Hampton to the Astros

by
December 1, 2008

That’s what ESPN is reporting anyway:

Pitcher Mike Hampton has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Houston Astros pending a physical exam, two baseball sources told ESPN.com. The contract will pay Hampton a base salary of about $2 million plus incentives, the source said . . .

. . . Hampton spent the past four seasons with the Braves but did not pitch in 2006 and ’07 because of injuries. In 2008, he was 3-4 with a 4.85 ERA after missing the first four months of the season because of injury.

I am a Braves fan who doesn’t hold anything personal against Mike Hampton, but I would have bet my children that he’s been with Atlanta for at least the last 67 years.


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themarksmith
14 years ago

Yeah, it’s hard to hold his injuries against him. We always heard how he was working so hard to get back. Still, it appears his loyalty/guilt to the Braves didn’t last too long.

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MarkH
14 years ago

Wow. I wouldn’t have guessed he was even still an active player.

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Zach Sanders
14 years ago

Does anyone here truly think that Hampton is worth anything? Sure, he’s a worthwhile risk if you get him at a low price, which they did, but his injury history is just a little to much to pay 2 million for.

I’d be willing to go 1 million with major incentives (20 starts = extra 2.5 mil)

-Zach Sanders
http://www.mlbnotebook.com

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glenn
14 years ago

Actually saw him pitch a couple times last year, and really he didn’t look all that bad.  He was at least serviceable.  If the injury thing is finally over, he may be able to make a little out of this, although being a lefty and pitching in MM may be a small problem.  As far as the loyalty to ATL thing, I kinda think they may want to go in another direction now.

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Rory
14 years ago

Two million seems a bit high considering at best he’s a number 3 or 4.  Prior only got 1 I thought and he could be an ace.  Considering word out of Houston has the Current Payroll at 20 million more than the target, I would say this is not a solution.

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themarksmith
14 years ago

I think he is. It’s worth the gamble. If he stays healthy, he’s a good back-of-the-rotation guy, and if he gets hurt, it was only $2M. I’m betting he ends up as one of the steals of the off-season (granted, I thought he was due for a comeback season this year, and that didn’t exactly pan out). It’s a guess, but for the Astros, it was a cheap one.

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