I Wish I Was a Left-Hander

Lets see. You are 25 years old. A left-handed pitcher. You are coming off your worst year as a pro. After facing you last year, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said "It was like facing Jamie Moyer, only without the change-up." Your velocity is down and your numbers have decreased in each of the last three seasons, thanks to your deceptive and violent delivery. Yet what does Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski and owner Mike "I look like I have a rat's nest on my head" Illitch do? They give you a three-year extension worth $30 million dollars and you haven't pitched an inning for them yet.

It's great to be Dontrell Willis. I wish I went out and performed poorly in my job and then was handsomely rewarded for it. That is exactly what Massah Illitch has done for Dontrell. 10-15 with a 5.17 ERA in a league where you pitch around the 8th place batter to face the .076 hitting pitcher evidently gets you $10 million a year in Detroit.

This contract extension reminds us off the all time worst Indians extension. No, I'm not talking about Wayne Garland. Just after the Indians traded Robbie Alomar to the Mets, Mark Shapiro handed a four year, $28 million dollar deal to Matt Lawton. The day the ink dried, he turned into Mutt Lawton. His speed was gone. His bat was nowhere to be found. He had no range in the outfield, and the Indians were moving into full rebuild mode. The only positive thing that came out of the Lawton deal was that Shapiro learned o never make that mistake again.

Look at the Tigers payroll now. It's easily over $120 million and that is before Miguel Cabrera's salary arbitration hearing, which will no doubt jump his figure over $1o million. They could be looking at a number more than double the Indians. The White Sox will be easily over $100 million as well. Not to mention the Angels, Mariners, Red Sox, and Yankees.

Regardless, here's a prediction: Dontrell struggles all year and is a .500 pitcher only because his run support will be outstanding. Even with that, the fans of Detroit will love him and continue to pump him up as equal standing to the Tribe's #2 and #3 starters Fausto Carmona and Jake Westbrook. A few weeks back, Tiger suck boy, I mean beat writer Lynn Henning said "right now, the Tigers rotation 1-5 is better than the Indians." Hilarious.

Anyways, congrats to Dontrell for getting his.

Willis Gets a Three-Year Extension - ESPN.com