Tampa Bay Signs Halama, Abbott...

[Swan]

Is this a sign that TB finally "gets it," that they shouldn't overpay for replacement level talent while they are developing youth? I'm interested in what everyone thinks...

Here's the article:

http://rays.tbo.com/rays/MGAXYXG41ND.html

[LeGrandOrange]

If they didn't play for Lou Piniella in Seattle, I might have a legitimate answer for your question. It's kind of hard to judge whether they show the organization is "getting it" when there's an existing player-manager relationship from a past stop.
Also, Tampa is forced to be cheap. They can't overpay for anyone anymore. It's so bad that you can say they overpaid for Abbott and Halama, and they'll earn $600K. Everyone else has the minimum now. Thank you baseball economics.

I think the only thing they've finally done is discovered the idea of "pitching depth". I think they kind of have some for the first time now.

[rk_michael]

It certainly is interesting that both of those guys were starters on the Lou Piniella Mariners. But neither of them were very good, and I was under the impression that Lou and John Halama weren't the best of friends.

[sweaver]

Each had one big-win year for Lou in Seattle. That will get your attention, especially if it costs less than a mil to try it again.

[KCBOOMER]

Cheap mistakes are better than expensive ones.

Abbott has been battling an arm injury and just returned to the bigs with the Royals for the last half of 2003. He showed that when he throws strikes he can still be effective. That was about half the time. I think the D'Rays have made an okay move here.

[gyb13]

well, let's see who else they bring in and at what cost before we judge