Giambi signs with A’s; Pavano signs with Indians

Whereas newest Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira got the full MEDIA treatment, Jason Giambi quietly signed a one year deal with his old team, the Oakland Athletics. WGiambi gets a $4 million 2009 salary, and the A’s hold a $6.5 million option for 2010 with a $1.25 million buyout, and he can earn an additional $500,000 each year in performance bonuses: $250,000 each for 525 and 550 plate appearances.

This is a very reasonable price, and Jason loves Oakland. He can be relaxed and himself again, and positively influence the young players on that team. He lives on the West Coast anyway. And so, Jason’s Yankees career is over. Giambi played 7 years with the Yankees, as Tino Martinez’s replacement. Statistically, he created more runs and got on base much more than Tino’s run. Although his HR stats look great when compared to Don Mattingly, that was due to the differences in era. Mattingly led the league in many offensive categories. In the end, Jason was VERY productive, and only had 2 bad years out of 7 due to injury. We can only hope his replacement, Mark Teixeria, can say the same.

Jason may have been reckless, irresponsible, and illegal in his life, but so are millions of others. He put his body on the line to win games.

The Cleveland Indians actually gave Carl Pavano $1.5 million dollars GUARANTEED. I thought Carl was worth the league minimum with incentives, but the Indians wanted him. The incentive-laded contract balloons to $5.3 million if Carl is actually any good this year. Baseball has been very good to Carl, and contracts like this one show how desperate teams are for pitching, and how teams hate to promote a AAA no-name, who making minimum wage.

I don’t want to bash Pavano on this blog (only because he’d probably sue me), but people can read Mike Mussina’s book for the inside scoop.

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