QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ May 2, 2005 -> 06:11 PM)
Yeah, I wasn't in favor of giving him an extension, but it's not like they gave him a huge untradeable contract. I'm personally with you on him, but if you could resign a 25 year old pitcher who seems like he's putting it together for 6 mil a year when Kris Benson is getting way more than that, you resign him because even if he does bad, you could trade him.
And as a middle of the pack team, you have to take some risks like that. If you wait to try to resign players, you will lose them if they get too good, and you won't want them if they aren't. The Indians of the mid 90s are the perfect model for this. They identified guys that they wanted to be a part of the core of their team, and signed them to multi-year deals ASAP. It was either take a risk, or risk losing them for nothing in FA.