Busted! The BBF list of free agent busts, from the 1970s to the present day

[Chickazoola]

One of the most obvious busts over the last few years:
Carl Pavano. Signed with the New York Yankees after the 2004 season and given a contract for 4 years and 40 million. He has a record of 5 wins and 6 losses in 19 games over 4 years! He pitched in 17 games in 2005, missed the entire 2006 season, was the Yanks opening day starter in 2007 and pitched in only 1 more game that year. He then got Tommy John sugery and will miss all of 2008.

As a Yankees fan I don't blame them for the signing, he looked like a good pitcher and lots of teams wanted him, Detroit even offered him more than the Yanks. The Yankees have made several bad free agent pitcher signings but this has to be their worst ever.

Scott

I think Kei Igawa might be worse, given that Pavano at least had a track record of success. I have no idea what Igawa is good for other than batting practice for the opposition. It seems like they only signed him to keep up with Daisuke signing.

And Hideki Irabu was pretty useless too.

[steve rogers]

One of the most obvious busts over the last few years:
Carl Pavano. Signed with the New York Yankees after the 2004 season and given a contract for 4 years and 40 million. He has a record of 5 wins and 6 losses in 19 games over 4 years! He pitched in 17 games in 2005, missed the entire 2006 season, was the Yanks opening day starter in 2007 and pitched in only 1 more game that year. He then got Tommy John sugery and will miss all of 2008.

As a Yankees fan I don't blame them for the signing, he looked like a good pitcher and lots of teams wanted him, Detroit even offered him more than the Yanks. The Yankees have made several bad free agent pitcher signings but this has to be their worst ever.

Scott

[Chickazoola]

Nick Esasky signed a multimillion dollar deal with the Braves before the 1990 season. He played 9 games before being diagnosed with Lyme disease which ended his career.

Carl Pavano signed with the Yankees after the 2004 season, and has pitched a total of 111 innings in the past 4 seasons.

[Steve Jeltz]

Jeffrey Hammonds. Signed with Milwaukee after driving in over 100 with Colorado in 2000. Got injured and didn't come remotely close to matching his career season.

Vinny Castilla. After having another monster year in the thin air of Denver in 2004, Castilla was the Nationals first big free agent signing. In 2005, he hit 12 HR, 23 less than the year before, and drove in 61, 70 less than in 2004.

[Calif_Eagle]

One of the first free agents, Wayne Garland for Cleveland was soon hurt and never lived up to the Tribe's hopes for him. I seem to recall Don Stanhouse signing a big free agent deal and busting out fast also.

[Solair Wright]

Here is a list of free agent busts throughout when free agency was introduced to today.

My contributions to the list:

* Derek Bell, signed after the 2000 season by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He fled sometime during the 2001 season.

* Mike Hampton, signed after the 2000 season by the Colorado Rockies. Traded in 2004, and hasn't seen much playing time since from various injuries.

* Barry Zito, signed after the 2006 off-season by the San Francisco Giants. He currently has a losing record with his own team, and he is winless throughout 2008. "Multi-million dollar bust" maybe?

* Jason Schmidt, signed after the 2006 off-season by the Los Angeles Dodgers after defecting from the San Francisco Giants. He has only played in six games since the signing, and that was it.

Those are some of the more recent FA busts, and I am sure there are more out there.