Sheets Signs ← FREE KRAUT!

Sheets Signs 58

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Free agent right-hander Ben Sheets has signed with the A’s, CBSSports.com has learned.

Sheets agreed to terms on a one-year deal for more than $8 million. He passed a physical today, and the deal is expected to be announced this afternoon.

Excellent.

58 thoughts on “Sheets Signs

  1. mikeA Jan 26,2010 10:04 am

    Interesting that he got more than Harden.

    • green star oakland Jan 26,2010 10:37 am || Up

      What exactly is Harden’s contract, because my searches are turning up different things in terms of the base salary, performance bonuses, and 2nd year option? The consensus seems to be

      The deal calls for a $6.5 million salary and includes an $11.5 million mutual option for 2011 with a $1 million buyout. Harden can earn an additional $2.5 million in performance bonuses.

      which could be significantly more than Sheets, depending on the incentives in that contract (and both men’s health).

      If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
      • mikeA Jan 26,2010 10:40 am || Up

        Looks like 1/7.5 with a mutual option for 11MM. Didn’t know about the mutual option.

        • green star oakland Jan 26,2010 10:42 am || Up

          (Sorry – I added to my post post-posting).

          If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
      • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:43 am || Up

        What exactly is Sheets’ for that matter?

        Sheets’ contract is for $10 million plus performance bonuses, SI.com has learned.

        "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
        • green star oakland Jan 26,2010 11:00 am || Up

          I’ll guess at $8 guaranteed + $2 performance, which would mean that they both get up to $10 for the year.

          Now guess who will start more games next year.

          If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
  2. nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:08 am

    I would have preferred Beltre (but then so would the A’s). After that, though, this is pretty much the most reasonable FA signing.

    "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
    • TJ Jan 26,2010 10:11 am || Up

      Disagree, I would definitely rather have Kouz + Sheets than Beltre + Hairston + Cunningham.

      Although I suppose there’s the possibility that maybe you could have swapped H+C for a different pitcher, although we can’t know if that was even possible.

    • mikeA Jan 26,2010 10:27 am || Up

      I think this year’s team should be better than Beltre/no trade/no Sheets, and I don’t think Beltre will be all that good in 2011-12. Also, Sheets should have excellent trade value if he stays healthy.

      • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:35 am || Up

        You could be right. I think he will be, but there’s plenty of uncertainty about him and Kouz is a pretty good fill-in.

        We do, however, follow a team where “if he stays healthy” is what John Cole would call “magical fucking thinking” in that it never seems to actually happen. I hope Sheets is different, and I certainly like the signing.

        "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
        • mikeA Jan 26,2010 10:38 am || Up

          I think in the A’s position (mediocre team) going for upside is the best strategy rather than spending the money on someone dependable. I probably wouldn’t want to spend this much money on him as the Angels or Mariners.

          • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:41 am || Up

            That certainly makes sense. I think “filling gaping holes for multiple years” is most important though. At the time Beltre was the best way to do that. Sheets doesn’t do that, but then Kouz already did. The closest thing we have now is SS, and Pennington’s probably on the low end of ok.

            "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
  3. green star oakland Jan 26,2010 10:09 am

    Any news on how much is guaranteed and how much is in incentives? And is guaranteed money insurable?

    If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
    • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:18 am || Up

      It would certainly be insurable, but I have no idea what the economics are. Everything is insurable.

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
      • monkeyball Jan 26,2010 10:25 am || Up

        … except people with preexisting conditions.

        you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
        • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:35 am || Up

          Yuck. We should fix that.

          "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
  4. TJ Jan 26,2010 10:09 am

    Finally the bride and not a bridesmaid.

    It really is interesting that he got more than Harden. In thinking about that deal in hindsight I suppose I would have been more disappointed that the A’s didn’t go after Harden if I had known they had this kind of money sitting around. Which brings up the question- could the fact that the A’s have been so aggressive recently on the FA market have something to do with the fallout following the Marlins wrist-slap over revenue sharing money? Maybe a friendly reminder from Bud to Lew that we had better be helping to send smoke around that issue if we want to get our move to SJ approved?

  5. nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:17 am

    "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
    • monkeyball Jan 26,2010 10:46 am || Up

      You have a troll/admirer

      you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
      • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:50 am || Up

        Apparently. Of course mine is appropriately sized and doesn’t spell out the joke. His is [insert masturbatory style critique here].

        "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
        • monkeyball Jan 26,2010 10:52 am || Up

          TWHS

          Of course mine is appropriately sized

          you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
        • Leopold Bloom Jan 26,2010 5:09 pm || Up

          his got 16 rec’s. what’d you get?

          • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 5:18 pm || Up

            There first.

            "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
            • Leopold Bloom Jan 26,2010 5:32 pm || Up

              if history has taught us anything, nm…

          • monkeyball Jan 26,2010 5:20 pm || Up

            16 rec’s and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

            you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
            • Leopold Bloom Jan 26,2010 5:32 pm || Up

              you spying on me again, monkey?!

            • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 5:49 pm || Up

              Actually I get (very marginally) less deep in debt every day. When I’m ready to retire I’ll be even.

              "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
  6. salb918 Jan 26,2010 10:32 am

    Thumbs up.

