Bargain Shopping
As Jason Stark reports on ESPN.com, there’s still a glut of unsigned, experienced free agents looking for work. And this close to Spring Training you can bet at least a few great deals will emerge. The erstwhile-Braves GM John Schuerholz used to love making low-risk, high-reward bets on players just like this.
One recent signing that deserves attention is the Red Sox signing of Sean Casey, a productive bat over the past 10 years, for the measly sum of $700,000. Casey won’t be much more than a back-up at first base, but he’ll be a talented, modestly priced option for the World Champs. What happens if Casey has a resurgent year or spells the team during an injury to Youkilis? The deal will look like a stroke of genius. If Casey bombs, no one will remember it. It’s win-win for Theo Epstein.
Returning to our cocaine comparison, you can see that Casey’s value doesn’t even approach the immoderation seen in the bigger-name deals.
| Kilo of Carlos Silva, average year | $107,512.20 |
| Kilo of Sean Casey, 2008 | $6,509.70 |
Of course the Red Sox are not known for their thriftiness and there’s very little chance that this deal will end up being important for the team. But we should keep our eyes on those unemployed players over the next few weeks, because chances are some team is going to bring in a big prize on the cheap.
Tags: cocaine, free agents, Jason Stark, John Schuerholz, Red Sox, Sean Casey, Theo Epstein
February 4, 2008 at 5:36 am
Maybe it’s just because I’m not keeping track of baseball and this post was geared toward people who are, but this post was a little hard to grasp for me. I had to read it carefully and spend more time trying to understand what was in it than the other posts.
Also, I don’t know who any of those people named are (again, a lack of baseball news saviness on my part).
The paragraphs were a little bulky. I think the cocaine comparison is clever, though.
February 4, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Hi -My recommendations are things I am sure you are already aware of and working on, but for the sake of the assignment I’ll write them here.
- Baseball is such a fun topic, I think you could add more character to the blog
- more images
- more links to other pages
- some of the posts are a little dense, a lot of information - maybe you could find a way to make it more scannable?
- I didn’t really understand the whole cocaine thing. I don’t have a frame of reference for how much cocaine people do in a year or how much is spent it is hard for me to follow your analgy. clever idea, though.
- I liked the post about the communist yankees fan!
February 4, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Like, Angela, I also think you can add a lot more color to these posts. You should include pictures, maybe a bit more of your take on the topic. It is pretty dense and could be broken up better, maybe add some quotes from the pages you link to? Also, again, more of you and your opinion. I like the subject, though. I think it has a lot of potential. Have fun with the blog more (I know that is hard when you are sick!) So feel better, and then get to work to make it as amazing as it should be! I can’t wait to see more of your work!