Jim Bowden is Still Terrible at His Job

I like making fun of Jim Bowden, as he was a very average MLB general manager who now gets paid to think like a GM would and write about it on ESPN.com. The other day, he listed his top 5 currently undervalued free agents, and 4 of them I actually liked but. But the 5th? Francisco Cordero? You have to be kidding me Jim:

3. Francisco Cordero, CL
Age: 36 | 2011 stats: 2.45 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 37 saves, 69.2 IP

Why he’s undervalued: Cordero has flown under the radar a bit because the market was flooded with closers this offseason, both in free agency as well as in the trade market. The Philadelphia Phillies signed Jonathan Papelbon, the Miami Marlins signed Heath Bell, the Texas Rangers signed Joe Nathan, the San Diego Padres traded for Huston Street, the Red Sox traded for Mark Melancon, and Francisco Rodriguez accepted salary arbitration with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Still, Cordero is a three-time All-Star who had an ERA under 3.00 in two of the last three years, despite pitching half of his games in the Great American Ball Park.

Francisco Cordero registered a fantastic return of .1 WAR on his 12 million dollar salary last year. He's 36 years old, his K per 9 innings has tumbled from 9.98 in 2008 to 5.43 last year, and his BABIP was .214, 80 points lower than the next lowest full season BABIP of his entire career. His average fastball velocity dropped from 94.5 mph in 2010 to 93 mph in 2011. He also had 37 saves, which means his salary will be inflated next year because of the overvaluing of the save stat in the baseball market place. His signing would also mean a team would have to surrender a draft pick to get him. All of this information took me less than 5 minutes to find. Would you rather pay a guy 400k out of your farm system for 60 innings with a 4.5 FIP, or would you rather pay a guy 5 to 8 million for Francisco Cordero to do the same? Jim Bowden, you have a job. Do it better.