Follow Mumbling Jack, my new blog

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Duh Duh Dave Dumbrowski

Maybe you thought Jim Bowden, GM of the ex-Montreal ex-Expos, had set this off-season's bar for bad deals (Cristian Guzman, 4 years, $16 million; Vinny Castilla, 2 years, $6.2 million; Tony Batista, 2 years, $15 million) too low for anyone else to squirm under. Well, maybe he did. But here we are in February and Dave Dombrowski, Detroit Tigers' GM, has made a valiant effort to underperform Bowden by signing Magglio Ordonez to a 5-year, $75 million contract. Ordonez is a good player if healthy, but he's not worth that kind of money.

I'm too tired tonight to go into the reasons that this deal sucks for Detroit, but luckily the U.S.S. Mariner and Rich Lederer weren't. As Lederer points out:

According to the [ESPN] article, Magglio is guaranteed a $6 million signing bonus and a $6 million salary in 2005. As a result, the Tigers’ exposure is said to be $12 million. But, oh my, it is much more than that. Detroit’s minimum exposure is $12 million. However, the organization can’t just cut him loose if they are unhappy with his play or if he suffers another injury. In fact, Mags could land on the DL with the exact same knee problem for up to 24 days and the Tigers would have no recourse (other than being forced to pay Ordonez another $63 million for the following four years).
Yeah, Motor City Madness. No wonder Dombrowski isn't returning phone calls from reporters.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least Magglio has an upside and if he is healthy could be a good addition. Don't get me wrong I'm sure when Magglio's agent got the offer sheet from Dombrowski he did a dance of joy. And I always thought that if a player ended up on the DL for an extended period of time that the teams insurance covered the contract. Still an incredibly stupid signing when you consider some of the other deals this year. (Delgado comes to mind.)

But please refer to Jim Bowden as the GM of the Washington Nationals. There is no connection between the beloved Montreal franhise and this mockery of a team being formed in Washington. At least I won't have to suffer the way Quebec Nordiques fans did when there team left and then immediately won a Stanley Cup. If this offseason is an indication of the types of player personnel decisions the Nationals will make they are doomed.

dylan miller

RossK said...

Why, exactly, has Motor City become the place that GM's go to die?