Wednesday, June 9, 2010

June 8th - a Great Day for the Yankees

From the Babe to the Boy

Post #4 Volume #2

Without looking, I believe that C.C. Sabathia makes approximately $25 million/year. This is a lot of money for a man who makes David Wells looks fit and typically ends seasons as one of the league leaders in I.P. (innings pitched/island pride). Given that his "ness" is pretty fat and the somewhat ironic "inning-eating", it can only be expected that C.C. will begin to slowly wear down. Maybe the booze will give him a few extra years a la Wells, maybe he'll get his fat ass in shape. Maybe he'll get a lat belt and the only one eating will be me, snacking on my words. But regardless of time-bomb tickingness, C.C. makes almost 25 a year... SHIT!

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Last night Stephen Strasburg, who I've only endearingly coined as "The Boy", went 7 innings, gave up two runs and struck out 14 batters including the last 7 he faced. He looked phenomenal. His fastball seemed to move like a curve and his curve had the velocity of many star pitchers' fastballs. The fact that he's 21 and has a fluid motion is scary, and translates to a low probability of injury, similar to another young ace - Tim Lincecum.

But what is even scarier is that Strasburg's entry contract of 4 years, 15 million is ONLY 4 YEARS LONG, and at the same time... 4 FREAKIN YEARS LONG.

This contract is short because in 4 years he is going to be a free agent. That means that in 4 years the Nationals are going to have to cough up some significant ducats in order to keep him. Sure Dunn will be gone but Storen and Zimmerman are also going to be entering the prime of their careers, Bryce Harper should by then have cemented himself as a star, and "The Boy" will come callin for the big bucks.

This contract is long because a lot can happen in four years. In four years, when the Greinke's, Lincecums, Jimenez's amongst the slew of young hitting phenoms are due new deals, if the MLB is still chugging along profitably, the new generation of baseball weight bearers are going to be demanding a lot of money. It's unlikely that a salary cap will be imposed, which is unfortunate because the promise of another means to stimy the exponential growth of contracts seems minuscule. If Fat-ass Sabathia got 25 million last year, a significant increase on Santana's deal from a year before, imagine what the top aces will be getting in 2014 - is it crazy to assume 35-40 million? Sounds nuts, but A-Rod, who may just be entering the slow-moving twilight of his career will be getting 30 mill a year until he can legally start banging her (is viagra a steroid?).

Sure the hype was big last night - biggest crowd in Nats' history, only sellout other than home opener, blah-blah-blah-blah. Is this team sustainable? The Orioles hardly appear to be and they're steeped in tradition. My thoughts are then when it comes time to decide between 35 mill between Zimmerman and Bryce Harper, or 35 for "The Boy", Scotty Boras is going to be stuck developing one of his infamous sales brochures.

Luckily, his promotional mailing will only require one stamp for there is truly only one franchise that could support such a pricetag and take a flier that a stud, velocity-centric pitcher won't break down (which they frequently do). That team, that empire of evil is none other than the Yankees.

For that reason, last night was a great night for the Yankees. By 2015 Jeter should be retired. Mo, Posada, Petitte, A-Rod, Burnett and others will all likely be absent from the pay-roll. And, in a moment of little shock, the new boss (same as the old boss) will open up his wallet for baseball's best pitcher, and he'll likely be the only one to do so for as Lil' Wayne once noted "his pockets so deep i done fucked around and drowned in 'em".

So congrats Yankees. Your future prize had a successful debut in the rest of the majors, your farm system, bringing him one giant step closer to Yankee Greatness.

Other Notes

Crissy Pronger? Really? Show me one journalist who wouldn't run from the thought of a Pronger beat-down... sexy skirt or not.

Stanton... Posey... Davis... Leake... Strasburg... The MLB has a great pipeline of talent with the promise of even more to come this year. Reminds me a lot of THE NEW YORK RANGERS! (too early?)

What do you call it when people are starting to hunger for a change from all this change? Predictable? Change is for cowards; the strong-minded take what's great and make it better.

I swear I bought a Flotilla at Taco Ball for a buck last night, and it came with free soda.