Dave Littlefield announced that the team won’t sign Oliver Perez to a long term contract until after the 2005 season. Even though we all know Perez has several Cy Young Awards in his future and is a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame even at age 23, this isn’t as stupid as it sounds.
The Pirates can save a lot of money by only paying Perez the $320,000 or so he made in 2004. That’s their right - he’s not yet arbitration eligible. That way, if Perez gets hurt this season, they haven’t committed much.
However, Perez is a special kind of pitcher, and might even win the Cy Young Award this season. If he does, he’ll get a bit more than 6 figures in arbitration. And he might be disgrunted in a couple years when he’s a free agent. Is it worth the risk?
January 4th, 2005 at 5:20 pm
See, I need to write that tool to rate predictions… so, by what year shall we expect Perez to have 2 Cy Youngs?
January 4th, 2005 at 5:45 pm
2014?
January 4th, 2005 at 6:37 pm
alright… 2014
you get 5 points for every day you don’t change your target date, and 10,000 points for hitting the right year. 1 point is deleted for every day you’re off, and since this is yearly, I guess that means you lose 365 points each year. The game is active until the player retires (for the first time).