Tangent Friday…contracts gone crazy

Today is a significant day in the history of American Sports. David Beckham and wife Victoria have been introduced in L.A. Beckham will join the Galaxy, and try to turn their season around. I have no interest in looking up the Galaxy’s record or trying to sound even remotely educated about soccer. I am not. I don’t really care. The reason this day is significant is because it could be known as the day that soccer fans were hosed to the tune of 250 million dollars. David Beckham has not come to save soccer in America. He has come to exploit the media frenzy that surround hollywood stars. His wife has a ‘reality’ t.v. show slated to come out soon, and they are going to milk the L.A. press to make themselves bigger stars here in America, the one market they haven’t really tapped. What has been the knock on Beckham his whole career? He doesn’t always play hard, doesn’t always give his best effort? Now he wants to come to an inferior league to help that league? No. David Beckham is in this for the continued globalization of his name.

Now, there is the A-Rod mess. Good job Cashman. Brilliant strategy. This would have helped a little- maybe you should have found out ahead of time if Boras and A-Rod were willing to negotiate now before you made this big deal about going against team policy to renegotiate in season. The Yankees blinked, and announced to the world that they were going to make an exception in this case, and try to get a deal done with A-Rod before he could opt out of his contract. How arrogant to think that Rodriguez would accept this invitation with open arms and sign right away. Boras says no thanks, and now the Yankess are saying if you don’t sign before the season ends we are not going to be part of the bidding war. Way to turn your fans against a player while you are trying to creep back into the playoff race. Seriously, could you have scripted this any better if you were say the Red Sox or the Angels, or even the Indians for that matter? (More after the jump.)

Not only has New York gone crazy and assured A-Rod of making upwards of 400 million dollars before he retires, the Mariners signed Ichiro to a deal worth 100 million. Pocket change compared to what A-Rod will get right? Do you know the list of players that make 20 million per year? It’s pretty short…and they are all Yankees…A-Rod, Jeter, Giambi, and Clemmens. That’s it. Now, obviously Giambi is not worth that kind of money, but when he signed his deal he was the reigning MVP, and a young player. He was also a home run hitter. So is A-Rod. Jeter hits more home runs than Ichiro, drives in more runs too. But Ichiro sets the table for the rest of the line-up to drive him in. Yeah, Jeter scores as many or more runs than Ichiro. There is no way that a lead-off hitter with little power, (no matter what Leyland says) is worth that kind of change. No way.

Consider Ichiro against say Carlos Beltran. Average numbers for their careers are more similar than you would think- Ichiro has the better batting average to be sure, but ops is close, runs scored are nearly identical (112 to 114), and Beltran averages 18 more home runs and 40 more rbi than Ichiro. Stolen bases- Ichiro 31-40, so that isn’t really a huge difference. Beltran’s contract is still fairly new and so it should refllect a similar market value. Beltran makes 13.5 million. Seattle overpaid.