$100 Million Pitchers: You Don't Know [Blank]

Last week C.C. Sabathia signed a 7 year, $161 million deal with the Evil Empire New York Yankees to become their ace. It is not the first time a team has doled out over a hundo-million for the services of a pitcher. In this installment of YDKB, we test your knowledge of 9 figure deals and in particular, how they seem to not work out quite often. As always no cheating, feel to share your score and winners will receive a custom Christmas ornament from Catfish. Continue on for the quiz.

The first $100 million pitcher in baseball was [No cheating], signed by the the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1998 for $105 million over 7 years. His first season was a respectable 18-9 but it would only go down from there. He would soon be plagued by injury problems and ended up only averaging 9 wins per season in L.A. and was traded to the [Darth's team] in 2003.

Mike Hampton was a key component helping the [Kings of Queens] win the 2000 NL pennant. He was even named the MVP of the NLCS victory over the [No cheating]. After that season Hampton sought greener pastures in the west as he signed a 8 year, $121 million deal with the [Code Blue]. In his first season he went 14-13 with a 5.12 ERA and followed that up with a 7-15 mark in 2002. Hampton was then shipped to [No cheating] briefly and then to the Braves. Ever since then Mike has been hampered with injuries to his arm, his oblique, and his pectoral.

Barry Zito spent 7 years in Oakland where he made [#] all-star games and won the Cy Young in [year]. In 2006 Zito made a switch to POS agent Scott Boras and one year later signed with the [No cheating] for 7 years and $126 million. In his first season he went 11-13 with a 4.53 ERA, not exactly what the team was hoping for. This past season he had troubles again and was even moved to the bullpen after a [tough one] start. He finished 10-17 with an ERA over 5 as many are having buyer's remorse on this one.

Last season the New York Mets made a priority out of signing Johan Santana. The result was a [#] year, $137.5 million contract. The Mets so far have not been dissapointed as Johan had a 16-7 record, with a 2.53 ERA and 206 strikeouts. He finished third in the Cy Young behind [No cheating] and the winner [Not Zito]. Santana would have had an even more impressive record if the Mets' bullpen did not suck so bad.

Sabathia's deal now makes him the pitcher with the most lucrative pitcher in MLB history contract-wise. It is hard to say what it will take for Sabathia to earn his money in the eyes of the tough New York media. Sabathia is only [No cheating] years old, but has thrown a tremendous amount of pitches in his career. Last year for the Brewers he went [No cheating] and carried them to the playoffs. This off-season Yankees GM [Gimmie] made it a priority to sign Sabathia to help the depleted New York pitching. We will see how he handles the big money, bright lights, and boisterous fans of New York.


Pencils down!


Answers below:



Answers:
1. Kevin Brown
2. New York Yankees
3. New York Mets
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Colorado Rockies
6. Florida Marlins
7. 3
8. 2002
9. San Francisco Giants
10. 0-6
11. 6
12. Brandon Webb
13. Tim Lincecum
14. 28
15. 11-2
16. Brian Cashman

Scoring Scale:
0-1: Cold Stove
1-3: Think Tim Kurkjan is the prime minister of Kazakhstan
4-6: Afraid of inflation
7-9: Have read "Moneyball"
10-12: Attended a Steve Phillips fake press conference
13-15: Have the number to Buster Olney's PDA
Perfect 16: Still chew baseball card gum