Monopoly Money continues to flow...

The Weaver signing was 100 times better than the Morris deal.

Loaiza had that one good season with the White Sox then lucked into pitching at RFK Stadium which was a huge pitchers park that season and Oakland helps too, plus particularly helps RHP by depressing LHH HR power.  ERA on the road the past three seasons:  5.00, 4.71, 6.08.  He's a Tomko at best, variably good when he's on, but mainly mediocre.  I was SOOOOOOOOO glad when the A's won the bidding for him over us, it was the feeling I had when I learned the Giants released Neifi the first time (then ruined by signing him to a contract...)

Weaver I've never understood why people think he's so good.  He's not an elite pitcher, which is how some people see him, he's been lucky pitching for two extreme pitcher's parks, Detroit and LA.  His road ERA the past 4 years have consistently been a mid-4 or worse, and 6 of his 8 career seasons plus over 4 ERA in 7 of 8.  He's a nice pitcher but even over a half season, he's very rarely dominated.

Morris, even with surgery and other injuries along the way, he dominated in the first half of 2005, just months after shoulder surgery, he was an elite pitcher for half a season, 3.10 ERA, at age 30, which is better than any half season that Jeff Weaver has ever had in 8 seasons, 16 different half seasons, the best he could do was his great year in 2002, with a 3.43 ERA, he had only 4 under 4.00, only that one under 3.50.  

And I'm not even counting all the seasons Morris had before his arm surgery when he was arguably one of the top pitchers in the majors - I know those days are gone and he's not the fire-baller he once was, he's now a pitcher.

Now you can argue the horrible numbers Morris had in the second half of 2005, but given that he had surgery just the November before, he most probably tired out from lack of physical stamina because he could not really start working out because of the shoulder surgery until just before spring training started.  You don't go normally from being so dominating to so hittable in the same season unless there's a physical reason.  The same thing appeared to happen this season, he was dominating from mid-May to mid-July, but then again took a big dive, which was reported related to broken ribs - I would still like to know where those came from, as his performance suggests it started in July, not August as they had reported.

I wholeheartedly believe that Morris is a better pitcher than either Loaiza or Weaver, the major question is whether Morris can be healthy enough to prove that.  I think taking on that risk was and is worth it, better to take a chance on excellence than to settle for proven mediocrity that is Loaiza and Weaver.