Can the Indians Extend Jake Westbrook?
Jake Westbrook has been a solid number three starter in the Cleveland Indians rotation over the last few years. He is a workhorse type of a pitcher that doesn’t throw ridiculous heat or overly soft. He pitches under control, keeps his fielders involved, and generally works a lot of innings. And he tends to win more games than he loses.
These are the types of pitchers that historically get undervalued in the Majors because they lack the flash of a number one starter who can throw the heater. After seeing this year’s crop of free agent pitchers get their paydays, it appears like they are undervalued no more. To try and give Indians fans some perspective on Westbrook, it seemed apparent that Westbrook most resembles Dave Burba.
While Westbrook is a couple of years ahead of schedule on Burba, look at the similarity between their numbers.
They have similar amounts of games pitched and innings worked, which speaks to durability, and reliability. The only big difference is that Burba had more strikeouts than Westbrook.
Now, the question is how much is a player like Westbrook worth as he enters his 30’s? Consider the fact that while he pitches a lot of innings, that equates to miles on the odometer for a pitcher. Many pitchers maintain that consistency for a long time, and some hit the wall.
The most similar signing this off-season was probably when Gil Meche signed a 5-year $55 million deal to pitch for the Kansas City Royals in 2007.
Westbrook is set to make $6.1 million in 2007. Hopefully the Tribe can get some kind of discount by extending him starting this season. Even still, with market prices like those, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to see discussions from Westbrook’s camp for a contract in the neighborhood of 3-5 years with money in the $7 - $10 million dollar per year range.
Also keep in mind that CC Sabathia, the Indians ace, will make $8.75 million this season and is scheduled to make $9 million in 2008. As long as CC is the number one starter, it makes sense that the Indians would want to keep Westbrook’s salary underneath of Sabathia’s. If they get too high with Westbrook, it will set a bad precedent when it comes time to negotiate an extension with Sabathia.
I am sure GM Mark Shapiro and Assistant GM Chris Antonnetti will be keeping this in mind as they keep themselves busy negotiating deals with their young talent. The Indians also plan on talking about an extension with designated hitter Travis Hafner who is set to make $3.75 million in 2007. Cleveland has a $4.75 million option for 2008.
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Craig, I have absolutely pored over your statistics and I’m still not sure. Can you prepare a pie chart for us on this subject like you did in that old post about energy efficiency or whatever a year or two ago? I think that would help me out, to see one of your very special pie charts.
Are you poking fun at me?
I mean, I could try to prepare a pie chart, but that isn’t really all that suitable an exhibit for comparing two players. Pie charts are generally used to see what percentage that a few parts make up of a total. I guess I could do a pie chart of each of the players salaries on the Indians’ total payroll, but it would be a lot of slivers and I am not sure that it would be all that useful.
See. If you make fun of me for being a nerd, I will be forced to NERD YOU TO DEATH!
Yeah, but does Westbrook have his own bats? Is Westbrook a goofy looking 6′5 guy who can go yard any time he faces NL pitching? I saw Dave Burba pitch, and Westbrook sir, is no Dave Burba.
PS: Dump your data into SAS, run some ANOVA and a T test, and see if there is a true statistical difference between the two pitchers.
Westbrook will probably last longer than Dave Burba because he doesn’t rely on heat.
I was just trying to point out that they fill similar roles on the team eating up innings in the number three spot in the rotation. Come to think of it, Burba might have pitched in the second spot in the rotation some years, but he was definitely more suited to being a number 3.
Never had a problem with the guy, but now that Major League pitching is at a premium and guys that are normally #2 or #3 starters are making exorbanant amounts of change, how much are we going to have to pay, and is he really worth it?
I don’t know about the Meche signing. That was retarded, really. Dude’s a .500 arm. This was an off year for free agents, pitchers especially. What we really need to look at is who are the other free agent pitchers next year: Mark Buerhle, Doug Davis, Kris Benson, Matt Clement, Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, Livan Hernandez, Jon Lieber, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz. There’s some old folks in there. Westbrrok’s “youth” may help him get an extra year or two at an extra mil or so a year. Unfortunately, I’m not sure there are many good arms in the farm system right now for the Tribe, which would help.
Despite his failures as a closer last year, Fausto Carmona is sitting in Buffalo as a starter. The tribe also has Adam Miller who was the class AA pitcher of the year last year. He is supposed to start the season in Buffalo as well. The Indians have some decent depth in the minors in terms of pitchers right now.
That takes some of the pressure off.
Also keep in mind the offer they made to Mark Mulder before he re-signed with the St. Louis Cards was for approximately $7 million per year. It appears that the Indians might finally be willing to spend a little bit to keep guys.
Don’t fah-ghit about Mawk Mow-dah!
Nice Rome reference.