Our 2008 Outfield

[beck72]

Teams have been getting burned for years yet Barry Zito just got a little more than 1/8 of a billion dollars to suck for the next 8 years, Jason Schmidt and Dave Roberts are making more combined than the entire Marlins roster and Juan f***ing Pierre is getting $45M to get on base in 31% of his PAs.

 

Nothing is going to change next year, Eric Byrnes and Aaron Rowand will demand Matthews money and some one will pay up, Torii Hunter and Andruw Jones will get larger contracts than Johnny Damon did 2 years ago and all will be merry until the first injury of '08.

 

Rowand is putting up a .924 OPS, the highest of any CF in baseball, he's outproducing '06 Gary Matthews Jr. in every offensive category while playing similar defense and supplying pretty good speed. He's a very popular player in both the media and with the fans and he's 3 years younger Little Sarge. There's no reason for his best offer to be $24M, none at all.

 

Vernon Wells inked a 7 year, $126M deal just last season, Ichiro just got $100M 2 weeks ago and Eric Byrnes' agent is already throwing Gary Matthews' name around.

 

Teams are just going to stop paying up for the best free agents.

I think teams will keep paying for the "sure thing" all stars. that's why teams are locking up the Buehrle's, Wells' and Ichiro's. Yet Mark is getting $14 mill and Ichiro avg's to be $16.1 mill.

[signed 5-year contract EXTENSION worth $90M thru 2012 season on 7/13/07- + he receives a $5M signing bonus and salaries of $17M each year in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012- + each year $5M of his salary is deferred at 5.5% interest, thus lowering the deal's average annual present-day value to $16.1M- + the $25M in deferred salaries will be paid out in annual installments each January 30 beginning with the first year of his retirement from MLB until at least 2032-]

 

With these stars setting the market, and teams not wanting to repeat last years free agent spending disasters having been already stuck with contracts they would love to part with but can't, the mid level players won't see the huge paydays.

 

For instance, Torii Hunter isn't going to see Ichiro money. He'll likely get $13 mill. That will affect Rowand and Cameron.