Blue Jays foolishly throw around big money

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I know I shouldn't care. It's not my money. If Universal Studios thinks $160,000,000 is an appropriate budget for Van Helsing, well, bombs away, fellas. If Ben Affleck wants to blow $1.2 million on a shiny pink engagement ring for Jennifer Lopez, well, you can't put a price on love. But thanks to the Toronto Blue Jays, you can put a price on a pair of pitchers with a combined career record of 65-69. And that price is $102 million. Yesterday, the Blue Jays signed free-agent pitcher A.J. Burnett to a five-year, $55 million contract. The deal is believed to be the longest for a free-agent starting pitcher since Chan Ho Park got $65 million over five years from the Rangers in 2001. Maybe Burnett will turn out to be worth it. He's 28, with a fastball in the high 90s. Then again, Burnett is a 49-50 lifetime pitcher who has never won more than 12 games in a season and lost his last six decisions in 2005.

Burnett's signing follows the equally shocking purchase of free-agent reliever B.J. Ryan, who signed with the Jays last week for $47 million for five years. Burnett and Ryan are the biggest winners in a thin free-agent market. The losers are sanity. Smarter baseball minds than I tell me Ryan (16-19 lifetime, 42 career saves) could be worth the investment. Writing in this week's magazine, SI's Daniel G. Habib cited Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA (which evaluates a players' past performance as well as his historical comparables and returns a range of probable outcomes) as being optimistic that Ryan would justify his contractual outlay. We'll see. Ryan converted 36 saves in 41 opportunities in his first year as a fulltime closer. Very impressive, for sure. But 14 of his saves came after Aug. 1, when the Orioles were out of the race, and half of his 36 saves last season came against three teams (Kansas City, Seattle and Tampa Bay). Sure, it's not my money. But that's a lot of money for a pitcher who has yet to save a game in the middle of a pennant race.