traveling traveling, always traveling; just a one-day trip today, driving around in the rockies in what appears to be a minor blizzard. i gotta make an early start, so this'll have to be a short post. if you want to discuss the juan gonzalez signing, there is a pretty good discussion going in this diary.
as for joel pineiro, the subject of today's projection: the second guaranteed year on his contract didn't thrill me at the time of the signing, and it looks worse to me in hindsight. so far this winter only one free-agent pitcher has signed a deal with more than one guaranteed year --- carlos silva at 4 / $48m. every other free-agent SP has signed on a one-year pact (albeit with an optional second year in some cases): jon lieber for $3.5m, jason jennings for $4m, josh towers for $1.8m, matt clement for $1.5m, etc etc --- and guys like lohse and livan and weaver and fogg are still floating around out there . . . . pineiro is guaranteed $8m in 2009. will that look like a good price at this time next year? if pineiro performs like he did in his 11 stl starts last year, it'll look like a bargain; if he reverts to his previous form . . . . let's hope it's the former.
please project pineiro's final 2008 totals in these categories:
if you're following the sim tournament, results are below.