A look at the price of pitching

The price of pitching in Major League Baseball is high. Three pitchers in the current free agent class could head into next season with new contracts of at least $100 million. Former big league general manager Jim Bowden published his projections on ESPN.com for some free agent deals this winter. He projected that Max Scherzer could get a seven-year deal worth $189 million, Jon Lester a six-year deal worth $138 million and James Shields a five-year deal worth $100 million. Those are big numbers. Sometimes in baseball, those investments pay off. Other times, it is worth debating how soon into the deal the team that threw out that cash will be looking to get out from under that very same contract. By the way, only Lester at 2.46 had an ERA under 3.00 this season. Scherzer was at 3.15 and Shields at 3.21. All three pitchers mentioned above could soon be earning $20 million or more per season. For the Orioles, Ubaldo Jimenez is due to make $12.25 million next season. The other five potential starting pitchers will make somewhere around $23 million combined. Those six O's starters will earn a total of around $35 million next season. The Yankees will be paying CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka a combined $45 million next year. Here is a look at some large pitching contracts signed in recent years: * The Dodgers signed Clayton Kershaw to a seven-year, $215 million deal in January. He will make $30 million next season and at least that much every year through 2020. * The Yankees signed Tanaka to a seven-year, $155 million deal in January, as well. He will make $22 million in 2015. * The Tigers signed Justin Verlander to a seven-year, $180 million deal in March 2013 and he will make $28 million next year. * The Mariners signed Felix Hernandez to a seven-year, $175 million deal in February 2013 and he is scheduled to be paid $24 million next season. There is a reason former O's general manager Andy MacPhail said, "Grow the arms, buy the bats." While any player can get hurt, it must really strike fear into a GM to give any pitcher that much money with all the pitching injuries in the sport now. This is another reason that young and inexpensive pitching that is under team control for several years is the most coveted commodity in the sport. Getting good seasons from players even before they are arbitration-eligible - as the Orioles have done with pitchers like Chris Tillman and Miguel Gonzalez - is huge for a franchise. They gave the Orioles value worth millions for near the big league minimum. Kevin Gausman may be on the cusp of becoming a top-of-the-rotation pitcher. If he does that in 2015, the Orioles will be getting that production at a bargain. You wonder if there will be a time coming when the Orioles look to sign a pitcher - one of their own or a free agent - to such a megadeal. Is that coming down the road for Tillman, Gausman, Dylan Bundy, Hunter Harvey or someone else? Are the Orioles now scared off a bit by Jimenez's struggles last year? They signed him for $50 million, the richest free agent pitching contract in team history. By the way, an early look ahead at some of next year's crop of free agent pitchers includes two Orioles: Johnny Cueto, Wei-Yin Chen, Doug Fister, Yovani Gallardo, Hisashi Iwakuma, Bud Norris, Rick Porcello, David Price, Jeff Samardzija and Jordan Zimmermann. The price of pitching is high. The Orioles got a lot of value out of their starters last year as they ranked fifth in the American League in rotation ERA. Will the price of pitching be an issue for the Orioles over the next few years? Stat of the day: A look at the 2014 leaders in fewest hits per nine innings among AL starting pitchers last season: 6.48 - Felix Hernandez, Mariners 6.62 - Garrett Richards, Angels 6.67 - Chris Sale, White Sox 7.68 - Alex Cobb, Rays; Sonny Gray, A's Among Orioles, Norris finished 12th here at 8.11 and Tillman was 15th at 8.20. Question of the day: Should a starting pitcher be MVP? The final word for today comes from ESPN Stats and Info from last night: This is the first time in the history of the MVP award that Yankees & Red Sox players both got no MVP votes.