January 15th, 2014 at 6:48 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
Prediction: within two years they'll desperately want to unload this contract.
January 15th, 2014 at 7:09 PM ^
Kershaw has 4 full seasons left before he turns 30. The last three years he's won the Cy Young, finished 2nd to lucky-ass knuckleballer RA Dickey, and won the Cy Young again. He's had an ERA under 3.00 the last five years in a row (basically every full season in the majors).
With no injuries and no lack of physical tools (this isn't a small guy overthrowing), there really isn't a safer bet to pay big bucks to.
January 15th, 2014 at 7:17 PM ^
It seems safe. But watch - a year from now he'll have Tommy John surgery or something equally scary.
It's the Law of Giant MLB Contracts. Above a certain threshold (somewhere in the $20M/season range), these deals backfire with crazy regularity.
January 15th, 2014 at 7:34 PM ^
Eh, John Danks was healthy and had been solid (obviously nowhere near as good as Kershaw) and the Sox gave him a 5 year, 65 million extension, and he had shoulder surgery a month or two into the season after he signed that extension. Past injuries can be a decent indicator of future injuries (i.e., the injury-prone guy) but pitchers just have their arms go boom sometimes.
January 15th, 2014 at 7:38 PM ^
But by that logic, you would never give anybody more than a year or two on his contract, at which point you have zero chance to getting/keeping guys like Kershaw. This particular deal is way more likely to work out than most.
January 15th, 2014 at 8:09 PM ^
A little OT but can I ask why you say RA Dickey was lucky to win the Cy Young Award? Yes, Kershaw had an excellent season in 2012 and certainly a reasonable case could be made to vote for Kershaw over RA. But RA Dickey had some amazing statistics including an xFIP 3.27, 4.26 K/BB ratio, 69% strike percentage, and a really impressive 82% quality starts.
January 16th, 2014 at 12:13 AM ^
But rather, Dickey was just lucky to have that good of a year out of the blue. A 37 year old knuckleballer riding the wind to that kind fo season isn't a particularly replicable event, as evidenced by the rest of the guy's career.
January 15th, 2014 at 10:30 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 7:43 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 8:36 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 10:33 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
25k per hour
January 15th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 7:08 PM ^
Straight performance based like that? The number would have to be much more than 25K, but there's something to be said for rewarding performance only. Of course it couldn't work because of injuries and managers taking pitchers out, but it's an intriguing thought..
January 15th, 2014 at 7:11 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 7:11 PM ^
If you think about it, Kershaw makes $30 million a year, he starts 32ish games a year, pitches for maybe 3 hours a start on the high end, which would be around $300,000 per hour.
If Scherzer made $30m, that woudl be a cool $125,000 per strikeout (240 in 2013).
That amount of money in hard to wrap your head around.
January 15th, 2014 at 8:05 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 8:15 PM ^
in his 5 full years, he is 31 games over .500, which is very good. that's about 6 games over .500 per year. if the avg starter makes $10M, the Dodgers are paying him an add'l $20M for those 6 wins. seems a bit steep to me.
January 15th, 2014 at 9:07 PM ^
At 80 pitches a game, on average, dude is making $12,500 everytime the ball leaves his hand!
January 15th, 2014 at 7:20 PM ^
I get that you SHOULd pay based on future expectations, but if max tried to argue he was comparable to kershaw I would respectively disagree. More risk, and less reward, I would argue. Kershaw at his best is better Han max at his.
January 15th, 2014 at 7:29 PM ^
I would think Scherzer would get closer to what Greinke got than what Kershaw did.
January 15th, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 8:05 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 8:10 PM ^
That being said - I hope my son can be good enough to get a plush MLB contract. Of course, with 162 games MLB players "earn" their pay more than any of the other sports (pitchers excluded).
/end rant
January 15th, 2014 at 8:17 PM ^
he plays every 5th day. wow!
January 15th, 2014 at 10:17 PM ^
January 16th, 2014 at 9:10 AM ^
Athletes make progressively more, owners make progressively more and it's all offset by higher ticket prices. More and more the NFL is pricing average people out (I live in Dallas so it's always sold out and always expensive, maybe it's different in Detroit?). I've been to exactly 1 Cowboys game and that was a pre-season "game" and the tickets were free. I've actually been to more UM events at Jerry World ('Bama in football and Florida in basketball) than I have Cowboys games.
Same thing goes for baseball - I've got a friend who works for them and I can get half price tickets anytime I want and when you combine the parking and all of that it's still more expensive than going out for a really nice dinner.
January 16th, 2014 at 11:10 AM ^
The fans pay higher prices but what about the non-fans who pay for the stadiums?
*Not going political just making a statement as someone paying for several stadiums of teams I don't care to see.
January 15th, 2014 at 8:11 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 8:18 PM ^
Matt Stafford's brother is a good pitcher. Worth $87687698? Not so sure about that.
January 15th, 2014 at 8:44 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 8:46 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 10:19 PM ^
January 15th, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^
He's worth the money for a team like L.A., but he'll be back on the market in 5 years at 30 with another massive contract waiting for him.
January 15th, 2014 at 9:44 PM ^
Stay healthy!
January 16th, 2014 at 12:25 AM ^
made a very reasonable contract for a pitcher who is 25 and already got Cy Young and appears to be getting better and better every year. The good thing about his contract is he'll be able to pitch through his prime which will maximize his value. Good deal by the Dodgers and Kershaw all around.
January 16th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^
Great deal for him. It's absurd how handsomely baseball players get paid but hey if a team is offerin'...
January 16th, 2014 at 1:24 PM ^
price per ticket just went up 10- $30/each. I'm tired of rising salaries because it always ends up meaning rising ticket prices. Who the hell needs $30/million a year to PLAY baseball??? Salaries are getting downright insane.
January 16th, 2014 at 4:14 PM ^