Are long term contracts a good idea?

[The Voice of Reason]

Nice perspective from Miller. His conclusion - good for the players but usually not for the teams.

 

http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/9099003

 

 

The Mets are hoping to be a playoff team as well, and they have been as aggressive as anyone with their glitzy acquisitions of Delgado, catcher Paul Lo Duca and closer Billy Wagner this winter.

 

But ...

 

Will Wagner, 34, still be able to lift his arm by the time he reaches the fourth year of the record-setting (for closers) $43 million deal the club bestowed on him? And, better yet, will the Mets be dragging by 2009 because of it?

 

Better Mets question: Will the anchor of Carlos Beltran's seven-year, $119 million deal be even weightier in the future, particularly if Beltran doesn't hit more than 16 home runs in a season and doesn't start stealing bases again?

 

It's all silly money, sure.

 

But the moral of these free-spending winters is, some of it turns out to be a lot sillier than the rest of it.

 

The organization that has had the magic touch with these types of deals -- so far -- is the Los Angeles Angels. Though they have not returned to the World Series since 2002, the deals for outfielder Vladimir Guerrero (five years, $70 million) and pitcher Bartolo Colon (four years, $51 million) are about as good as a franchise could hope for, so far.

[jmajew]

I don't think any player deserves more than a 4 year contract. I think there is too much of a risk of signing any player to more than that. If the player gets hurt or doen't produce their options become limited. For that reason I love the way the NFL does it. I like the fact their contracts are not gauranteed, it makes them work each and every year for their money. In baseball if a guy has one great year in his contract year he can get a boatload of money. The perfect example being Adrian Beltre. I think if you don't produce you have the right to be released. The player should fight for a signing bonus and then not have the contract guaranteed.

 

Granted I do also think there should be a salary cap in baseball. I think all this spending big money on free agents takes the fun out of building a team IMO.

[DesMoinesCub]

So when are the owners going to realize this...does anyone think some of these contracts are getting a little out of hand?

 

Remember when Sandberg signed a contract for (I think) 7 million a year and was one of the highest payed players in MLB.

[Garwilly]

So when are the owners going to realize this...does anyone think some of these contracts are getting a little out of hand?

 

Remember when Sandberg signed a contract for (I think) 7 million a year and was one of the highest payed players in MLB.

 

He was the highest paid in baseball history when he signed the contract.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/mlbsalary.html

[craig]

It's a basic matter of supply and demand. There is a limited supply of good players. So teams offer extra value in order to get those players. extra value in terms of overpaying (dollars) or overpaying in terms of years.

 

Risk is involved in doing so. You take the risk, and if it doesn't pay off, team is stuck with it for a while.

 

An alternative is to not take the risk. That has been the cub preference. It has kept them from getting entangled in awful contracts (other than the Sammy situation), but has perhaps also kept them from getting some good players.

 

Boston did the Manny thing, and he helped them win a WS. May regret some of the contract, but if it helped them win a WS, perhaps worth it?

 

Also worth noting that baseball salaries tend to inflate. What seems like an excessive deal when signed, sometimes two years later it looks like a bargain. When Tejada signed, it looked like an extravagant deal. Now he looks like excellent value-per-dollar. Colon looked like he was kind of pricey. Now he looks like good value. Guerrero.

 

The Cubs have always been averse to contract length. It's kept them from getting entangled. But it's also ensured that they are pretty much always paying close to market price on people. And it's also helped to prevent them from signing highly-sought free agents.

 

The most guaranteed dollars Hendry has ever committed to a free agent contract was when he signed Dusty Baker, I believe tied by Greg Maddux ($15 guaranteed).

 

After that has been the four relievers, all around $12 (Remlinger, Hawkins, Eyre, and Howry).

 

Not wanting to sign real long contracts is, in general, a desirable practice. But if you won't, don't expect to attract any premium free agents who are in their late 20's to sign with you. You better have a really dynamite farm system so that you can fill most of your needs through your own system, either directly (Murton, Cedeno, Zambrano....) or indirectly (trade farm parts for Pierre, Lee, Ramirez).

[CardsFanInChiTown]

I would sign a position player up to 7 yrs depending on his age, injuries, body type, etc. However, considering insurance can only be 3 yrs in length I wouldn't sign any pitcher to more than a 4 year deal and he's have to be pretty special to get 4 yrs.