Over at SI.com, Joe Sheehan offers up a savvy GM’s guide to free agency:
There aren’t many bargains in this year’s market; De La Rosa could be the best. The 29-year-old hits the market off a disappointing season by traditional metrics: 8-7, 4.22 ERA, just 121 2/3 innings in 20 starts after missing two months with a finger injury. Look deeper and you see a lefty who strikes out eight men per game, whose arm hasn’t been damaged by overuse and who has been coming into his own since the Rockies picked him up in 2008. De La Rosa has become a groundball/strikeout pitcher in his late twenties, peaking last year as more than half the balls in play off him were put on the ground. His ERA was higher than it should have been due to a fluky-high 15.8 percent HR/FB rate, against a career mark of around 11 percent De La Rosa is 2 1/2 years younger than Cliff Lee, doesn’t have Lee’s back problems and will provide at least 80 percent of the value for maybe 20 percent of the cost. You could blow out the field by offering three years at $8 million each and get the best deal of the offseason, something teams such as the Twins, Tigers and Brewers should be eager to do.
And this, from Mark Feinsand and Peter Botte in the News:
According to a source, the Yankees have expressed interest in lefthander Jorge de la Rosa, considered by many to be one of the top free-agent pitchers available after Lee.
De la Rosa, who turns 30 in April, went 8-7 with a 4.22 ERA with the Rockies last season, although he pitched well during the second half, allowing three earned runs or less in 13 of is final 14 starts.
De La Who?
You do know that they play fairly good baseball after you East Coasters go to bed, right? DLR is actually a guy I wouldn't mind the Yankees kicking the tires on. Feel free to call him George of the Rose if you are so inclined.
Wait, so, three savvy GMs (Twins, Tigers, Brewers) are all expected to be eager to blow away the field by offering De La Rosa three years at $8 million per year? Isn't this a pretty obviously self-defeating prediction??
That's a surprisingly positive assessment of de la Rosa from Sheehan, which I would temper by mentioned he walks over four men per 9IP in the NL West! With a move to the AL East, I'd expect the Ks to go down and the BBs to go up...which I am sure would do wonders for the collective blood pressure of Yankees fans.
Potholes in my lawn....that's what De La will do to the collective team ERA.
[3] That sounds like fun. I know I've enjoyed the AJ Burnett experience.