This deal is wrong on so many levels I figured I would let a guy, actually a great writer named Dave O'Brien who covers the Atlanta Braves for the AJC.com, break it down with this comparison in terms of dollars in what Sabathia will get in New York to what future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux made during his entire career....
Just consider, Sabathia will make more during this deal than Greg Maddux, who retired Monday, made during his entire, spectacular 23-year career. Maddux made about $154 million and won 355 games, recording 109 complete games and 3,371 strikeouts in 5,008-1/3 innings and 740 starts.
Sabathia, 28, has 117 career wins and 1,659 innings.
After going 17-10 with 251 strikeouts in 253 innings this season, he would have to average 16.5 wins and 223 innings for the next 15 seasons to match Maddux.
So congratulations go out to the New York Yankees to getting Sabathia. They give him the richest contract ever for a pitcher surpassing Johan Santana's deal from last offseason and now rely on him to get them a World Series ring. This despite pitching nearly 750 innings the past 3 years and his ever growing waist which will break down his body eventually. Oh yeah, they also offered him a deal reportedly worth more than $60 million more than the nearest competitor for Sabathia's services. In a shitty economy. Now that is smart baseball.
That might be the best thing that could happen to the Braves. Burnett is a good pitcher but he isn't worth that type of money or those years. Actually, he isn't even close to worth that much and when I think of Burnett I think of Carl Pavano Part Deux. The Yankees are just showering ridiculous offers to all the free agents thus driving up their price tags and making it more difficult for other teams to compete. Now it appears the Red Sox and Yankees are both offering insane deals for Mark Texeiria. He isn't even a need on their respective teams but they feel they have to get him to compete for headlines. It's sickening how out of touch these bidding wars have become.
ReplyDeleteBut remember, the Yankees, Mets and Tigers all had 3 of the highest payrolls by far including the Red Sox and yet only the Red Sox made the playoffs. The Rays had a payroll of less than $50 million and made the World Series. This gives me hope as a fan of the Orioles and Braves.
I tend to think that if the O's could pay for Sabathia you might be singing a different tune. Love the hell out of your site (no homo)and really enjoy reading daily but this is one thing I don't agree with. I may not think he is worth 160 million but can you really blame the Yanks for doing everything possible to make sure they got their man. As bad as they needed an overhaul of the staff, CC was the best option to get it started.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame the Yankees for giving Sabathia an insane contract. I really don't. I blame the whole system. There needs to be some form of a salary cap like the NFL. If I were a Yankees fan I would see no problem with signing C.C. and Burnett and Lowe and whoever else for way more than any other team offered. These players are just mercenaries when they go to New York and they want the most money. It is what it is. The problem with the Yankees doing this is they drive up the market and make it economically unfeasible for other teams to compete and hold on to their best players. And why would the Yankees stop right? They want to win at all costs and I can't blame them. I blame Bud Selig. Make a cap of $100 million and let's see how much better the game would be. People are sick about the Yankees and the Red Sox competing for headlines by showering players with crazy contracts. I'm not sure if you are in business but you also have to factor in what our economy is like right now. It's in shambles. People are getting laid off, losing their houses, and major companies including tons of small businesses are going out of business. So what does baseball do? They dish out even more money towards players who don't deserve it. And while this is great to get a player you want to help your team win it sucks the next time you visit a ballpark and the price of beer went up another couple of dollars and parking just went up $5 and tickets are now 20% more than a year ago and we the consumer are forced to pay more money to enjoy a game we love when we are barely able to afford to pay our bills.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, at least the Yankees will have seats at $2500 a seat next year and people will buy them. The rich get richer and everyone else gets less. Sounds fun.