Monday, January 19, 2009
How do you Pronounce Gagne?
Before I start, yesterday I
posted some survey questions regarding
SethSpeaks.net, Live Chats, the SethSpeaks.net podcasts and the Minnesota Twins
Prospect Handbook – 2009. Please consider helping me out by responding to the
survey.
The Twins talk at the end of
last week, and through the weekend, was their reported discussions with Scott Boras about free agent relief
pitcher Eric Gagne. This isn’t a
call. Don’t report it as fact yet. But I just have a strong feeling, an
intuition, a gut feeling (and I have a big gut, so how can it be wrong?) that
this is legit. I believe that there is a very good chance that the Twins will
sign Eric Gagne. I’m not completely
certain about how I feel about that, if it were to happen. I mean, like most
Twins fans, I have spent all offseason waiting for something to happen.
Anything! But at the same time, I don’t want the team to sign just anyone. It
has to make sense.
Eric Gagne is a big name, no
question. He was the most dominant reliever in baseball… from 2002 until his
arm blew up after 14 games into his 2005 season. That forced him to miss the
rest of that season and most of the 2006 season. He wasn’t particularly good in
2007, and 2008 was a struggle as well. He missed about six weeks (mid-May
through June) on the Disabled List.
But that isn’t to say that signing
Eric Gagne would be a bad thing.
Reality is that Gagne just turned 33 years old. He hasn’t had arm problems
since his elbow surgery. His velocity will never get to what it was earlier
this decade, but his ability to throw a big time changeup is what made him so
great anyway. In September for the Brewers last year, he gave up three runs in
an inning on September 1st, and his ERA rose to 6.81. He then gave
up just one more run over his final 11 outings of the season, and then added
two scoreless innings against the Phillies in the playoffs.
Can Eric Gagne help the Twins? Well, after signing for $10 million a
year ago to close for the Brewers, he quickly lost his closer’s role. I’m sure
he would love to go to a team to close, but I don’t think it will happen (of
course, the Tigers still are in need of a closer). So, his best shot would be
an 8th inning gig, setting up for another team’s closer and being
there in case of injury. Joe Nathan
is the Twins closer. No question there. Gagne would compete to pitch in 8th
innings. Along with a group including Jesse
Crain, Matt Guerrier,
Jose Mijares
and even Boof Bonser, he
would add depth to a bullpen with question marks.
So the real question mark
becomes the contract demands. Since Scott
Boras is involved, the assumption is that he will try to get Gagne as much
money as he can. I mean, that is his job, right? But Boras also has a history
of putting his clients that have something to prove into good situations,
situations where they can succeed and reclaim their status. Then one year
later, they can get big money again. Look no further than the Twins signing Kenny Rogers in 2003 to a one year
contract. It appears that teams are not willing to give Gagne more than one
year. The question becomes; how much will that one year cost? What would you be
willing to pay if the risk is only for one year?
I would be comfortable with the
Twins offering a base salary of up to $2.0 million. I would then offer a couple
of incentives based on appearances and games finished. I would offer an extra $200,000
for appearing in 35 games, and another $200,000 for every ten games beyond
that. (So, if he pitched in 65 games, he would earn an extra $800,000. On top
of that, I would offer an extra $500,000 for every ten games finished, starting
at 25 games finished. If he finished 35 games, he would earn an extra $1,000,000.
That would be feasible only if Joe
Nathan were to miss time and Gagne would become the team’s closer. So
again, if Gagne were to stay healthy all year, and pitch in 65 games, and
complete 35 of them, he would make $3.8 million which would be more than fair.
Oh, and at least it would be
better than signing Brandon Lyon,
right?
So, hear comes the pronunciation
question that I mentioned in the title, a question in which I obviously spent
way too much time thinking about, even if it was just a few seconds… would the
Twins signing him have you pronouncing his name:
Eric Gagne (Gone-YAY!!!!)
Or
Eric Gagne (Gag-Me!)
I’m curious about what you
think about the Twins potentially signing Eric
Gagne. Would you like the signing, or would you see it as another attempt
to bring in a veteran several years past his prime, rather than just going with
their own developed players like Rob
Delaney, Zach Ward, or even Boof Bonser of Phil Humber? Leave your comments here.