Good Moves and Questionable Moves

Two contract extensions were announced today one good and one not so good. The Dodgers today announced a two year contract extension for 2B Jeff Kent. Actually it's for 2007 with an option for 2008. I just don't get it. The Dodgers appear to be rewarding Kent for what he offered them last season and that's consistency. Last season he played in every game when most of his teammates were spending a great deal of time on the DL. Kent's ability to stay away from non-motor cycle related injuries is the stuff of legend. He's also player remarkably well having slugged over .500 every season since 1998. But if they're rewarding Kent for his health and consistency what about the players the Dodgers have brought in to surround Kent? Nomar has never been the picture of health. Neither has Mueller of Lofton. I'm not even mentioning J.D. Drew. Sooner or later this team is going to have get younger. Kent, due to defense, at some point will eventually have to move to first base. I know I don't give Kent enough credit but it is Grady Little's first season at Chavez ravine and what if he and Kent don't see eye to eye. Everyone has heard the stories about Kent's personality. Locking themselves into two more seasons when there will be younger, cheaper, better first base options on the free market over the next two years. Is Kent the personality that you want to mold a team around is he someone like...........

Grady Sizemore. Cleveland's GM Mark Shapiro continued to have the best spring of any GM when locked up Sizemore getting the centerfielder to sign a six-year deal for $23 million. This is a great move for the Indians. Sizemore in just a year has become the face of the Cleveland team. He's an exciting player who does everything well. He runs, he fields, he hits, and he hits with power. He's also appealing to fans which is apparent due to the number of Mrs. Grady Sizemore t-shirts being sold at Jacobs Field. But aside from all of that he's the type of personality that you want in front of a young developing team. Now he belongs to the Indians until 2012. Consider that if Sizemore meets all the incentives in his contract Cleveland will be paying him 4.5 million per season. Not bad for someone who finished behind only Andrew Jones and Ken Griffey Jr. in centerfielders VORP (Value over Replacement Level Player) last season. For a small market team like Cleveland that's a tremendous contract. And it's the second tremendous contract Shapiro has made this off-season having signed C Victor Martinez to a $15.5 million, five-year contract. Martinez last season led all Major League catchers in VORP.

A few years ago I got to speak to Shapiro about the Indians minor league system and I was amazed when I was told of the Indians doing things like rewarding pitchers for getting ahead in counts and awarding batters for drawing at bats out. Shapiro, I can't say this enough, has done a tremendous job for Cleveland. If I'm buying a team Shapiro is who I'm going to hire to run that team. With Sizemore and Martinez in the fold along with Travis Hafner, Jhonny Peralta, Andy Marte, Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia the Indians shouldn't just improve on their 93 win season last year but should dominate the division into the next decade.