which presumably would be even larger this discussion is like a guy who has never lifted weights before claim he "doesn't want to get too muscular" lol
I, of course, agree, but there's just no way to prove to them that it would be closer to, say, $130MM+ than $80MM. By their logic, I don't understand why they aren't blowing their tops over Scott Feldman eating up like a quarter of our budget.
That's a lot of money. Can't say I blame the Astros for not competing with that. While I'd like to see them spend more, that kind of contract might have hamstrung them in the future, regardless of what comes of the tv situation.
Report: Masahiro Tanaka to Yankees for $155 million Fox Sports is reporting that the prize of this winter's free-agent class has agreed to terms on a seven-year, $155 million contract with the Yankees, the latest move in a winter of wild spending for the club.
Wow. Essentially 7 years, $175M when you include posting fee. To put that in perspective, only Kershaw, Verlander, & ARod currently have higher than that average annual cost of $25M, and matches Felix Hernandez. Verlander got $180M for 7 years, and Hernandez got $175M for 7 years. Verlander's option includes a vesting option of $22M for 8th year if he finishes top 5 in Cy Young voting in year 7 (which I'd call club friendly). Hernandez has a club option for an 8th year at $1M, if Hernandez misses a season due to right elbow injury. When you include Tanka's opt-out clause, it gets that much more insane.
I hope he ends up like Daisuke. Actually, that is mean of me to say, ask Daisuke was actually a good pitcher brought down by injury, possibly due to how he was used in Japan.
And this is one of the reasons I don't follow baseball the way I used to. Baseball needs some kind of salary cap.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Sources: <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Yankees&src=hash">#Yankees</a> separated themselves on Tanaka, but not by much. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Cubs&src=hash">#Cubs</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Dodgers&src=hash">#Dodgers</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23WhiteSox&src=hash">#WhiteSox</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Astros&src=hash">#Astros</a> all were involved.</p>— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/statuses/426020753075892224">January 22, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Just curious...what changed about baseball that made you stop following it? It's never had a cap. Teams in larger more profitable markets have always had that advantage. Despite that, it's had a great deal of parity over the last decade or so.
Ugh. Nothin they can do about it, and good on them for trying. The Yankees spent like $500 million this offseason. I'm pretty encouraged about what this means for the future. They were in on Choo, Abreu, and Tanaka. We'll land some big fish in the coming few seasons, no doubt in my mind.
http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2014/01/22/astros-offered-tanaka-over-100-million/ Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who signed with the Yankees today for seven years and $155 million, got an early pitch from the Astros. The Astros were the first team to meet with Tanaka as general manager Jeff Luhnow, owner Jim Crane and former pitcher Roger Clemens visited with him in Los Angeles. “We did make him an offer,” said Luhnow who couldn’t divulge details. However, the Astros offer was for more than $100 million, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said. But in a field of bidders that included the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, and White Sox, the Astros came up short. “It was a good learning experience,” Luhnow said. “Hopefully next time we’ll get across the finish line because we want the best players in Houston.”
When I was young and growing up during the 60's and 70's I followed the Astros and baseball closely. At that time there was no free agency, so players belonged to a team until they were traded or released. Even after free agency started in baseball, I wasn't really all that aware of certain teams buying up the best players until the Yankees started out spending everyone else. I'm sure the big market teams did have an advantage, but I just didn't pay much attention to it at first. The strike in '94 also soured me on the game a bit. The Astros were playing well that year, and Bagwell was having an MVP type of season. I was very disappointed that we didn't get to see the end of that season. The steroid era also didn't appeal to me as a fan of the game. McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Clemens, all these guys breaking records because they cheated. That really turned me off. And then finally, Crane agrees to move the Astros to the American league. I'm a national league guy. I've watched the Asros play for half a century against National League teams. This may not seem like a big deal to some people, but it is to me. So now, I watch all the games the Rockets play, I watch all the games the Texans play, and I watch very few Astro games. I do like the sport of baseball, I watch some college baseball, and the Little League World series. But Major League Baseball is just not the same to me.
Uhh, you seem to have missed the point entirely, as usual. If only we were signing him to a one year contract in a world where he was the only available free agent, your post might have some relevant.
