Tiers of FA pitching

[davell]

By monetary standards, we've got Sabathia, Wilson, and Darvish far and away being the big 3. Each of them are going to cost 75 million plus, in all likelihood. If we go after and get one of Pujols or Fielder, it's very likely we won't sign one of these guys as well. That said, I'm not even sure we should anyway. The second tier includes Erik Bedard, Mark Buehrle, Bruce Chen, Edwin Jackson, Hiroki Kuroda, Paul Maholm, Roy Oswalt, and Javier Vazquez. A 3rd tier of guys would include Mitch Talbot, Livan Hernandez, Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Jon Garland, Zack Duke, Joel Pineiro, Chris Capuano, Jeff Francis, Jason Marquis, and Aaron Cook. To me, if we could get one of the 1B and 2 of the 2nd tier guys, we're probably the favorites in our division heading into next season. I see no reason to sign a 3rd tier guy unless it's to be our 6th starter or something like that. Anyway, just curious as to how everyone wants to address the staff? Is it a higher priority than 1B? Or is it more like the way I'm thinking here?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Most of that 3rd tier should actually be listed with the 4th or 5th tier.

[KingKongvs.Godzilla]

Most of that 3rd tier should actually be listed with the 4th or 5th tier.

 

Same for the second tier. Bruce Chen?

[MWV]

Chen was worth 2.8 WAR last season (108 ERA+).

What might be a useful objective cutoff between the tiers?

[MWV]

Ok, so I went ahead and sorted the FA starters by 2011 WAR. This obviously leaves out some FAs who didn't pitch last year:

 

Tier 1

CC Sabathia 6.9

C.J. Wilson 5.0

 

Tier 2

Mark Buehrle 3.7

Hiroki Kuroda 3.7

Freddy Garcia 3.4

Edwin Jackson 3.1

Bruce Chen 2.8

Paul Maholm 2.6

Javier Vazquez 2.5

 

Tier 3

Aaron Harang 1.9

Roy Oswalt 1.7

Jeff Francis 1.4

Kevin Millwood 1.1

Chris Young 1.0

 

Tier 4

Ryan Dempster 0.8

Rich Harden 0.7

Jon Garland 0.5

Aaron Cook 0.2

Rodrigo Lopez 0.1

Chien-Ming Wang 0.0

 

Tier 5

Zach Duke -0.1

Livan Hernande -0.1

Jason Marquis -0.2

Scott Kazmir -0.4

Brad Penny -0.4

John Maine -0.8

Kyle Davies -1.0

Tim Wakefield -1.2

Joel Pineiro -1.6

 

I realize single season WAR is far from a perfect metric, but it's a reasonable point of reference for discussion.

[KingKongvs.Godzilla]

Chen was worth 2.8 WAR last season (108 ERA+).

What might be a useful objective cutoff between the tiers?

 

He's got a decade of suck behind him IIRC.

[imb]

What was Oswalt's injury?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Chen was worth 2.8 WAR last season (108 ERA+).

 

How much of that came against the White Sox?

[davell]

Bruce Chen isn't really what I was wanting to talk about, when creating this thread. If he's a tier 2 or a tier 3 or a tier 4, I don't really care. Honestly, I threw him in at 2 because I only looked at last season. If I had looked at his entire body of work, I'd have put him in the 3rd tier. My main point though is we could add a Vazquez and a Bedard on 1 or 2 year deals, along with one of the 1B and we're probably contending at the deadline, meaning we could add something substantial then and be pretty well off. Without spending tons of money on one of the top tier guys.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Kuodas had a nice, low key run in the big leagues, but he's going to be 37 at the start of the 2012 season, and I can't see Epstein going after him. However, to a team in need of a short term middle of the rotation guy, he could ne a good pivkup.

[Little Slide Rooter]

What was Oswalt's injury?

 

Back. I remember he said if he didn't get better he'd call it quits.

[KingKongvs.Godzilla]

Chien-Ming Wang might be interesting. Couple other guys, but he stood out amongst the not tier one guys who might be had low.

 

I think I might be pro-Darvish heading into FA, but it's such a longshot that it's not really worth actively pushing. I think he's going to be a good one.