  7. monkeyball Jan 26,2010 10:52 am

    Boy, would it have been frustrating and confusing if they’d lost Sheets and signed Damon.

    you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
    • monkeyball Jan 26,2010 10:53 am || Up

      < / Travis >

      you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
      • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:54 am || Up

        Of course we didn’t lose Sheets. Make good pitchers want to come here.

        "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
        • monkeyball Jan 26,2010 10:55 am || Up

          Well, they should.

          you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
          • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:56 am || Up

            When was the last time we lost out on a FA pitcher we made the top offer to? I can’t think of one, but I might easily be forgetting.

            "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
            • Leopold Bloom Jan 26,2010 5:02 pm || Up

              We play in pitcher’s fucking paradise. They should pay us a tax to play there.

              Fucking pitchers.

    • mikeA Jan 26,2010 11:35 am || Up
      • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 11:36 am || Up

        I’ll take him at $3M

        "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
        • mikeA Jan 26,2010 11:38 am || Up

          I probably would too, but it would make signing Crisp all the more baffling, and it’s not clear to me that he’s better than Rajai or Crisp…

          • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 11:55 am || Up

            Yep. I do not now, nor did I ever, understand the Crisp signing.

            "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
          • monkeyball Jan 26,2010 12:13 pm || Up

            It would also be really weird because we’d have tons of (relatively high quality) OF redundancy, and still no real IF redundancy (with relatively low-quality front-line IFs).

            you better hope to God you don't show up in this little community, because you'll wish you had never come
            • green star oakland Jan 26,2010 12:20 pm || Up

              Addressing the shortcomings of the infield has been the other-shoe-drop we’ve been waiting for since the 2007/8 off-season.

              If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
          • grover Jan 26,2010 4:10 pm || Up

            I don’t know. Signing Damon makes re-signing Cust seem more redundant than the Crisp deal.

  8. green star oakland Jan 26,2010 10:55 am

    I hadn’t realized that the Giants could have avoided Lincecum’s current super 2 status if they’d just waited a week longer to bring him up in 2007 (he spent the first month of the season in AAA). Obviously hindsight is 20-20 and they didn’t know it was exactly a week at the time, but another month would have been conservative and saved them about $10 million.

    If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
    • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 10:57 am || Up

      The win-now brigade would have crucified them.

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
      • green star oakland Jan 26,2010 12:10 pm || Up

        But he was only called up because Ortiz went on the 15-day DL … they should have taken a leaf out of the A’s book and just left him on the bench.

        If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
  9. green star oakland Jan 26,2010 1:15 pm

    Sheets is #21

    If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
  10. FreeSeatUpgrade Jan 26,2010 1:18 pm

    Very happy about this news.

    However, if I was Gio I’d make sure my residence was on a month-to-month lease.

    "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
    • green star oakland Jan 26,2010 1:21 pm || Up

      Although what are the odds that (i) Duke and Sheets are healthy simultaneously, and (ii) if healthy, Sheets is on the team after the trading deadline.

      If this is His will, He's a son of a bitch.
    • mikeA Jan 26,2010 1:21 pm || Up

      Pitching is fairly abundant right now, but it isn’t really medium term, and even for this year I think Gio is the strong favorite to get a rotation spot over Cahill and Mazzaro. Also, since real estate values have declined, maybe it’s a good time to buy…

    • TJ Jan 26,2010 3:55 pm || Up

      If Gio can’t make it as a starter he could be a good lefty/swing man out of the pen. Of course that’s also what I see as Eveland’s likely role.

      But I’m also strongly in the “send Cahill to AAA and wait for him to dominate that level before bringing him back” camp. I’d rather see Gio get the #5 slot outright.

      • FreeSeatUpgrade Jan 26,2010 5:12 pm || Up

        I agree with all of you…I like the idea of what Gio can do (if not so much the actual results). Still, given the fact that his name has come up as trade potential this offseason, that Sheets now makes the overall starting pitching more solid, and in particular the distinct possibility that Beane perceives Gio’s trade value as exceeding the value of his actually pitching in Oakland, I think the signs point to departure.

        "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
        • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 5:19 pm || Up

          We’ll see, his SO rate feels too sexy for him to not become a legit pitcher.

          "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
        • mk Jan 26,2010 5:23 pm || Up

          I think he’d be nuts to trade any of them, given the injury uncertainty with respect to Duke, Braden, and Sheets, and the suck uncertainty with respect to Eveland, Gio, Cahill, and Mazarro. It’s a pretty good bet that all seven of those guys (and maybe a few more) will make starts in 2010.

  11. doctorK Jan 26,2010 1:33 pm

    SHEET(s) YES!

    And what would ** be without the obligatory Trainman anti-Eveland comment.

  12. mikeA Jan 26,2010 5:27 pm
    • nevermoor Jan 26,2010 5:50 pm || Up

      No. G-S wins.

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
  13. mk Jan 26,2010 5:52 pm

    I think Dave Cameron says “market correction” more than Peter Travers says “visually stunning”.

  14. whiteshoes40 Jan 26,2010 7:06 pm

    I heart Jeff.

    Real good move for the A’s – while Sheets is, obviously, a spectacular risk, on true talent he pushes that team north of .500. Everybody in this division has a realistic shot of going to the playoffs.

    That’s the most optimistic statement I’ve seen about the A’s in months!

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