Show Me the Money!

Hey all, hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Updates on here have been pretty sparse, returning home combined with an increase in schoolwork will do that. Also, I feel like we're stuck in a lull in terms of Boston sports. The Patriots throttled the Jets, but are one week away from potentially wrapping up a playoff spot. In Week 13. The Red Sox are fairly quiet, the Bruins are, well, we won't discuss them, and the Celtics haven't yet got out of "small sample-size don't take much from this" part of the schedule.

So basically, I wanted to blog about throwback Nelly music.

Well, not exactly, although in theory that would probably be one of the more entertaining things you'd read on here.

What I wanted to touch on was the absurdity, the downright ridiculousness, of contracts in professional baseball. While reading twitter, (shocking I know) I came across a report that said Russell Martin is looking for 4 years and $40 million dollars. What seems like a bizarre request from a player who barely cracks most MLB starting lineups, actually isn't all that bizarre at all.

All throughout baseball, the influx of high-priced middle tiered players is widening. Take Jonny Gomes for example. The newest addition to the Boston Red Sox, Gomes somehow managed to secure not only a multi-year contract (2 years) but also $10 million bucks. 5 million bucks a year, not ridiculous in the grand scheme of things, right?

Well, not so much, seeing as the average MLB salary is $3.31 million and climbing. The NFL, the worlds most popular sport, averaged salaries of roughly $1.9 million in 2011. Yet somehow, someway, Jonny Gomes will get $5 million beans each year. Yet a career .244 hitter, who really shouldn't be facing right handers in the first place, is now paid like an above average player.

It makes you think about the way baseball is set up contractually, and the absurdity that comes along with a professional athlete's contract. Just yesterday, Evan Longoria agreed to a $100 million contract extension, and rumor has it David Wright has his own on the way.

Vernon Wells is 33 years old and hasn't hit above .300 since 2008. He's also owed a whopping $48 million dollars through 2014, and is routinely mentioned among the worst contracts ever handed out in the MLB.

Jayson Werth signed a $127 million dollar contract in 2010. He played in exactly half of Washington's games last year, is a career .267 hitter, and was admittedly overpaid for by his own club. And do I need remind Red Sox fans how out of control spending can decimate the future of your organization?

Maybe I sound like a whiny fan, and I know there's really nothing that can be done about this. But the out of control spending in a cap-less league makes it very difficult to support and relate to the MLB. There is talk of parity, yet small market teams can't even get into bidding on Jonny Gomes without being outbid by a bigger fish in the pond.

One of the greatest draws about the NFL and NBA is the ability to study how teams meticulously build their teams through drafting and free agent spending. The MLB simply does not have that. Throw enough money at someone, and you'll get your guy.

Oh, and remember Russell Martin? He wants $40 million dollars. Martin also hasn't hit above .250 since 2008, saw his power numbers drop significantly before playing in the bandbox that is Yankee Stadium, and now sits right around the league average in runners caught stealing. Would you feel comfortable paying for that?

But for now I'll sit back, ruefully watch, and wish I had somehow possessed enough baseball talent to get beyond the 8th grade. Oh, and add in more music. We all love music.