I Do Not Believe What I Just Read

December 10, 2008 at 7:45 am | Posted in Jason Schmidt, Ned Colletti | 16 Comments

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times took a peek into the lawsuit that the Dodgers just filed against the insurance company refusing to pay out for Jason Schmidt (hey, remember him?) and came up with some pretty damning information: the Dodgers knew he was hurt when they signed him.

The Dodgers knew Jason Schmidt had a rotator cuff injury when they signed him to a contract worth a guaranteed $47 million, the club acknowledged in a court filing this week.

The Dodgers filed suit against the company that insured Schmidt’s contract, alleging failure to pay $9.27 million in claims. In the suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the Dodgers argue the torn labrum that required surgery and limited Schmidt to six games over two years was unrelated to the rotator cuff injury and thus covered by insurance.

Granted, a rotator cuff injury and a labrum tear are not the same thing and should not be treated as such. But I’m not sure what’s worse – the utter stupidty of giving nearly $50 million to a 34-year-old pitcher who already had one season cut short in 2000 by surgery on his rotator cuff and labrum and who you already know has a rotator cuff injury… or lying about it?

USA Today, June 21, 2007:

Colletti insisted there was no sign of any damage when the Dodgers inspected Schmidt in the offseason before making their contract offer.

“No sign of any damage”, you say. Except for, you know, the signs of damage you just admitted to in a court filing.

This is just unbelievable. As I’ve said many times, I hate it when 90% of these posts turn out negative, and I fully understand that every GM, no matter how good or bad, is always going to have some deals that just don’t work out that well. It happens. I get it. But to give that kind of money to a pitcher when you know that he’s hurt – well, just because it wasn’t precisely that injury that made his arm give out doesn’t make it right. That’s not stupidity, that’s negligence.

16 Comments »

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Why am I not shocked? I knew there was something rotten in Elysian Park when Ned signed Stan Conte. One has to wonder how much of this information was given to the Brand when he authourized the signing?
To all of those folks who feel Ned is unjustly vilified by some (like myself) for his rampant stupidity, I have four words – “I told you so!”
Even Dodger Boy got something out of Darren Dreifort, it looks like Ned’s three biggest signings will turn out to be crap. Slap is not a good fit for the Blue, Hindenburg is toast and the Invisible Man was damaged goods when Ned signed him. The fact that Ned has managed to keep his job only points to the fact that the Brand is easily fooled and impressed by shiny things.

Comment by grabarkewitz— December 10, 2008 #

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Looks liek the Yanks have locked up C.C for 7/160. So what do we do? Maybe try and get Manny and Furcal and a guy like The big Unit.

Comment by The Canadian— December 10, 2008 #

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It appears to me to be fairly plain that one party or the other did not do their due diligence before signing the insurance contract.

Comment by Rob McMillin— December 10, 2008 #

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Also — Jason Schmidt’s 2006 splits with San Francisco:

I Split         G   GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP    ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB IBB  SO HBP
+-+------------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
April/March    5   5  0  1  2  0  0   0  34     4.76  28  18  18  4  18   1  26   0
May            6   6  0  4  0  0  2   1  46     1.17  29   6   6  2   7   0  35   1
June           5   5  0  1  1  0  1   0  35.1   2.80  30  12  11  3  14   2  38   1
July           5   5  0  1  4  0  0   0  29     4.97  33  20  16  3  13   1  20   0
August         6   6  0  3  1  0  0   0  37.1   4.10  35  21  17  4  15   1  33   4
Sept/Oct       5   5  0  1  1  0  0   0  31.2   4.83  34  17  17  5  13   1  28   0

He was just crap in three months out of six. Given the Dodgers knew he was injured, why sign him to an expensive, long-term contract?

Comment by Rob McMillin— December 10, 2008 #

So now what? CC is gone, Lowe is basically gone, Sheets is quickly being labeled as a potential Schmidt 2.0, and we want nothing to do with 5 years for AJ Burnett.
The next best might be Oliver Perez, Jon Garland, and Randy Wolf.
But I say get both of Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez.
any thoughts?

Comment by Table— December 10, 2008 #

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“Given the Dodgers knew he was injured, why sign him to an expensive, long-term contract?”
Why? Because that’s what Ned does. Look at the Jones signing. Ned may or may not have known Jones had a bum knee (I’m still suspect that was even injured before we signed him), but he certainly had access to Jones’ numbers (whether he understood them is another story), and could see with his own two eyes there were declines in EVERYTHING across the board the year prior.
Everything declined, that is, except Jones’ weight.

Comment by Gibby's Limp— December 10, 2008 #

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Oh yeah, did anyone else see that Colletti’s got a hard-on for another ex-Giant as a “fallback plan” in case he can’t bring back Furcal?
None other than soon to be 42-year old, hasn’t hit better than .250 in three years, Omar Vizquel…yippie.

Comment by Gibby's Limp— December 10, 2008 #

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Sorry about this – last one for the night.
SoSG makes a good point in their post up about CC’s signing. Basically, what we saw in recent headlines of Schmidt’s known injury signing & the NYY signing CC, was how the Dodgers offer Star money after Shit players, and offer Shit money (or no offer for that matter) for Star players.
“No, we only throw ungodly riches after players who have no hope of performing on the field (see: Schmidt, Jason; Jones, Andruw). If you’re a quality player, forget it: we expect you to play for us for a discount.”

Comment by Gibby's Limp— December 10, 2008 #

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I hadn’t seen that about Vizquel… thanks for the tip. Simply brutal.
And Rob – not only was he bad half the year, he was much worse in the second half. You know, after he got injured. Unbelievable.

Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— December 10, 2008 #

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Now you all believe me, right? :o

Comment by kensai— December 10, 2008 #

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Because Ned Colletti is willing to suck off any former Giant.

Comment by kensai— December 10, 2008 #

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OK, so I lied…it’s another post! I blame Tony Jackson though. Tony Jackson is now reporting that HE got bad info & the Dodgers are in fact NOT INTERESTED in Omar Vizquel. You can start breathing again.

Comment by Gibby's Limp— December 10, 2008 #

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I suppose it’s a good reminder that 99% of what comes out of the winter meetings is garbage, but still: talk about a heart stopper.

Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— December 10, 2008 #

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Fortunately I don’t believe EVERYTHING I read; however, I usually tend to take Tony at his (written) word, as he seems to be right on point & is a pretty stand-up guy with his info.
Plus I figured, with the economy the way it is, the news about Ned et al knowing about Schmidt’s injury when they signed him, LA making no reported offer to CC, and MSTI’s disgust for the Blake resigning, I thought to myself, “Self, who couldn’t use ONE MORE THING to complain about?”
Afterall, misery loves company!

Comment by Gibby's Limp— December 10, 2008 #

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Just one of the many awful Coletti signings.

Comment by Adam Jacobs— December 10, 2008 #

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[...] I didn’t hear this live, so it’s possible something was lost in the translation, but it’s an eye-opener. On one hand, this seems highly unlikely, because Garland is known for his durability – and because what player would admit that?! On the other hand, it’s not like Ned Colletti’s never knowingly signed an injured pitcher before. [...]

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Mike Scioscia's tragic illness