logo

Penny Wise, Dollar Foolish?

Written by Larry Granillo | 23 March 2010

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the various baseball preview magazines that are published every spring. Probably my favorite of the three different publications that I buy every year is the Athlon Baseball yearbook. I like it's balance of stats and writing, as well as it's clean design. It's the best overall publication on the magazine rack.

One of the traditional columns that Athlon publishes every year is their "Penny Wise, Dollar Foolish" feature, where they list the best and worst signings of the offseason. Looking through this year's article, I noticed a few questionable calls, some inconsistencies in their selections. There are plenty of good and logical choices made in the column, but there are a few that I just don't understand. Here are some of the more interesting ones.

The Easy Calls

The "Penny Wise" selections have some of the better selections. but I'm not sure I agree with all of them. Andy Pettite, for example, is a "Penny Wise" selection. It may be the right signing for the Yankees, but at $11 million it's not necessarily all that "Penny Wise".

  • Adrian Beltre (1 yr/$9 million)
  • Craig Counsell (1 yr/$2.1 million)
  • Chone Figgins (4 yrs/$36 million)
The "Dollar Foolish" section, on the other hand, is a little tougher to grade. The free agent market this year was so subdued that there were very few front office splurges. The choices here, then, come from a tougher pot. At least the Royals and Nats made things easier...
  • Jason Kendall (2 yrs/$6 million)
  • Ivan Rodriguez (2 yrs/$6 million)

The Confusing Calls

It's the inconsistencies between players that confuses me. I've listed a few pairs of players below. In each pair, Athlon rated one signing as "Penny Wise" and the other as "Dollar Foolish". See if you can tell me which is which.

(Click "Read More" to continue reading.)

  • Bobby Abreu (2 yrs/$19 million) & Mike Cameron (2 yrs/$15.5 million)
  • Tim Hudson (3 yrs/$28 million) & Randy Wolf (3 yrs/$29.75 million)
  • Marco Scutaro (2 yrs/$12.5 million) & Mark DeRosa (2 yrs/$12 million)
  • Latroy Hawkins (2 yrs/$7.5 million) & John Grabow (2 yrs/$7.5 million)
  • Rich Harden (1 yr/$7.5 million) & Billy Wagner (1 yr/$7 million)
  • Jack Wilson (2 yrs/$10 million) & Placido Polanco (3 yrs/$18 million)
  • Jason Bay (4 yrs/$66 million) & Matt Holliday (7 yrs/$120 million)
  • Justin Duchscherer (1 yr/$2 million) & Kelvim Escobar (1 yr/$1.25 million)
Sure, it's only one magazine's opinion, but when I see signings like Bobby Abreu's and Mike Cameron's get valued so differently by (presumably) the same person, I find it a little strange. So strange, in fact, that I'm not even sure I would be able to say which of the signings above was in which category without the magazine in front of me - and I just typed out that list! Give me your guesses below. I'll be back later with the answers. (Oh, and be warned, there's one trick question in there...)