It seems to be everyone is agreeing that A-Hole will get a raise from his ~$27M last year to something like $29-30M. What everyone is forgetting is that the $27M he got was too high to begin with. The Rangers made a stupid move in offering him that much when no one else was even close to that number. Has A-Rod performed, absolutely. Is he the most valuable player in the majors and will he be for the next 10 years, probably. At least for the next 5 he'll be in the top 5 even in a "bad year." So what is he really worth?
Let's use round numbers and say we agree with Boras that he's worth $30M/yr. What are some of the other contracts out there? Here's a list from Wikipedia:
1. Alex Rodriguez New York Yankees $ 27,708,525
2. Jason Giambi New York Yankees $ 23,428,571
3. Derek Jeter New York Yankees $ 21,600,000
4. Manny Ramirez Boston Red Sox $ 17,016,381
5. Todd Helton Colorado Rockies $ 16,600,000
6. Andy Pettitte New York Yankees $ 16,000,000
7. Bartolo Colon Los Angeles Angels $ 16,000,000
8. Jason Schmidt Los Angeles Dodgers $ 15,703,946
9. Jim Thome Chicago White Sox $ 15,666,667
10. Bobby Abreu New York Yankees $ 15,600,000
11. Barry Bonds San Francisco Giants $ 15,533,970
12. Richie Sexson Seattle Mariners $ 15,500,000
13. Mike Hampton Atlanta Braves $ 15,475,185
14. Carlos Delgado New York Mets $ 14,500,000
15. Vladimir Guerrero Los Angeles Angels $ 14,500,000
16. Lance Berkman Houston Astros $ 14,500,000
17. J.D. Drew Boston Red Sox $ 14,400,000
18. Pedro Martinez New York Mets $ 14,002,234
19. Andruw Jones Atlanta Braves $ 14,000,000
20. Miguel Tejada Baltimore Orioles $ 13,811,415
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_paid_baseball_players#Annual_Salaries_by_Year
You can make an argument that A-Hole should be paid more than all of these players. But should he be paid twice as much? I don't think so. I also think part of the problem is that many of these contracts were awarded right after A-Holes contract in 2001. Jeter, Giambi, Manny, Helton, Hampton all signed lucrative deals after the A-Hole mega deal for $252M. The market has since dropped as teams realized players weren't worth that much and you couldn't pay one player that much $ and be successful. I would argue that today's market is lower than 2001 and that A-Hole is being overpaid at $27M and he'd never get that kind of contract in today's market. Time will tell, but I think the only reason why people are talking about paying $20M for A-Hole is because that's what Boras is telling them, no one is actually thinking about what he's worth comapred to other players.
It's similar to Joe Torre, he was being paid $7M a year to manage the Yankees last year, that was more than twice as much as the next highest, Lou Piniella at $3.5M. Tony La Russa has since inked a deal for over $4M a year, but that's still a significant increase over everyone. Was Joe Torre really that much better, no. It's the same to A-Hole. When A-Hole starts hitting .400, with 80 HR's and 200 RBI's then I'll say he's worth twice as much as everyone else, until then, I'd put his market value at around $20M per year.
I hope an owner doesn't cave in to Boras and teams do their own due diligence, they'll see that A-Rod is not worth $30M, he's worth $20M, higher than everyone else in today's market, but not worth twice as much.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Traitor Joe's
Little announced on Tuesday night that he was resigning as manager as reports surfaced that the Dodgers and Torre are on the verge of consummating a deal.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3087421
“I just felt the contract offer, the terms of the contract, were probably the thing I had the toughest time with,” Torre said in response to a question last Friday. “The one year for one thing, the incentives for another thing. The fact that I’ve been there 12 years, I didn’t think motivation was needed.”
In his interview with Costas, Torre expanded his views of the incentives.
“I don’t think incentives are necessary,” he said. “I’ve never needed to be motivated. Plus, in my contract, I get a million-dollar bonus if we do win the World Series. So that’s always been there. And, you know, as far as needing incentive to go ahead and win a ballgame, that I thought, I used the term insulting.”
Torre referred to a $1 million bonus for winning the World Series. He indeed had that in his last two contracts, which covered the last six years of his employment. In the 2002-4 contract, he was able to earn $200,000 for winning the division series, $300,000 for winning the league championship series and $500,000 for winning the World Series.
The 2005-7 contract eliminated the division series bonus but provided $400,000 for winning the league championship series and $600,000 for winning the World Series, the bonuses still adding to a maximum $1 million.
Obviously Torre did not object to those bonuses, did not reject them as insulting. He signed those contracts and readily accepted the incentives they offered. Even though the Yankees didn’t win the World Series in those six years, Torre earned $700,000 of a possible $3 million in the first contract but nothing in the second because the Yankees lost the division series each year.
