Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Tigers sign Robertson for three years

According to the Free Press, The Tigers have signed Nate Robertson to a three year deal worth just over $21 million. He will make $4.25 million this year, $7 million in 2009 and $10 million in 2010. He would make an $11 million in the third year if he pitches 400 innings in 208 and 2009 or 200 innings in 2009. The 30 year old left-hander would have been a free agent after 2009 had he not been signed by that time. The Tigers now have 4 pitchers locked up through 2010 - Robertson, Jeremy Bonderman, Dontrelle Willis and Justin Verlander (who would not be eligible for free agency until after the 2011 season).

Given the market for starting pitchers, this looks like a good deal for the Tigers. Robertson posted a 4.76 ERA with a 119/63 strikeout/walk ratio in 177 2/3 innings in 2007. Robertson is not a star by any stretch of the imagination but he has reached 30 starts in each of the last 4 seasons and his performance is always pretty close to league average. It's not as easy as some think to find pitchers of his caliber.

3 comments:

  1. Like you said, people don't realize how valuable Robertson is to the team. Its not easy to find a lefty who can get a league average ERA and eat up 200+ innings. I've seen so many post/comments that suggest we should trade Robertson in a deal as if he would be easily replaced.

    On an unrelated note: If you have the information, would you be gracious enough to post the current contracts for each of the Tigers. It is so hard to find this info on the net for some reason and I'm often curious how long we have a given player and what we are paying him.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/tigers-payroll/

    For more detail on the Tigers and everyone else, go here:

    http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/

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