Twins Ripped Off By Lohse
Starting pitcher Kyle Lohse won his arbitration hearing against the Twins on Friday, meaning he will make $2.4 million this season. It was the first arbitration case of the year in major league baseball and things couldn't have gotten off to a worse start. Lohse, who made $395,000 last season, doesn't deserve even a quarter of the money he will make this year.
What kind of magical season did Lohse have last year to deserve a pay raise of more than $2 million? He lost four more games than he won, had an inflated E.R.A that was well above 5 and became one of the least reliable pitchers on the staff. And that gets him a $2 million raise?
Even the Twins counter offer to Lohse's $2.4 million request was ridiculous. They were willing to give him $2.15 million. As if that isn't baffling enough, Lohse says no! Then he feels so strongly that his 9-13 season of a year ago should earn him a raise of two million instead of $1.75 million that he becomes just the third Twins player since 1999 to ride things out to an actual hearing.
In my book, a losing record shouldn't get you a $2 million raise, it should get you a pay cut. If you perform, you get a raise, if you do poorly, you don't make as much money. That's just the way of the world. Somehow, Kyle Lohse got around it.
To illustrate how much the arbitrators know, consider this. Last year, Johan Santana had an arbitration hearing against the Twins. He lost and became the A.L. Cy Young winner while making just $1.6 million. In other words, we're going to pay a guy who went 9-13 last year $800,000 more than what the league's best pitcher made last year.
Congrats, Kyle Lohse. You just ripped off your club.
What kind of magical season did Lohse have last year to deserve a pay raise of more than $2 million? He lost four more games than he won, had an inflated E.R.A that was well above 5 and became one of the least reliable pitchers on the staff. And that gets him a $2 million raise?
Even the Twins counter offer to Lohse's $2.4 million request was ridiculous. They were willing to give him $2.15 million. As if that isn't baffling enough, Lohse says no! Then he feels so strongly that his 9-13 season of a year ago should earn him a raise of two million instead of $1.75 million that he becomes just the third Twins player since 1999 to ride things out to an actual hearing.
In my book, a losing record shouldn't get you a $2 million raise, it should get you a pay cut. If you perform, you get a raise, if you do poorly, you don't make as much money. That's just the way of the world. Somehow, Kyle Lohse got around it.
To illustrate how much the arbitrators know, consider this. Last year, Johan Santana had an arbitration hearing against the Twins. He lost and became the A.L. Cy Young winner while making just $1.6 million. In other words, we're going to pay a guy who went 9-13 last year $800,000 more than what the league's best pitcher made last year.
Congrats, Kyle Lohse. You just ripped off your club.
posted by Joe Siple | 1:36 PM
1 Comments:
Problem is that he went 13-8 in 2001 and 14-11 in 2002. Both years he logged almost 200 innings. They look at more than just last year unfortunently. Let's see how he fares this season.
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