But those were not the only incentives in a Torre contract. In the 2002-4 deal, he had bonuses based on the number of games the Yankees won — $100,000 each for 90, 94, 98, 102. He earned an additional $1 million of a possible $1.2 million.
What was that about not needing incentive “to go ahead and win a ballgame”? That thought insulted Torre? Why, then, did he accept $1 million worth of insults in those years? And why wasn’t he willing to accept a potential $3 million in insults for next season?
We also don’t know why he was willing to discuss a one-year contract last spring but not accept one year now.
Yes, Torre was prepared to sign a one-year extension.
Torre went to Steve Swindal, who was then a general partner and a George Steinbrenner son-in-law in good standing, and General Manager Brian Cashman and told them he would like to manage the Yankees in the last year at Yankee Stadium.
Swindal, who had negotiated Torre’s existing $20.9 million contract ($6.7 million, $6.7 million, $7.5 million), said that idea was fine with him but would require Torre to take a pay cut. They were talking about a $4.5 million salary, apparently with no insulting incentives.
Their talks, however, died with Swindal’s decline after his D.U.I. arrest and subsequent divorce from Jennifer Steinbrenner. Cashman discussed the contract with Steinbrenner, who told him to wait until after the season.
Torre never mentioned those negotiations, nor did he disclose his profitable contract incentives. Should he have talked about either? Maybe he had no obligation to unless he was asked about them, but he did have a responsibility not to make misleading claims about motivation and insult.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/sports/baseball/25chass.html?ref=todayspaper
The cat's out of the bag Joe, again greed has prevailed. You turned down a guaranteed $5M (with a chance to earn $18M) for what's reported to be a $14-15M deal with the Dodgers. If you want to take another job, that's fine, if you wanted more money from the Yankees, fine, if you never want to see a Yankee ever again, fine, but no reason to have a press conference and act like you were insulted by $5M and incentives that existed previously. You're a fraud and phony that wants the spotlight on himself, I guess that's par for the course when it comes to pro sports. Me, Me, Me.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3087421
“I just felt the contract offer, the terms of the contract, were probably the thing I had the toughest time with,” Torre said in response to a question last Friday. “The one year for one thing, the incentives for another thing. The fact that I’ve been there 12 years, I didn’t think motivation was needed.”
In his interview with Costas, Torre expanded his views of the incentives.
“I don’t think incentives are necessary,” he said. “I’ve never needed to be motivated. Plus, in my contract, I get a million-dollar bonus if we do win the World Series. So that’s always been there. And, you know, as far as needing incentive to go ahead and win a ballgame, that I thought, I used the term insulting.”
Torre referred to a $1 million bonus for winning the World Series. He indeed had that in his last two contracts, which covered the last six years of his employment. In the 2002-4 contract, he was able to earn $200,000 for winning the division series, $300,000 for winning the league championship series and $500,000 for winning the World Series.
The 2005-7 contract eliminated the division series bonus but provided $400,000 for winning the league championship series and $600,000 for winning the World Series, the bonuses still adding to a maximum $1 million.
Obviously Torre did not object to those bonuses, did not reject them as insulting. He signed those contracts and readily accepted the incentives they offered. Even though the Yankees didn’t win the World Series in those six years, Torre earned $700,000 of a possible $3 million in the first contract but nothing in the second because the Yankees lost the division series each year.
But those were not the only incentives in a Torre contract. In the 2002-4 deal, he had bonuses based on the number of games the Yankees won — $100,000 each for 90, 94, 98, 102. He earned an additional $1 million of a possible $1.2 million.
What was that about not needing incentive “to go ahead and win a ballgame”? That thought insulted Torre? Why, then, did he accept $1 million worth of insults in those years? And why wasn’t he willing to accept a potential $3 million in insults for next season?
We also don’t know why he was willing to discuss a one-year contract last spring but not accept one year now.
Yes, Torre was prepared to sign a one-year extension.
Torre went to Steve Swindal, who was then a general partner and a George Steinbrenner son-in-law in good standing, and General Manager Brian Cashman and told them he would like to manage the Yankees in the last year at Yankee Stadium.
Swindal, who had negotiated Torre’s existing $20.9 million contract ($6.7 million, $6.7 million, $7.5 million), said that idea was fine with him but would require Torre to take a pay cut. They were talking about a $4.5 million salary, apparently with no insulting incentives.
Their talks, however, died with Swindal’s decline after his D.U.I. arrest and subsequent divorce from Jennifer Steinbrenner. Cashman discussed the contract with Steinbrenner, who told him to wait until after the season.
