Players Who Get It Done (Or Not)

Thanks to a couple of readers for alerting me to these excellent “who’s hot, who’s not” type lists:

Passan’s Thoughts

First off, Jeff Passan at Yahoo! gives the lowdown on which contracts are the best and worst in the big leagues. Best line: “Finally, the Abreu envisioned by Tampa Bay when it traded him for Kevin Stocker shows up.” Burn! In Abreu’s defense, the guy was really good for a long time and nobody even noticed.

The Danys Baez and Barry Zito signings didn’t make a lot of sense at the time, and they’re not getting any better. Baltimore’s bullpen this year is a lot like last year’s version, only more expensive (actually, that’s not fair; Orioles relievers have a 4.65 ERA through May 30, well down from last season’s 5.27).

Zito? Let’s just say that as a Padres fan, I’m ecstatic that he’ll be tying up the Giants’ resources for a very long time.

On the underpaid side, gotta love the left side of the Mets’ infield. And, of course, I’m partial to the front of the San Diego rotation.

Stark’s Take

Meanwhile, over at ESPN, Jayson Stark has assembled a similar list that contains — surprise — many of the same names. Jeff Suppan? Yep, there’s another crazy free-agent signing from this past winter. Ditto Juan Pierre (Baseball Prospectus’ Marc Normandin offers a solid take on Pierre).

As for guys like Abreu and Brian Giles, I get where Stark is coming from, but I think we need to cut them considerable slack for having been underrated for so long. Seems messed up that they spent much of their respective careers quietly dominating pitchers and now that people finally notice them, their skills are in precipitous decline. Hello, and welcome to John Olerud’s world.

What do you think? Anybody important we’re missing here? Johnny Damon? Carlos Lee? Kevin Millwood? Ivan Rodriguez? Jason Varitek? Coldplay?