Maybe D'Amico was a fluke and maybe he wasn't.

But, if you are a contender who cares? If you are a strong team that needs a dominant starter at the front of your rotation you would have to pay through the nose to get one somewhere else. So why not just ante up that FA pick for a Pedro-esque performance (even if it is only one year).

Sometimes it takes a mixture of play for now and play for later. If I have a team that is one or two good pitchers away from winning NOW then its silly to sacrifice this years chance for a prospect that may fail. I've seen too many prospects fail in recent times and I've also had too many situations where I had too many keepers going into the draft.

If D'Amico totally flops then I got one good year from him .... if a young pitcher gets hurt or stinks or gets no opportunity and has to get dropped (pick one Matt Riley, Ed Yarnall, Ryan Glynn, Aaron Myette, Jaret Wright, Ismael Valdes, Brian Cooper, etc, etc, etc) then I used the pick and got NOTHING in return.