PHILLIES KNEE-JERK; SIGN TOM GORDON

by Eric Simon on Dec 2, 2005 12:37 AM EST

After watching free agent closer Billy Wagner sign with some other team I can't seem to recall, the Phillies dipped their toes into the closer pool and, realizing it was filled with pee-water, withdrew their toes and threw a pile of money at Tom Gordon. Gordon turned 38 in November and just signed -- are you sitting down? -- a three year deal worth $18 million dollars.

Gordon's career K:BB ratio, a barometer for power and control, is 1.95 (one walk per 1.95 strikeouts). Billy Wagner's is 3.87 (one walk per 3.87 strikeouts), or twice Gordon's. If a four year deal to the 34-year-old Wagner is risky what is a three year deal to a 38-year-old? $6 million per is Kyle Farnsworth money, and Farnsy would appear to be a much better risk, especially considering his age (29). Further, Farnsworth, who has always struggled with controlling his 100 MPH fastball, has a career K:BB of 2.21!

If anyone knows what the Phillies are thinking please fill me in. This move looks to be reactionary and shortsighted on the part of Pat Gillick, a surprising act from a typically-savvy baseball man.

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Comments

Read Thorstein Veblen

The number is a marketing device, absurd though it may sound.

"Those Mets got our $43 Million closer. And you just got us a $7 Million sack of shite?"

By paying Flash more money, it makes him look better. At least in the PR wars of the winter.

It will just make him look worse in years ahead (if not months ahead), but today is the only day the average phan will ever see his contract figure.

by peeder on Dec 2, 2005 1:21 AM EST reply actions

This is why I love the Mets

You think they namecheck Theory of a Leisure Class over on the Yankee blogs?

(There's probably even people here who dig the irony of a team on the Port Wash. line referencing Veblen at all. )

For all sad words of tongue and pen/the saddest are these, 'It might have been.' - JGW

by Doc Manhattan on Dec 2, 2005 7:36 PM EST up reply actions

a liberal arts education

always comes in handy. Sure it cost 250K for a 4-yr degree, but our blog comments are earnest, witty, and replete with SAT/GRE vocabulary.

p.s. there are way more Simpsons references than Veblen on this site.

"What do you say we take a relaxed attitude towards work and watch the baseball game? The nye Mets are my favorite squadron." - Apu

Pedro offers you his protection.

by pj on Dec 3, 2005 11:21 AM EST up reply actions

wot?

I am on the verge of getting a Master's Degree and never heard of that guy.

But I do know that Apu says 'baseball match.'

you guys are right, though. We are much smarter than Yankee fans. A thinking man's team, the Mets...(mostly because misery is conducive to philosophy)

by peteyfan45 @ Amazin' Avenue on Dec 3, 2005 11:28 AM EST up reply actions

veblen on booze

The ceremonial differentiation of the dietary is best seen in the use of intoxicating beverages and narcotics. If these articles of consumption are costly, they are felt to be noble and honorific. Therefore the base classes, primarily the women, practice an enforced continence with respect to these stimulants, except in countries where they are obtainable at a very low cost. From archaic times down through all the length of the patriarchal regime it has been the office of the women to prepare and administer these luxuries, and it has been the perquisite of the men of gentle birth and breeding to consume them. Drunkenness and the other pathological consequences of the free use of stimulants therefore tend in their turn to become honorific, as being a mark, at the second remove, of the superior status of those who are able to afford the indulgence. Infirmities induced by over-indulgence are among some peoples freely recognised as manly attributes. It has even happened that the name for certain diseased conditions of the body arising from such an origin has passed into everyday speech as a synonym for "noble" or "gentle". It is only at a relatively early stage of culture that the symptoms of expensive vice are conventionally accepted as marks of a superior status, and so tend to become virtues and command the deference of the community; but the reputability that attaches to certain expensive vices long retains so much of its force as to appreciably lesson the disapprobation visited upon the men of the wealthy or noble class for any excessive indulgence. The same invidious distinction adds force to the current disapproval of any indulgence of this kind on the part of women, minors, and inferiors. This invidious traditional distinction has not lost its force even among the more advanced peoples of today. Where the example set by the leisure class retains its imperative force in the regulation of the conventionalities, it is observable that the women still in great measure practise the same traditional continence with regard to stimulants.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EHYPER/VEBLEN/veb_toc.html

Pedro offers you his protection.

by pj on Dec 3, 2005 3:50 PM EST up reply actions

Omar has certainly indulged

in conspicuous consumption this winter.

Although perhaps not so much booze.

Champagne in October?

by peeder on Dec 3, 2005 5:18 PM EST up reply actions

Omar

has been known to knock back a few Presidentes while shmoozing free agents.

Pedro offers you his protection.

by pj on Dec 3, 2005 6:02 PM EST up reply actions

BTW

Here's a litte article on what I was talking about.

In business, there's something I call the "PR digit": every time I've looked at actual figures of private company deals or statistics there is always one digit added to the end. So when it says a private company was bought for $50M, it was actually $5M. When a dotcom says it has ten million users, it actually has one million.

Veblen knew all of this. It works because so few know Veblen.

by peeder on Dec 3, 2005 5:29 PM EST up reply actions

you mean to say

that private companies mislead the public? Heresy!

by peteyfan45 @ Amazin' Avenue on Dec 4, 2005 3:00 AM EST up reply actions

the market's gone mad

After Bobby Howry's deal, and Ryan's, and Wagner's, this must have looked reasonable to Gillick. Pitching, at least, is going for serious money in this year's thin crop of free agents. (That's what makes dumping Benson, as the Orioles rumor indicated, a particularly bad move -- his deal is starting to look quite reasonable, and he should be worth something real in a trade.) The ridiculousness of a three-year deal for a 38-year-old is what makes this one worse than average, as if the deal had been decided by Gordon's past pedigree and not his likely future performance.

by anonymous on Dec 2, 2005 1:26 AM EST reply actions

Gordon/Farnsworth

Actually, Gordon's K/BB numbers seem a little worse than they really are. Gordon spent the first half of his career as a starter who walked a ton of batters. Since becoming a full time reliever in 1998, Gordon's K/BB ratio is 3.11. It's gone down but it's still at 2.38.

The money is about right, there's just (at least) one year too many included.

As for Farnsworth, I don't blame anyone for not wanting him. Talk to Cubs fans about how frustrating he is. He has the proverbial "million dollar arm and ten cent head" and there is a reason why he's earned the nicknames "Captain Tightpants" and "The Sperminator." In short his career has been marred by extreme inconsistency, particularly with regard to his control.

by Alex Nelson on Dec 2, 2005 8:20 AM EST reply actions

gordon signing

Honestly, I think tom gordon is a good reliever, regardless of age....but I dont think he's a closer anymore. I dont care what he did with the yankees. I just dont seee him as a effective closer...maybe a set up guy.
Just my opinion

by cRock NY on Dec 2, 2005 12:20 PM EST reply actions

so let me get this straight

These guys sign Gordon who is four years older than Wagner and they passed on our boy becuase of the fourth year? Does that make any sense......p.s.......Gordon gets in a big game make sure someone has a barf bag in the bullpen.

I finally logged in!!!

by vorny on Dec 2, 2005 3:33 PM EST reply actions