt class in the NL. So I wouldn’t expect his dollar figures to get as high as what we are seeing from these guys.
why isn’t he near their class exactly? baseball reference has park neitral stats that show him ahead of schmidt last year in record, ERA, whip, and IP. He’s not far behind the other two.
I’mm not saying he is as good as those guys, but especially considering where he pitches, he’s pretty close.
Well, let’s look at it.
We can pretty easily eliminate Oswalt from the discussion. Oswalt has never had less than a 10 win season (21 games in ‘03 do to injury). He’s won 20 games twice, 19 games another year, has never posted an ERA above 3.50 and has pitched at least 220 innings in 4 of his 6 seasons. Not to mention that he has about 500 career strikeouts more than Harang. Harang doesn’t come close to Oswalt statistically, though who really does?
We can probably eliminate any argument with Chris Carpenter as well because he won the Cy Young in ‘05. That kind of prize comes with a big price tag. Their overall numbers might be similar but when you win a Cy Young you separate yourself from the rest of the market pretty fast.
As for Schmidt, you’re right, the numbers are comparable for this year. In my opinion though, Schmidt has been doing it for a lot longer. Maybe his record wasn’t all that impressive with Pittsburgh, but his 2003 and 2004 seasons were among the best in baseball. Whereas in my opinion Harang is just only starting to come into his own. He is certainly on the rise, but if I’m the Reds, I don’t pay him like he is any of these guys.
i thought you were saying that statistically he wasn’t near those guys, and that that’s why his price tag wouldn’t be near them, not that he just shouldn’t be as expensive because of experience/awards etc.
clearly if harang’s people submitted 5.5 mil they understand that he’s not going to command 15 mil right now, but i think he’s right there in terms of quality with everyone besides maybe oswalt, who’s pulled away a bit in my mind as the dominant pitcher in the nl.