You think his 4.47 ERA is worth $9 million? It's Hendry's fualt for giving him the contract, and allowing him to have a vesting option, which BTW is only 3.2 innings away now. Were you glad to have Maddux last year at 6 million? The only way we were able to get him in 2004 is to sign him to this contract. It's the nature of the beast. so does that mean the sosa deal was good, since we liked having him at the beginning? how about jim thome? It's the nature of long term contracts. We often like them at the time they are signed, but often by the end of the contract, the player isn't producing at the value and we gripe about that. We'll likely see the same this offseason as well. Giles is likely worth 10 million a year, but will he be worth 10 million in the last year of what will likely be a 3-4 year deal? Who knows. If we sign him there will be those glad that we did who likely will then complain if in the last year his skills have declined. At the same time, if we pass on him because of those terms, there will be multiple criticisms that we did nothing. The same will be said of Damon and others this year. On the same front, had we let Sammy walk rather than signing that contract, there would have been numerous complaints at the time. That's why it is easier to do what we do than be a GM. That being said, I'm not all that critical of the Maddux contract. I'd prefer not to have him at 9 million next year, but that was an effect of having him for 2006. To criticize it now when I didn't then to me is a bit hypocritical. It's why I never criticized the Sosa deal. I would have signed the same thing. I felt Thome's deal was too long and for too much money at the time. I feel the same about Beltran's deal as well. In the same vein, there have been those critical because we didn't sign those deals either, but I'm also sure that some of those same people would be critical of the deals in the back-end had we signed them. The truth is there will always be a risk factor involved in those contracts. Most long term deals turn out bad in the long run, yet there are those saying if Hendry sticks to his policy of deals that rarely exceed 3 years, we'll be severely hampered in signing FA. At the same time, if he does sign long term deals, more likely than not, we'll have deals that we aren't happy with at the backend.