An article on the worst contracts in baseball DID NOT include Carlos Lee's contract. http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/10/11/the-worst-contracts-in-baseball/?sct=hp_wr_a2&eref=sihp One more year of Caballo and his awful contract is off the books. Now if we could only fast forward til the time when Singleton, Cosart, Santana and the rest of the pups are ready to contribute.
Yep giving 6 years 100 mil to a 30 year old Carlos Lee wasn't the best move. But he did have the highest WAR of any player on the Astros last year.
The more I think about, Carlos Lee's contract was not so horrible in just the numbers aspect and how he produced. I mean he really had 1 year and 1 month of truly horribly offensive production, but over the other 3 6/7 years, he performed exactly as he was expected to. His contract looked worse than it actually was though because: 1. The Astros have been nothing but horrible since he was signed, making his contract look like the sign post of a badly managed team that was not accepting the signs to rebuild. Yes, he is overpaid on the Astros but put him a playoff contending team the past few years like the Padres/Giants/Braves/etc and most likely his stats go up because the team is winning and he better talent around him. If that team were to have gone to the playoffs and win a few series, he would have seemed worth it despite the high price. 2. The Astros are an NL team. If Lee had been signed to an AL team, his lack of defensive skills would have never mattered. Yes, that off season would have looked bad, but more than not he hit and players have bad seasons. Being unable to hide the defensive holes and lack of range made his 1 year of offensive struggles look even worse than normal, especially to avid Astros fans. Don't get me wrong. I would have never signed Carlos Lee to that contract (especially for with the ridiculous trade stipulations on top of it), but more so because I would have never fired Hunsicker and made sure that the farm was stocked with players who could have provided what he did for a lot less money. In the long run, his contract, in a vacuum from the Astros situation, was not that bad.
White Sox get rid of him in 2004... win WS the next season Brewers trade him in 2006... 2007 they have a winning record Astros get rid of him... ???
