At the Midway Point. Worse Signing, Reyes or Bell ?

[Party]

Tying this thread with the Beinfest thread, I'm not going to hold the Bell contract against Beinfest. That's a Loria contract. Buehrle is all Ozzie though. Seriously believe Buerhle would have used the Marlins against other teams had Ozzie gone elsewhere.

The Buck contract is whatever. It hasn't really considering how weak the position is.

[dim]

Buck's contract isn't good, but it isn't team crippling. What Heath Bell is doing right now is hurting the team. Jose Reyes hasn't been GREAT, but he seems to be getting slightly better later in the season. I'm not really worried about Jose. He hasn't shown any real decline in his abilities, just a poor first half. He's the player I expect to have a nice bounce back second half. Buehrle was obviously a great signing. You always know what you're getting out of Buehrle.

Heath Bell's contract could easily be debated, but the team's needed a closer since Todd Jones left. They took a huge risk and so far it hasn't paid off. There may have been warning signs before the season, but Loria decided to say "f*ck it" and throw cash at any player he thought fit a positional need. We were pretty damn close to having CJ Wilson for a Reyes like contract and Pujols for the next nine years at close to $200 million.

[Bobbob1313]

Heath Bell's contract could easily be debated, but the team's needed a closer since Todd Jones left.

I'm not sure who did the numbers, but the the difference between Bell's save percentage over the last few year's and the various Marlins' closer options was negligible. Something like maybe 87% to 81%, off the top of my head.

I don't think it was ever as big a need as many argued, but that's just the school of thought I subscribe to Re: closers. They pitch too few innings to be consistently worth the kinds of contracts they get in free agency.

[Mainge]

87% to 85%.

[Bobbob1313]

There ya go. That's what, a save per season, at worst.

Of course, not all saves are created equal, but it just seems silly to pay a premium for a relatively small improvement in such a tiny amount of innings.

[dim]

I'm not sure who did the numbers, but the the difference between Bell's save percentage over the last few year's and the various Marlins' closer options was negligible. Something like maybe 87% to 81%, off the top of my head.

I don't think it was ever as big a need as many argued, but that's just the school of thought I subscribe to Re: closers. They pitch too few innings to be consistently worth the kinds of contracts they get in free agency.

I agree, and I've heard the point about closers for a while and for the most part agree as well. But given positional need, I'm sure the Bell contract wasn't as crazy as giving Pujols nine years and $200 million plus (if you ignore the marketing value of Pujols).

I also think Oviedo was a better closer than a lot of people gave him credit for. Hell, he could've been an all star for the first half of last season.