Gil Meche was signed by the Kansas City Royals for 5 years and 55 million dollars. This was tied with Mike Sweeney for the largest contract ever signed by a Royal. Most observers were puzzled why the legendarily stingy Royals owner, David Glass, had finally opened his purse strings for a major contract to such a mediocre player. With over half a season complete, Meche is looking like the best value among the five pitchers who received large multi-year contracts.

Meche had been a mediocre journeyman for Seattle with a lifetime ERA of 4.65 and a 55 and 44 record. Why was he being offered a long term contract for an average of $11 million per year? The deal was viewed as an act of desperation by team that had lost over 100 games in 2006.

The other starters who received multi year deals with an average salary over $10 million were Barry Zito (7 years, $126M), Vicente Padilla (3 years, $34M), and Jeff Suppan (4 years, $42M). Although he isn’t receiving over $10 million, Daisuke Matsuzaka’s six year, $52M contract puts him in the same league as the others, based on the $51.1M posting fee paid by the Red Sox to the Seibu Lions for the right to negotiate with him.

Of the group, most of the hype surrounded Zito and Matsuzaka. Both were represented by super agent Scott Boras. Boras ensured they got extremely favorable deals (he allegedly guaranteed Zito over $100M) and built high expectations. Suppan had been the NLCS MVP in 2006 with St Louis, so he went into free agency on a high note. Padilla, like Meche, seemed to benefit from a steamy free agency market for starters, though with a more modest contract.

Comparing performance of this group, Meche comes away as a reasonable investment. He’s been healthy and is tied with Matsuzaka and Suppan with 20 starts. Zito has 19 and Padilla has only 15. He’s averaging over 6 innings per start, so he’s not overly stressing the shaky Kansas City relievers.

Walks have been an issue for Meche in the past. In 2006 he issued the third most walks for any pitcher in the American league. This year, he has the lowest percentage of walks in this group. More importantly, he has the second best WHIP (Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched) among these pitchers, with 1.32. Matsuzaka is the leader with 1.28. Zito has 1.41, Suppan has 1.5 and Padilla has 1.81.

Meche has the best ERA in the group with 3.69. Matsuzaka is next with 3.99. The rest are lagging far behind. Zito has 4.67, Suppan 4.90 and Padilla has a hefty 6.69 ERA.

Four years is a long time in the life of a baseball player, but Meche is off to a decent start. It looks like he is progressing the way KC expected him to. It’s now up to David Glass to invest more in scouting and acquisitions to surround Meche with a team that will give him more wins. Although Meche and Matsuzaka have very similar pitching statistics, Matsuzaka’s record is 11and 7, while Meche has posted a 6 and 6 record.