Source: Orioles Close To Signing Kevin Gregg To Two Year Deal

[Crazysilver03]

I

I disagree

Why?

Gregg is not worth $6M a year. His stats were not that elite.

[Brendan25]

I'm not too broken up about this because it's just money, but that seems awfully high. I'm guessing it isn't going to be quite that much.

It's not like they are signing him to 7 million a year for 4 years. They are giving him a two year contract and paying the rate of how much it costs to get top relief pitchers on the market. I like the deal.

[ESos92]

Horrible contract.

I agree. You would think this organization has learned something when it comes to paying relievers big dollars.

I hope that this doesn't hamstring us in acquiring other players. It shouldn't, but if a story come out that the Orioles weren't willing to go the extra year or up the salary a little to miss out on a player like Lee, I would be furious. They didn't plan their finances properly

It's just not worth it to overpay for relievers, especially when we have 2 already that have contracts in the double digits (Koji's is vesting)

[ADZ23]

Grow the arms buy the bullpen

O's have the most expensive one in the league now right?

[Os84]

He may not be top tier, but this team is going to have to overpay to get some players to sign here, including relievers that are in demand by multiple teams.

[waroriole]

It's not like they are signing him to 7 million a year for 4 years. They are giving him a two year contract and paying the rate of how much it costs to get top relief pitchers on the market. I like the deal.

But, he's not a top relief pitcher. If C is average, then Gregg is C+ or B-.

[SilentJames]

Why?

Gregg is not worth $6M a year. His stats were not that elite.

Pricey, but its not like its a Werth-ian type overpay here. I like the idea of making the Jays weaker.

[Crazysilver03]

It is a lot of $ and the Os success with free agent, multi $M reliever contracts the past few years is terrible, but it's the going rate to sign a pretty good arm in an area of need and guarantees at least one of Koji, Gonzalez and Gregg is under contract for 2011.

Well, they would all be under contract for 2011. I assume you mean having someone under contract for 2012. I think that the bullpen is the wrong area to make sure you have someone under contract long term considering how many options are usually on the market every winter and how much excess pitching we should have pushing up in the bullpen area.

[SoBo]

I don't care about the contract as long as it doesn't impede us from signing anyone else. Should make for a nice back end of the bullpen. Gonzalez, Gregg, jj and koji is pretty nice. And Buck has been clear in his desire for a strong bullpen.

[Brendan25]

Why?

Gregg is not worth $6M a year. His stats were not that elite.

If it was 4 years then I would agree, but his 2 year contract is not going to stop us from signing anyone. It's not going to cripple our franchise. It's not going to stop us from getting an Adam LaRoche if he is interested. Is it more then Gregg is worth? Probably, but probably 50% of the players in this league are overpaid. We got a very good relief pitcher for two years, and it's not going to stop us from signing someone else that we need in that period.

[waroriole]

Pricey, but its not like its a Werth-ian type overpay here. I like the idea of making the Jays weaker.

It's not like he was going back to Toronto any way.

[clapdiddy]

He may not be top tier, but this team is going to have to overpay to get some players to sign here, including relievers that are in demand by multiple teams.

I was thinking the same thing. If we were, in fact, competing against Boston and some other contenders, we may have needed to make the contract a bit more enticing.

[NCRaven]

A. Let's wait until an actual contract is signed and we know what the terms really were before we get to excited or upset.

B. It's not that much money that it will impact anything else the FO wants to do, or MacPhail wouldn't spend it. It's not like he throws money around.

C. Gonzalez was good when healthy, he just wasn't healthy enough. And, his health was a question before he was signed. I'm not aware of any such concerns with Gregg at this time.

D. The 2007 project was doomed by the poor starting pitching that torched the bullpen. I think that Guthrie, Matusz, Bergesen, Arrieta and pick one of Tillman/Britton/Blanton/VandenHurk is likely to be significantly better than that starting rotation. So, I expect the bullpen to be better as well.

Even if it is 2/$12, I'm not overly concerned. If Koji actually "earned" his $10 mil over the past two years - and the stats gurus here seem to be swearing that that is true - then I have little doubt that Gregg will earn his, as well.

[Sports Guy]

He may not be top tier, but this team is going to have to overpay to get some players to sign here, including relievers that are in demand by multiple teams.

So then you move onto another pitcher.

This is an idiotic contract with zero justification.

He isn't that good...You just paid 6 million a year for a guy who has saved a good amount of games and put him on a team that doesn't need a closer.

Pure stupidity.

[Ruzious]

It's a poor use of resources. Granted, we probably needed a body, but he certainly is not a dominant reliever. I would have gone after the most ready competent looking Rule 5 guy. Let Johnson and Vandenhurk fight it out for 7th inning guy. Gonzo and Koji are the 8th and 9th inning guys. Use Berken and maybe Patton as the long guys. To commit 12 mil to a guy who gives you a 1.38 WHIP as the closer doesn't appeal to me.