The market certainly seems to be ascending to new heights of financial craziness. Here are just a few examples of the recent unlevelheadedness that has been unfurled upon the baseball landscape.
No relief:
Chad Bradford......3 yr/$10.5M
Jamie Walker......3 yr/$12M
Justin Speier......4 yr/$18M
Danys Baez......3 yr/$19M
No range:
Moises Alou......1 yr/$8.5M
Adam Kennedy......3 yr/$10M
Mark DeRosa......3 yr/$13M
Ray Durham......2 yr/$14M
Alex Gonzalez......3 yr/$14M
No wins:
Randy Wolf......1 yr/$8M
Orlando Hernandez......2 yr/$12M
Adam Eaton......3 yr/$24.5M
Vicente Padilla......3 yr/$34M
NO WAY!
Frank Thomas......2 yr/$18M
Julio Lugo......4 yr/$36M
Juan Pierre......5 yr/$44M
Gary Matthews Jr.......5 yr/$50M
J.D. Drew......5 yr/$70M
Carlos Lee......6 yr/$100M
Alfon$o $oriano......8 yr/$136M
The money being handed out this winter is being done extremely recklessly by some teams. I think Baltimore and both L.A.s appear on here two or more times, oh and of course the Cubs (who win the free agent craziness World Series, yay, they finally won). As a Braves fan I am occasionally aggravated by our tightlipped and by-his-own-book General Manager, but I have to hand it to John Schuerholz for hardly ever overpaying for any free agent. He may be rather strapped financially this year because of the glut of existing contracts and ownership imposed salary cap, but he's also not one of the GMs out there who's drinking the free agent Kool-Aid. I'm glad our team is not handing out contracts like the ones above. Yes, there are some good players in this group, but to throw so much money at them is nuts.
0 recs | 6 comments
Lugo
The lugo contract might be the most ridiculous i've seen, though he has been called a cheap mans furcal even though their stats were always similar.yondaime4 - December 6, 2006
I don't know...
...which one I would pick as the second worst. Obviously the GMJ contract is the worst by far, but after that I would say it's probably got to be giving anyone named Alex Gonzalez three years and $14 million.gondeee - December 6, 2006
Yeah
I retract my previous statement and side with Gond on this. That deal was disgustingyondaime4 - December 6, 2006
Drew's is the worst
I can't believe Boras conned the BoSox into paying 70 mil for 5 yrs for Drew. What a joke. That guy has failed to be a man of his word (written word, no less) and his health is unpredictable at best. I bet he gives Boston 3 good years - tops.wuky - December 6, 2006
Shanks
Well, you are probably right about Shanks and the grain of salt but he says we just trade Ho Ram to Seattle for Rafael Sorianoyondaime4 - December 6, 2006
Some
Some of these contracts are not so dumb. I hardly ever think a 1-2 year contract is a bad idea, given how flush with cash the organizations are. And in a world where Juan Pierre gets $44 mil and Gary Matthews turns a good month into $50 mil, the Drew contract isn't bad. When healthy, he's great and his last bouts of health woes were from being hit by pitches, which is hardly his fault.Besides, we'll paying Mike Hampton - what? $20 million this year? And if he pitches that much better than the guys on this list, I'll eat my 1995 World Champions T-shirt.
The thing is that the paradigm has shifted. MLB is absolutely rolling in cash right now. And with no great players on the market, they are throwing it at mediocre ones. If some genuine superstars hit the market, they'll be getting A-Rod money. Andruw could easily command $20 million next year.
mhsiegel14 - December 6, 2006
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