Baseball deal sets new salary benchmark

[Driver8]

Bloody lot of money for playing rounders.

 

[Lower West Stander]

As the Oakland A's proved over many seasons, closers aren't that hard to find. Funnily enough, the Marlins' cut-price closer Steve Cishek got 39 saves last season - exactly the same as David Robertson, who was paid around $2m more than Cishek.

And pitchers are more prone to injury - eg the Marlins' own ace Jose Fernandez. They're already pretty well-stocked with pitchers. But a slugger with Stanton's power, walk rate and defensive tools is a once-in-a-generation player. He's projected by the Baseball Prospectus PECOTA system to be twice as valuable over ten years as Albert Pujols was at the same stage.

Which begs the question - why are the Marlins no bloody good then!

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Isn't there some kind of get out of clause after 6 years? sounds like a bit of an odd contract to be fair, sure they have no intention of paying him that salary when he is in his late 30's

There is indeed a year six opt-out clause and although there's also a no-trade clause, if both sides agree to a trade to another team then it'll get done - no doubt after a typical Marlins salary-dumping exercise when an attempt to put a winning team together comes to nothing. Having said that, they've won the World Series twice in only 21 years' existence ...

 

[GT49er]

Discovered by Davidus Burkus, I believe.

Wasn't Diocles the chariot racer who turned out to be allergic to horses and was absolutely bloody useless?

 

[Deleted member 18477]

Awful sport. Dumbass Americans.

 

[Jim Van Winkle]

Spends a good deal of the game sitting on his @rse as well.

Stupid American pastimes!

No more stupid than Test Cricket.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Which begs the question - why are the Marlins no bloody good then!

Depends what you mean by "no bloody good". Last season they were better than the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.

The problem is really the owner, Jeffrey Loria, who makes Massimo Cellino at Leeds seem like a wise advocate of patience and long-term planning. He sanctioned a splurge of spending on expensive free agents when the new ballpark opened in 2012 then traded them all away again when they didn't immediately top their division. In other seasons he's been warned by the league for spending below the minimum under salary cap rules. Almost the worst thing that could have happened was winning the 2003 World Series with a young, cheap team early in his tenure, making him think you could underspend and still be competitive.

Maybe he's now realised that having Stanton gives him something to build some hitting around. With Fernandez, Alvarez, Heaney and Eovaldi, they've got the pitching.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

He's got some way to go to match Tim Cook. Forbes believe the Apple man earned $377m in 2011.

That could transform the lives of some of the billions living in poverty.

He does transform lives, they make his phones.