Astros Sign Lee, Williams
November 30, 2006 by Geoff Young
Filed under Hot Stove
Good morning, and happy Thursday. Still catching up on all the moves that happened while I was gone. Honestly, couldn’t they have waited? 
Carlos Lee
There is concern in some circles that Carlos Lee doesn’t play good defense and/or won’t age well. However, his deficiencies in the field may have been overstated and I’m not sure that we know enough to make a strong prediction about what shape his career will take.
Yes, Lee is a very large man. He also is a very strong man with a quick bat and power that will play in just about any ballpark.
Is 6 years, $100 million unreasonable? Probably. But I like it a little better than the Alfonso Soriano deal — mainly because 6 years for a 31-year-old is slightly less insane than 8 years.
Woody Williams
The Houston native has signed a 2-year, $12.5 million deal with his hometown Astros. At age 40, Williams’ best years are well behind him, and this doesn’t strike me as a particularly shrewd use of anyone’s money.
Williams spent the past two seasons in San Diego and is, by all accounts, a class act. As with Gary Matthews Jr. and Frank Thomas, I’m glad to see Williams get paid handsomely for his efforts, regardless of whether such lofty pay is merited.
As a fan of baseball, I hate to see these types of contracts because they give the owners more reasons to gripe about a problem they’ve created. As a fan of Williams, I’m glad to see that he’s able to take advantage of market conditions. As a fan of the Padres, I’m glad they didn’t spend that kind of money on him.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] The New York Yankees re-signed right-hander Mike Mussina to a 2-year, $23 million deal. The soon-to-be 38-year-old Mussina is coming off a surprisingly effective season for a Yankees team that had very little in the way of quality pitching. Although $11.5 million a year might seem like an outrageous amount, when you account for the Yankees’ spending capabilities, it’s really not all that different from what the Astros are paying Woody Williams or the Mets are paying Orlando Hernandez. [...]