Tuesday, November 27, 2007

A-bonanza

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.

7 comments:

  1. 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).

    I 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.

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  2. Anytime A-Rod is swinging and missing it's fun to watch. Especially in the Yankee pinstripes

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  3. I 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?

    Who knows: maybe Joba will never be the same after the bug attack.

    Also: why all the focus on Santana? Haren might be available...

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  4. 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.

    Last 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!

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  5. He did allow a lot of HR last year. Most in the AL at one point - not sure how he finished.

    And 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

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  6. - What's weird about Santana's HR numbers is all his others look pretty good. Not sure why we gave up all the bombs.

    - 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...

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  7. 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?

    That's a given, correct?

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