Making Sense of What Just Happened
by Ross Friedman
Do you remember back to when $88.5 million was a lot
of money. It's hard, it seems so long ago. Oh that's
right, it was 2 weeks ago when the Yankees spent all
that money on Mike Mussina.
Doesn't Mussina feel stupid now for signing so early
in the offseason.
I think the real moral of the story here is if there
are a bunch of big-name free agents, be the first to
sign one. Hell, ARod got almost 3 times the $88.5
million that Mussina got. Although I have this weird
feeling that the Rangers won't get three times the
value or three times the championships or three times
just about anything over the life of ARod's contract.
Not as long as their pitching staff is a 5-man
rotation of guys who had a combined 5.81 ERA last
season.
For that money, I sure hope ARod can pitch too.
Then there's Manny. Which makes people like Jeter and
Nomar worth more than $20 million as well. As long as
there was just ARod, we could say, well, that was just
one team making a stupid move.
Manny may be baseball's best hitter. But he's a
two-tool player. he can hit for average and he can
hit for power. He's also one of the worst outfielders
and baserunners in the game. By the end of the
contract he'll be a $20 million a year DH (which may
be the going rate for DHs by then).
I can't wait till Vladimir Guererro becomes free.
Don't you like how both Tom Hicks and Jerry McMorris,
the owners of the Rangers and Rockies, respectively
were on the commission about the economic problems in
baseball. I guess they solved them. I don't know
what Bud Selig is still doing then.
When was the last time George Steinbrenner had the
highest paid player in the game? I think it was Dave
Winfield in 1981. Maybe George is not the problem.
At least he wins when he spends.
Jerry Reinsdorf didn't start winning till he stopped
spending. His 26th highest payroll in baseball got
him the best record in the American League. Remember
where the White Sox were when he made Albert Belle the
highest paid player in the game.
Mike Hampton and Alex Rodriguez should just admit it
was about the money. There are a lot of people that
won't blame you for taking a quarter of a billion
dollars if you can get it. However, they will blame
you if you insult their intelligence and say it was
about winning, and not the money.
Last time I checked, both players came from playoff
teams. Both could have gotten offers from the Braves.
The two teams they went to have a combined two
playoff wins in their history. That's not enough to
win one playoff round. The two players won a combined
3 rounds last year. It wasn't about the winning.
Maybe for Mike Hampton it was about the weather as we
know he prefers the warm. Oh, wait, that's right,
Colorado is the coldest weather team in baseball.
They both went for one thing. The money. I'm okay
with that, if they would just admit it.
Well, Tom Hicks got his superstar player. Now let's
see if he can get a .500 record.
In the end, I'm not sure what just happened. I'm
still trying to make sense out of it, and if I do,
I'll be sure to let you all know.
The only thing I've figured out so far is this:
Scott Boras won.
I know, sort of makes you feel sick, huh?
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