Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Damn, Damn, Damn...

Well, I'll be dropping the idea of writing about Jose Canseco or his "book" right here and now -- there's no way I can be objective after finding out the sucker shot straight up to #1 on the bestseller list. Canseco had better thank his publicist and agent, because the timing of the book's release could not have been better, thanks to BALCO and Jason Giambi. Heck, Giambi should be owed royalties off the dang thing.

It's not all doom and gloom, however, with the news that Johan Santana signed a 4 year, 40 million dollar contract with the Minnesota Twins today. Nice. If he had followed the pattern set by Lance Berkman, Aramis Ramirez, and Ben Sheets (one year contracts), I'd have been absolutely mystified. At least one team believes in locking up a top tier player when he's in his prime. Of course, it's always a gamble for the Twins to put out that much money in any one player with their smaller payroll, but they've been one of the most financially smart teams outside of the Oakland A's for several years now. I think this was a good move for them.

This also is a nice sign for smaller market teams, as Kevin Agee mentioned over at his blog. For all of the Carlos Beltrans that leave the small market team as soon as the big money beckons, there's a Johan Santana that decides that being a multi-millionare is enough, and being a mega-multi-millionare is unneccessary.

I applied for the mega-multi-millionare job over at Wal-Mart the other day, but for some reason I was laughed at. It's nice work, if you can get it.

2 comments:

meikefer said...

The Brewers signed Sheets to a one-year deal because he's coming off of back surgery. Once they see he can still throw the ball well they are going to discuss a multi-year deal.

Daniel said...

Berkman is coming off injury as well, but one thing about these injuries and surgeries is that with the question marks looming, the price tag goes down. If Berkman and Sheets prove to be fine, the Brewers and Astros will end up paying more money for the same thing. Of course, the Brewers are small market, so I don't begrudge them being leery of gambling on a player like that. The Astros, well, a lot of their potential Berkman money went to Clemens, anyway, so perhaps their hand was forced.