Wow, it sure is easy to come up with "clever" A-Rod puns, since "a" is the indefinite article! "A" + any noun = hilarious headline! Like Joel Sherman's recent piece of awesomeness, "A-mistake". Brilliant. Anyway, this has probably been said countless times, but A-Rod's new $30M "marketing" contract is pretty insane. (This NY Post graphic says it all.) He gets $6M each time he reaches a milestone in career homeruns - passing Willie Mays (660); Babe Ruth (714); Hank Aaron (755), and 2007 Barry Bonds (762); then $6M for breaking the all-time HR record. (The NYT says he needs to tie, not pass, each milestone to collect his money.) Given that Bonds may never play baseball again, that's a lot of money in a short period of time - $6M for #755, then 7 HR later he gets $6M for #762, and another $6M for the one after that. That's $18M in what will probably be a single season, plus the $27.5M of his contract. So in 2014 or so he'll make over $45M. Hell, he could make $12M in one game!
Or, as Sherman suggests, with the mounting pressure he could have 40 or 50 hitless at-bats before reaching each milestone. That would be pretty fun to watch.
That is pretty that sherman wrote that - just last night I was thinking about how A-Rod struggled a bit to get to 500 this year (relatively, of course). and then I thought it was kind of silly to put that type of a pressure on a guy who may or may not have shown in the past that he does not do well in such situtations (I'm being nice here).
ReplyDeleteI can't think of which scenario would be funnier. Dino's assessment that Johan is breaking down - NY goes out and gets him and whoever they give up becomes a stud. Or NY won't trade Joba to get Johan and Santana and Joba turns into Bill Pulsipher.
Anytime A-Rod is swinging and missing it's fun to watch. Especially in the Yankee pinstripes
ReplyDeleteI don't think Santana's getting worse any time soon. If he is, he doesn't know it - you don't reject $80M or whatever if you think your career could end with a spring training injury. There's nothing in his stats that suggest he's slipping, is there?
ReplyDeleteWho knows: maybe Joba will never be the same after the bug attack.
Also: why all the focus on Santana? Haren might be available...
At least I posted that my gut tells me that Santana is due for arm surgery, because there is nothing in his stats that suggest a slowing down of his performance.
ReplyDeleteLast year wasn't as good as the previous couple, but he still posted a 1.07 WHIP and a 3.33 ERA.
Shows you what my gut knows!
He did allow a lot of HR last year. Most in the AL at one point - not sure how he finished.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I don't think he is hurt or anything, but if I were him, I'd reject $80MM today. You know that he will have an offer of at least $100MM before he even reports to spring training. The Twins should really be able to find a way to keep him. Back load the contract - they are going into a new stadium. The $80MM is a starting point, much like the Yankees were prepared to offer A-Rod a $150/5 extension, yet ended up signing him for $270-300. Granted different teams, markets and resources, but if MN can find $80MM, they can find $120MM.
Obviously you saw the Olney piece today - but for my $$, the guy that would be most interesting is Bedard. He is more dominant than Haren
- What's weird about Santana's HR numbers is all his others look pretty good. Not sure why we gave up all the bombs.
ReplyDelete- Bedard worries me - and, like IBID, this is a gut feeling. I feel that one day he's just going to...suck. A Matt Clement sort of thing.
- Liriano is coming back next season, right? If so, if I were the Twins GM, I'd keep Santana until the end. Man, the AL Central could be interesting...
Is it pretty much a given that the first time the Yankees come to Boston that WEEI will hand out those placards they always give out - this time with a picture of a midge on them. And 35,000 people will all BUZZZZZZZZ in unison when Joba takes the mound?
ReplyDeleteThat's a given, correct?