Any pro athlete that doesn't recognize they're a blown knee away from a desk job isn't smart. When the money comes around, you take it.
With modern medicine when is the last time a good player started sucking due to injury. It happens with pitchers and most of the time it is mental (Ensberg etc.).
That was a bad decision by braun. He is on pace to hit close to 50hrs this year. He could have got double that I would think. When jennins is getting paid 4 mil braun should get at least 12 mil.
Braun isn't a free agent. Jennings was. Without a long-term deal, Braun was going to make about $250,000 this year and next.
Richard Hidalgo hit 40 HRs in a year. Daryle Ward hit 20+ in 250 at bats. I'm pretty sure Hidalgo is glad he signed his contract when he did, and Ward is sad that he never got that big contract. There's only so much money many people need. The tradeoff of going from about $250,000 guaranteed to $40 million guaranteed is sometimes worth a lot more than the extra $40 million he might have made.
...and the relative "smallness" of his contract's later years makes him very tradeable should the Brewers go into the toilet again--so he gets his coin, he avoids being an albatross, and the Brewers--if they ever feel like they have to--have something that may bring back pretty decent value. Pretty smart for all parties, I think.
Braun's teamate Prince Fielder will be doing the exact opposite. It will be interesting in the end to see how this turns out and who comes ahead. He will be taking the low salary years and arbitration when it comes down to it. I'm sure the Brewers would love to lock him up now and make a statement like they did with with Ryan Braun. The only problem is Scott Boras doesn't play that way and he represents Fielder. He'll be having Prince hold out for the 100 + million dollar contract to the highest bidder, which will not be the Brewers. I kind of feel bad for teams who draft a player and then they sign Boras afterwards. I'm not sure if he was already his agent before the draft, if so say goodbye to possible franchise player. So 2 opposite strategies. Fielder only loses in the long run if he gets hurt bad but will make probably double what Braun will make otherwise. However, Braun has the money to buy a nice pad and cars now.
If you invest your money right and you take Braun's strategy, you can *still* come out ahead of Fielder in the long run, even if the guy plays 25 years and ends up in the Hall!
Depends - he had a fantastic year last year, but this year so far is extremely mediocre, and very similar to his 2006. If this is the "real" him, then two years from now or whenever he's a free agent, he may not command very much at all. So far this year, he's a below-average first baseman. That's the risk he takes - he could very well go down the Daryle Ward route.
I'd say you'd need a damn good investor because if Fielder keeps putting up seasons like last year he'll easily sign a $150 million dollar contract. And that's a few years after making 10 million plus in arbitration per year. They'll be a bidding war between the usual North Eastern teams. Remeber, Manny and Big Poppy will be gone by then and the Yankees probably still won't have won a World Series.
Not necessarily. When I said, "invest", I didn't necessarily mean stocks and bonds. Business(es) and real estate, baby.
