Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Hot Stove is pretty meaningless

If I were an owner, I would fly down to Australia during the off-season and just get as far away from the media as possible. I would bet that nobody predicted Joe Torre would win 4 out of 5 World Series in his first 5 seasons.

Last year, do you remember Zito or Dice-K? Zito was a bust in his first year, and Dice-K was inconsistent. I still can't believe the Red Sox paid 60 million to have Dice-K for this season. Still, with pitching so thin, who could they have paid 60 million to pitch like Dice-K? They say money can't buy happiness.

Who's this year big time winner in the sweep stakes? Just this past NBA off-season, Rashard Lewis got a gazillion dollars from the Magic. The numbers just kept going up. It started at or around 90 million, and before it you knew it, the total ballooned to 110 million++.

I still can't believe that this happened in the NBA, where cap dollars are so important. To be honest, it probably also shocked the 29 other GMs in the league. Why would the Magic put such a strangle hold on their franchise by paying Lewis the mega bucks?

That's why I keep going back to Zito and Soriano from last year. These guys are borderline A+ free agents. Not in the class of Guerrero, and he didn't get the megabucks because the owners temporarily had less money to spend that year. If Guerrero went free agent 2006, he would have gotten 100++ million dollars.

A-Rod gets arbitration

This move is brilliant by the Yanks. If A-Rod can't get the mega bucks that he's seeking, he can always resign for 25 million, one year deal with the Yanks. I doubt that it'll happen because team X will fall in love with A-Rod's potential marketability and his potential quest for 800 homers. It wouldn't surprise me if they find a clever way to pony up 300 million dollars. It could happen that in order to make the numbers work per year, team X may go 12 years for 25 million to get to 300.

Of course, in this scenario, the Yanks will get two extra compensation draft picks. Who knows who the 2007 draft picks will turn out for the Yankees?

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