Torre never mentioned those negotiations, nor did he disclose his profitable contract incentives. Should he have talked about either? Maybe he had no obligation to unless he was asked about them, but he did have a responsibility not to make misleading claims about motivation and insult.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/sports/baseball/25chass.html?ref=todayspaper
The cat's out of the bag Joe, again greed has prevailed. You turned down a guaranteed $5M (with a chance to earn $18M) for what's reported to be a $14-15M deal with the Dodgers. If you want to take another job, that's fine, if you wanted more money from the Yankees, fine, if you never want to see a Yankee ever again, fine, but no reason to have a press conference and act like you were insulted by $5M and incentives that existed previously. You're a fraud and phony that wants the spotlight on himself, I guess that's par for the course when it comes to pro sports. Me, Me, Me.
A-Hole Opts Out
Boras announced during Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday night that A-Rod was opting out of the final three seasons of his contract with the New York Yankees. The timing left baseball officials livid, and Boras apologized Monday evening, just after Rodriguez filed with the players' association and became a free agent for the first time since 2000.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=3084690
Rodriguez's contract called for him to receive $24 million from the Yankees in each of the next three seasons, money offset by $21.3 million the Rangers agreed to pay as part of the trade. In addition, Rodriguez's contract called for $3 million from the Rangers in deferred money in each of the next three years.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/10/30/bc.bba.yankees.rodriguez.ap/
It's official A-Hole has opted out of his contract. In the past 7 years he has earned $180M (includes bonuses) of the 10 year $252M contract he signed with the Rangers in 2001. He has decided to leave $81M over the next 3 years in reported hopes of getting $300M over 10 years. There's greed and then there's insatiable gluttonous greed.
Where's Jeff Gillooly when you need him. Nothing would make me happier than someone taking a crowbar to A-Hole's knees. Oh, I'm sorry, are you not under contract, did you just see a guaranteed $100M fly out the door never to be seen again. Suck it A-Hole!!!
In case anyone wants to hire him, Gillooly changed his name to Jeff Stone, at least that's what Wikipedia says, so it's gotta be true.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=3084690
Rodriguez's contract called for him to receive $24 million from the Yankees in each of the next three seasons, money offset by $21.3 million the Rangers agreed to pay as part of the trade. In addition, Rodriguez's contract called for $3 million from the Rangers in deferred money in each of the next three years.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/10/30/bc.bba.yankees.rodriguez.ap/
It's official A-Hole has opted out of his contract. In the past 7 years he has earned $180M (includes bonuses) of the 10 year $252M contract he signed with the Rangers in 2001. He has decided to leave $81M over the next 3 years in reported hopes of getting $300M over 10 years. There's greed and then there's insatiable gluttonous greed.
Where's Jeff Gillooly when you need him. Nothing would make me happier than someone taking a crowbar to A-Hole's knees. Oh, I'm sorry, are you not under contract, did you just see a guaranteed $100M fly out the door never to be seen again. Suck it A-Hole!!!
In case anyone wants to hire him, Gillooly changed his name to Jeff Stone, at least that's what Wikipedia says, so it's gotta be true.
Opening Comments
Sound the alarm, stop the presses! The Boycott Pro Sports blog is up and running. A press conference will be held at The White House’s Rose Garden, or my basement, whichever is available. Fyi, Corporate naming rights to my basement are currently available to the highest bidder.
This blog has been set-up as a place for the “Average Joe” to complain and let your voices be heard about how disgusted you are with pro sports, the athletes that play them, the coaches and managers who prepare and instruct them and the owners that run the business. After all, Average Joe, you are the employer of all of them. Without your ticket and merchandise purchases, your TV viewership and every other way you contribute they would have no revenues to live their extravagant lifestyles.
Occasionally memebers of the pro sports community do things that are worthy of recognition and a pat on the back, when such a rarity occurs, we’ll let you know about it as well. But for the most part, we’ll highlight the greed and stupidity of pro sports.
As “the employer” it’s time to stand up and say you’re not going to take it anymore and this is the place to do it. I' look forward to hearing from my fellow Average Joe's (AJ's).
This blog has been set-up as a place for the “Average Joe” to complain and let your voices be heard about how disgusted you are with pro sports, the athletes that play them, the coaches and managers who prepare and instruct them and the owners that run the business. After all, Average Joe, you are the employer of all of them. Without your ticket and merchandise purchases, your TV viewership and every other way you contribute they would have no revenues to live their extravagant lifestyles.
Occasionally memebers of the pro sports community do things that are worthy of recognition and a pat on the back, when such a rarity occurs, we’ll let you know about it as well. But for the most part, we’ll highlight the greed and stupidity of pro sports.
As “the employer” it’s time to stand up and say you’re not going to take it anymore and this is the place to do it. I' look forward to hearing from my fellow Average Joe's (AJ's).
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