Sheets: leads A's in innings pitched [Latest: Surgery 8/11/10, included Tommy John surgery]

[RockCoCougars]

But they would have started talking extension during Suppan's first season. They would have had an extra 40 million to play with. In hindsight, they would have both been disastrous, but in my view an injured Benny is still > a healthy Soup, because a healthy Soup is hurting the team.

[logan82]

an injured Benny is still > a healthy Soup, because a healthy Soup is hurting the team.

 

 

So would Sheets' replacement.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, maybe if Sheets had been extended, they wouldn't have been able to afford Gallardo's extension.

[AdvantageSchneider]

Far too much money to make? $400K is a 96% pay cut for Sheets, why even try?

Because he's one year away from becoming eligible for the full MLB pension.

 

It'd be financially advisable to pay a team 450K to put him on the MLB roster next season so he can collect the 130K annual pension baseball players get when he's eligible for it.

How much is the difference between the full MLB pension and a player with 9 years of service time?

 

[TooLiveBrew]

that article suggests that had the Brewers been willing to offer the money Sheets was looking for, he would have been back.

While that's true, the ball was completely in Ben's court. He was getting very fair offers if the Penny/Smoltz comps. are accurate -- a chance to earn appx. $10M if he stayed healthy the whole season. If he'd wanted to come back to Milwaukee, he had a fair offer. The simple fact that he wasn't even able to pitch in '09 speaks volumes for how fair the Brewers were being. He was a huge risk, and every MLB team knew it.

[TooLiveBrew]

Sheets wins the Catfish Hunter Award, voted on by Oakland players & coaches. The award "recognizes... contributions to the team both on and off the field."

 

Fortunately Ben's injury hasn't dampened his sense of humor: "I don't know if it's that they really like me or I threatened their lives," Sheets joked over a conference call. "I'm pretty tough."