Garza vs. Jimenez

[dc.]

ESPN had a feature on Garza today ... it caught my eye to see he signed a 4 yr, 50m contract this year with Milwaukee. I remember his name being thrown around by fans, but not much in terms of real O's interest.

 

Then I remembered we the contract the O's gave Jimenez was nearly identical - maybe 48m instead of 50. But pretty much dead on.

 

And... we look like losers despite waiting almost a month to get the discount.

 

They are the same age, so that can't be the difference.

 

While their career ERAs are similar (Garza wins by about .1 runs), Garza has never pitched a season with an ERA over 4.00 since his rookie year, while two of Ubaldo's last three were over 4.00 (one over 5.00). Garza also wins WHIP 1.28 to 1.35, which is no small difference.

 

Jimenez does win the strikeout contest and the HR contest - which are perhaps important for the O's. Jimenez wins health - having almost never missed a start, while Garza has been injured a few times the last two years - but while Jimenez wins games started easily, he wins IP by less than 100 (half a season).

 

Anyway - just some reflections. I remember seeing (and talking) about how Jimenez was a good deal (and I think it is overall) ... and especially about how we probably got a deal "after the market" had settled. We touted a "good play" by the FO; a nice contract that was a stretch for our team's normal, but not a stretch overall. But the reality is, an equally good/better option was available a month prior... and we sat on our hands. But because Garza isn't a big name, few will ever notice or pick up on the fact that the Jimenez contract could have bought us arguably more...

[dc.]

Some more to compare...

 

Jimenez wins K/9 by about 1 (8.3 to 7.5), but loses BB/9 (4 to 3)... FOUR walks per nine! Yikes.

 

Jimenez wins HR/9 (.8 to 1.0), but loses K:BB (2.05 to 2.55). More K's but to substantially more walks. Bah.

 

I guess the best news is in some other metrics... Jimenez has a WAR or 20.4 vs. 14.8 for Garza over their careers. Fairly significant. More significant, Jimenez's two awful seasons (ERA and L-wise in 2011 and 2012) were not that bad by "other" metrics like WAR, while some of Garza's better seasons were not as good as they looked.

[ForceEight]

I think the summary is correct...Garza and Jimenez are both very similar and we probably got the slightly better one of the two; we definitely did not get any sort of amazingly discounted front office treasure find as some would like to think, though.

[ForceEight]

Here's a good comparison SI did a few months ago, with Santana thrown in: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20131220/best-free-agent-pitcher-matt-garza-ubaldo-jimenez-ervin-santana/

[cravnravn]

Here's a good comparison SI did a few months ago, with Santana thrown in: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20131220/best-free-agent-pitcher-matt-garza-ubaldo-jimenez-ervin-santana/

Good article!!!

 

Now DC while he walks 4 per 9, Jimenez has 62.9% ground ball ratio, I see a slew of 6-4-3 inning killers when he pitches