Ever since the publishing of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, Billy Beene and the Oakland Athletics have been the focus of a great deal of praise and criticism. Working on a shoestring budget in a small market, Beene has been forced to squeeze every bit of talent from every dollar by evaluating players in new and inventive ways, and it has paid off handsomely for Oakland. Year after year Oakland in the last decade have been perennial contenders, winning a handful of division titles and become mainstays in the AL West, at least until as of late. With the loss of such stars like Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, and Dan Haren to name a few, Oakland has had trouble finding replacements from within. As a consequence, the A’s have been forced to try different things to win. The trend began last year with the surpirising trade for Matt Holliday and it continues this year today with a surprise signing of Ben Sheets, the oft-injured right hander for a surprisingly rich contract of $10 million. Ten million may not be much for the likes of the Yankees or Red Sox, but this is a big chunk of change for the A’s, and while Sheets is an unbelievable talent, his injury history suggests he’ll be spending more time on the training table than the pitching mound.
As mentioned above, Sheets at age 31 has shown himself to be an unbelievable talent, when he’s healthy. Featuring a great fastball with good movement sitting around 93MPH and a wicked curveball, Sheets has shown the ability to make guys swing and miss throughout his career, striking out an impressive 7.6 per nine innings while only walking 2.0 per nine. This ability to get guys to swing and miss so often has made Sheets a rather successful pitcher, averaging a 115 ERA+ for his career, along with four all-star appearances as the ace of the Milwaukee Brewers since 2001. All of this bodes well for Sheets and the Oakland Athletics, a team that plays in the spacious Oakland Coliseum that has proven to be a pitcher’s park for those who’ve had to play there. Further, while many National League pitchers have had difficulty to make the switch to the American League, Sheets’ electric stuff suggests that his transition to the junior circuit won’t be too difficult. All of these factors add up to a pretty solid pitcher for the A’s, but as we will see below this is only part of the story with Sheets.
To be sure, if you ask anyone familiar with Ben Sheets they will tell you it’s not the on-field stuff that’s the problem with Sheets, its staying healthy enough to be there. While possessing great talent and at times ace-caliber performance, Sheets has been plagued with injuries throughout his career. Here’s a list of Sheet’s many stints on the DL;
2001: right shoulder tendinitis (DL, missed 46 days)
2005: Vestibular Neuritis (DL, missed 37 days)
2005: upper back strain (DL, missed 36 days)
2006: right shoulder strain (DL, missed 23 days)
2006: right shoulder tendinitis (DL, missed 82 days)
2007: right middle finger injury (DL, missed 45 days)
2005: Vestibular Neuritis (DL, missed 37 days)
2005: upper back strain (DL, missed 36 days)
2006: right shoulder strain (DL, missed 23 days)
2006: right shoulder tendinitis (DL, missed 82 days)
2007: right middle finger injury (DL, missed 45 days)
Just looking at that list makes me ache. Now of course, there is reason to believe that Sheets can overcome these injuries. After all, none of these injuries are arm related, and allegedly his shoulder issues have been resolved after sitting out for the year, but as true as this may be the trend are troubling. Now in his 30s, history has shown us that as players age they usually don’t get more durable, and there is a lot to suggest that this will only get worse for Sheets.
For sure, the A’s have taken a sizable risk in signing Sheets to a contract that awards the righty could earn well more than 10million in incentives. Sheets has shown to a great talent, but is he going to be worth it? After all, in the past five seasons Sheets has averaged only 120 innings (counting the zero last year) and hasn’t thrown 200 innings since 2004, what can the A’s reasonable expect? Because I respect Beene and what he does in Oakland so much I want to like this deal, but for the cash-strapped A’s this is a puzzling move. Ten million is a lot to give a guy who’s coming off major shoulder surgery, and it seems to be a risk that Oakland cannot afford to take. Then again, I haven’t had a book written about me, so maybe Beene knows something I don’t.
0 comments:
Post a Comment