seems like a lot given he hasn't pitched over 140 innings, but if he stays healthy it is a good deal.
Certainly surprised the Astros were willing to guarantee that much to him. I figured 50-60 million over 4/5 years would have been the absolute ceiling. I'm hoping this means they really love what they've seen in camp. A ton of risk to the deal, but also lot of upside. He has the potential to be a dominant front end type guy if he can just stay healthy.
McCullers has "real" movement on his pitches..... unlike half the league that is using substances..... the league is cracking down this year on substances and it appears that they won't even require pitchers to be caught red handed, so I suspect that pitchers with real movement will be at a premium.
It’s a gamble for sure, but if Lance gets back to the form he displayed before having Tommy John Surgery, he would have got a bigger deal in free agency. The Astros also had a glaring need in their starting rotation for next season with Verlander, Greinke and McCullers all scheduled to be free agents.
Lance McCullers Jr. Agent is Scott Boras. I think it is a Discount. And with Lance being in his Prime. He looks more Physically Stronger. All the Best to him.
For people complaining about the price tag, would you rather have MadBum? Stroman? Ryu? Gausman? Keuchel? Eovaldi? Those are comparable AAV contracts to pitchers who are in their early 30’s. Keuchel, stroman and ryu run 18-20MM. Lance has had his health issues, yes, but he is 27, meaningfully younger than those folks. We can nit pick but this was a reasonable price.
Lance’s new social media profile pic is absolutely fire: https://mobile.twitter.com/lmccullers43/photo
From what I've read, they're going to keep a random sampling of balls that are taken out of play and send them to a lab for analysis. Seems they are very serious about it.
They are very serious. They also do not need concrete evidence but can use circumstantial evidence. They directly referenced spin rate as a primary thing they will look at.