Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Grading the Chris Carpenter contract

The Cardinals announced this week that they were giving the 36 year old righty Chris Carpenter a 2 year $21 million extension. Giving multi year deals to players over 35, especially pitchers, is usually not advisable. This year he was making a mind numbing 15 million dollars, and is having a year that most people agree is not quite his best. However, there is nothing to complain about as he has given them over 200 innings, with a 3.75 ERA, 1.299 WHIP, and a 23 RAR. Just as far as the eyeball test goes, he doesn't appear to be losing it, and has posted a WAR of 2.6. However, because of his large salary, his WASP (Wins above replacement and salary per) is 5769, much too high. Seeing that he will make around 10.5 million dollars next year, an exact same WAR would give him a WASP over 4000 (what I call the "Halladay standard" is 3000, that should be the goal for "good", like a .280 BA or 4.00 ERA). His WAR dropped from 3.2 in 2010 to 2.6 in 2011, and if that happens again with his new contract, his WASP would be a disastrous 5250 (still lower than this year's).  Fox Sports wrote that this is "a good deal for both sides", I beg to differ.

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