Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
$33 million for two years' work? I'll take it!

Aaron Gleeman and I had a long conversation not too long ago about Randy, trying to project him forward into the future, and whether he would get 300 wins. I think it's a good bet that he will still be a productive starter when this contract is up at the end of 2005.
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_Chuck Van Den C - Monday, March 24 2003 @ 03:53 PM EST (#92405) #
Projecting forward into the future has just got to be tougher than projecting backward into the past ;)
Coach - Monday, March 24 2003 @ 04:09 PM EST (#92406) #
Randy's an exception to a lot of rules. By many accounts, he's in better shape (and working harder) than ever. It's silly to call a contract of this size with a player of his age "reasonable," but the Unit's earned it, and it's in line with what Aaron pays him in the TRHL. I'm a little surprised the Snakes could pull it off; sooner or later, their massive debt will make them bottom-dwellers, if not ruin the franchise. They'll be paying Johnson (and others) forever, so when this run of success ends, and attendance begins to drop, how can they possibly afford to build another contender?
_Jurgen Maas - Monday, March 24 2003 @ 04:49 PM EST (#92407) #
Both Bonds and Randy are currently the exceptions to a lot of rules. Both are having their best years, ranking with the all-time best, as they approach their 40s. But as Jason pointed out in an earlier thread, this kind of sustained performance into middle age may very well become more of the norm.
_Sean - Monday, March 24 2003 @ 05:41 PM EST (#92408) #
Yes, and it's one of the gaping voids in that Rob Neyer article on the Jays that I linked to begin an earlier thread.
_Rutteger - Monday, March 24 2003 @ 09:23 PM EST (#92409) #
I think Arizona's strategy is to defer all their player contracts. They then declare bankruptcy and the players, as unsecured creditors, will get paid pennies on the dollar. If I'm a Diamondback player I don't count my money until the cheque from Colangelo clears.
_steve - Monday, March 24 2003 @ 10:44 PM EST (#92410) #
Off topic, but the ever-increasingly uninformed Rod Beaton of USA Today includes Carlos Tosca in a list of managers that "need to start winning right out of the gate" at the risk of getting the axe. Things that make you go, "Hmmm..."!
Craig B - Tuesday, March 25 2003 @ 09:07 AM EST (#92411) #
Well, Tosca is a convenient fall guy if the Jays stumble badly out of the gate, so never say never. I'd love to think that the current management team has too much integrity to do that sort of thing... but then again, being a major league GM requires a certain degree of ruthlessness and if it took a Tosca firing to improve PR and fire up the team, then it wouldn't be out of the question.

I'm optimistic enough to think that a bad stumble out of the gate is real unlikely, though.
_Jurgen Maas - Tuesday, March 25 2003 @ 11:01 AM EST (#92412) #
This idea of players playing better longer into their careers doesn't seem to have much traction on BB.
Coach - Tuesday, March 25 2003 @ 03:41 PM EST (#92413) #
I think Tosca's got 100% job security this year. When the team is supposed to be ready for a pennant race, in '04 or certainly by 2005, he may have to prove to J.P. that he's not just a good developmental guy. I'm sure he'll be given a fair opportunity; Ricciardi has shown ruthlessness with some of the underachieving employees he inherited, on and off the field, but seems extremely loyal to people he's hired or promoted.

Jurgen, the longevity of modern players has been discussed here before. There have always been guys who postponed the inevitable (Stan Musial and Warren Spahn were the Bonds and Johnson of my youth) but not so many of them, and never at the Barry/Randy level of production. It's a phenomenon with roots in various sciences, including sports medicine and biochemistry, so perhaps the number of geezer all-stars, and their accomplishments, will continue to astound.

Bloggers, on a strict diet of junk food and a constant regimen of channel-flipping and mouse-clicking, can often last into their 50's. At least I hope they can, or I'll be outta here in June.
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.