Woody? I Wouldn't

The AP reports that the Giants have signed Kirk Rueter to a two-year contract extension through 2005. The contract extension will be for $12 M in total broken down as follows:

Rueter will receive a $3 million signing bonus to be paid out $1 million each on Jan. 31 the next three years. He will make $4 million in 2004 and $5 million in 2005.

Whatever, it boils down to $12 M for two years of Rueter. GM Brian Sabean is ecstatic:

"While not attracting much attention on the national stage, he has quietly become one of the winningest pitchers in baseball, and we want to reward him for that. We're ecstatic to have Kirk with us for the foreseeable future,'' he said.

See? So Rueter is not only winninger than your average pitcher; he's one of the winningest in baseball. Is that true? Does it really tell us what kind of pitcher he is?

Well, the first question is easy. Starting with Rueter's first full year with the Giants (1997), he has won 83 and lost 54, for a .606 winning percentage. That's pretty good. Look at the pitchers who have won fifty or more during that span:

Name               W L PCT
Randy Johnson    120 42 .741
Greg Maddux      108 48 .692
Pedro Martinez   105 33 .761
Curt Schilling   103 56 .648
Tom Glavine      103 51 .669
Roger Clemens    101 40 .716
Andy Pettitte     95 53 .642
David Wells       95 46 .674
Mike Mussina      92 61 .601
Jamie Moyer       92 46 .667
Aaron Sele        90 56 .616
Bartolo Colon     85 49 .634
Mike Hampton      84 59 .587
Chan Ho Park      84 57 .596
Kirk Rueter       83 54 .606
Darryl Kile       81 61 .570
Al Leiter         81 59 .579
Brad Radke        80 70 .533
Rick Reed         78 49 .614
Kevin Brown       78 38 .672
Denny Neagle      77 49 .611
Rick Helling      76 63 .547
Kevin Millwood    75 46 .620
Pedro Astacio     74 69 .517
Dave Burba        72 50 .590
Chuck Finley      71 59 .546
Hideo Nomo        69 60 .535
Livan Hernandez   69 69 .500
Shane Reynolds    68 57 .544
James Baldwin     68 62 .523
Russ Ortiz        67 44 .604
Bobby Jones       67 74 .475
Jon Lieber        67 64 .511
Shawn Estes       66 54 .550
Kevin Appier      66 62 .516
Woody Williams    65 56 .537
Tim Hudson        64 26 .711
Kenny Rogers      63 47 .573
Andy Ashby        63 56 .529
John Burkett      62 59 .512
Jason Schmidt     62 54 .534
Steve Trachsel    61 77 .442
Tim Wakefield     61 61 .500
Andy Benes        61 52 .540
Matt Morris       61 34 .642
Freddy Garcia     60 29 .674
Esteban Loaiza    59 61 .492
Dustin Hermanson  58 61 .487
David Cone        57 43 .570
Scott Erickson    57 52 .523
Eric Milton       56 51 .523
Jimmy Haynes      56 67 .455
Charles Nagy      55 49 .529
Pat Hentgen       55 52 .514
Jose Lima         55 58 .487
Omar Daal         54 59 .478
Jeff Fassero      54 53 .505
Orlando Hernandez 53 38 .582
Javier Vazquez    51 56 .477
Dave Mlicki       51 64 .443
Kevin Tapani      51 50 .505
Brian Moehler     50 55 .476
Ramiro Mendoza    50 29 .633

There are some big names on that list. Rueter is 15th.

Now, here's the harder question: does it mean anything? Well, if you're Joe Morgan it does. Otherwise...Let's examine Rueter's park-adjusted ERA to see how good he has bee. Here they are for his Giants years:

1997	120
1998	93
1999	76
2000	108
2001	91
2002	117

That's three good years and three poor years. No really great years, but two pretty good ones. His 2002 ERA was boosted by having a pitcher's park to call home (Pac Bell had an average park-adjusted ERA of 3.79). His average for the span would be about 101, which is coincidentally his career average.

I think that sums up what kind of pitcher Rueter is: ever-so-slightly above average. He has his good years but he also has his bad. He is probably not a bad guy to have on your staff, but I can't imagine him being your number one guy. Check out his strikeout numbers:

Season	WHIP	K:BB	K/9 IP
1993	1.20	1.72	3.26
1994	1.40	2.17	4.87
1995	0.99	3.11	5.32
1996	1.44	1.36	3.43
1996	0.99	3.20	6.17
1996	1.33	1.70	4.06
1997	1.28	2.25	5.43
1998	1.33	1.79	4.89
1999	1.48	1.71	4.58
2000	1.45	1.15	3.47
2001	1.43	1.26	3.82
2002	1.27	1.41	3.36
Total	1.35	1.65	4.25

Wow, that's really unimpressive. Rueter seems to win despite poor numbers, but that probably has more to do with the team and pure luck than what he has been doing on the field. That luck and team support could dry up pretty quickly.

If it were my money, I wouldn't plunk down twelve mil to find out, especially in this baseball economy. Well, maybe it's just a ruse to help deny collusion.