The most expensive and overprice BJ ever

The Blue Jays and BJ Ryan have apparently agreed to a $47-million/5-year contract.

Absolutely ridiculous.

This is the worst crop of free agents in years, so all of them are able to price themselves through the roof. Even with that, though, BJ Ryan isn't worth close to $47 million. And it's nothing against Ryan; he's certainly one of the five best closers in the game. But a closer, who pitches 70 or so innings of a team's 1500 innings every years, just isn't worth that much. Ever. Closers are so ridiculously overrated and this is sort of the exclamation point on that. I mean, I though the O's were really lowballing with the $18 million/3year offer, but I had no idea that Ryan would sign for three times as much with someone else.

I was really hoping the Tiers would have swiped Ryan. They were talking with him. But not for that much. The Blue Jays will come to rue the day he signs this guy. Unless he turns out to be Mariano Rivera - and by that, I mean, unless he saves three games during a World Series after excelling throughout a season - this is going to be a disappointment.

And while I'm complaining about baseball, how in the world do the Red Sox get Josh Beckett (and Mike Lowell, and Guillermo Mota)? Just about every team in baseball could have matched the trade package they sent over to the Marlins for him. It's like these big market teams just get away with murder, like there's some sort of conspiracy for them to do well and other teams to do poorly. The rich get richer and don't even have to give up much.