OT: Former Nats pitcher Steven Strasbourg officially retired.
That part isn’t the most notable aspect of the news. It’s that he will receive the remainder of his contract while being retired. That amounts to $105 million.
Prince Fielder got the same deal when he retired due to injury as well.
Is it possible in any other profession to receive a similar deal? How can MLB teams afford to pay out such enormous sums for inactive players?
Anyways, great deal for Strasbourg and Fielder and proof what a strong union can bring it’s members.
Honestly it is pretty nuts the insane salaries and guaranteed money mlb players get with what seems like a sport that's losing a lot of interest.
I remember when he was the clear #1 can't miss biggest MLB prospect in decades. Unfortunately no one is immune to the injury bug.
it's the power of unions
Matt Prior was the 2nd pick behind recent HOF Joe Mauer in 2001 when the Twins worried they couldn't sign Matt. He was highly lauded too but burned out his arm and ended with 42 wins.
Prior was primed to be the winning pitcher too in the 2003 MLB playoff game that would have sent the Cubbies to the WS before the "Bartman" happened,
Mark Prior?
Assuming you're talking about Mark Prior... there's a lot of debate on it being either his throwing motion or overuse by Dusty Baker (who is notorious for his overuse of pitchers), or some combination of both, was the cause of his physical breakdown.
If you want to go down a rabbit whole on pitching mechanics google "inverted W" and do some reading...
UMx…I totally agree with you that baseball seems to be losing a lot of interest. Maybe not in the major metro areas in the country, but I see a lot more kids wearing Premier League jerseys than baseball.
Considering all the money being poured into baseball, someone somewhere is getting ripped off.
I'm guessing a large portion of that is covered under some form of insurance policy the club would typically take out on a deal the size of Strasburg's
They’ll just write it off
You don't even know what that means.
Do you?
No, but they do. And they're the ones writing it off.
Who pays for this? The fans. It’s in the ticket cost, the concessions cost, the Insurance company who demands a premium from the employer (team), etc.
Oh - and another aspect is what the consumer pays for products that are advertised during professional games.
All - or most - of us pay for this. I’m fine with capitalism - but, salary escalation is out of this world and ridiculous. There are MLB pitchers that make more money in an outing than the median family of four does in a year.
For those who wish to support it.. go right ahead.. My preference is to spend my money on college athletics - which, based on coaching salaries - isn’t that far off.
It was uninsured. The Nationals are on the hook for all of it. The retirement agreement deferred his payments, spreading them out longer. I don't know the details of MLB contract law, but one has to assume their union has guaranteed contracts. 81 home games a year will do that for you.
I remember when Casey Mize was going to be good…
He might still be, but starting to wonder if we should have just kept Matt Manning in the bigs and not paid Maeda 24 MM for 2 years.
Just hoping Max Clark is in the bigs in 2+ years.
you need depth nowadays...and a lot of it. have you watched the tigers the past few years?
How about Bobby Bonilla who still gets $1 mil/year even though he hasn't played since 2001? He'll get that through 2035.
Bobby Bonilla Day has been a great day on the Internet for all that time. Each year, on July 1st, until 2035, the check hits the account....
Ohtani day is going to take me to the grave
Bobby had a great agent when he signed with the Mets after 1991 season. As did Vince Coleman who got the Mets to give him a huge deal after 1990. The latter is known for throwing firecrackers into a crowd leaving a Dodgers game. The former for calling the press box to complain during a game about being charged with an error.
Remember when he came on the scene. Was throwing 105 regularly. Crazy talent
You forgot Sidd Finch
Ah yes, Sidd Finch. I was a senior at UM walking home from another long day as a ChE student from the Dow building on North Campus in April 1985 and dropped in for a six pack at the Blue Front on Packard St in A2. Saw this amazing article about Sidd in the latest SI and had to buy it. Only to find out his 150+ mph fastball was an April Fools prank!
“The Orchid”
-Tony Kornheiser
75 and Sunny
Ow! My arm!
In 2010, The Baseball Project band wrote a song about the Phenom that was Steven Strasburg. The lyrics about him include, I just want to stick around for a while.
you know it had been too long since a tangental REM reference around these parts
I saw The Baseball Project (with Mike Mills and Peter Buck from REM) in concert at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 13, 2012. Also in the audience that day was REM's Michael Stipe.
Its hard to overstate what a huge deal he was when he was in the minors. Triple A stadiums would sell out when he was pitching.
The MLBPA has done a great job making sure their membership are protected. Baseball is still profitable, regardless of the cap in hand way its portrayed. I think this is a case where the nfl makes everything look like a charity case
Forget the UAW and Fain, MLBPA starting with Marvin Miller in the late 60s is the best at getting the best for its members. No one else gets this deal - I'm OK since I have a good minor league team in town where I can sit and watch BB for 10 bucks behind the visitor's dugout.
Those years for the Nats were wild...back to back years saw Strasburg and Harper come up
Worth it.
Signing Prince was never a good idea. He was arguably the worst fielding 1st baseman in baseball when we got him. And off their career peak overweight players decline at twice the rate of non-overweight players.
I don't like saying that; my family raised a good chunk of the money that put grass on the LL fields he played on and I laid some of the sod myself.
We should have learned what happened after his dad (Cecil) signed a huge long-term deal. Absolute money corrupts absolutely. I'm all for the ballplayer to be millionaires playing for billionaires. But Prince making 24MM/yr - thankfully we got the Rangers to take most of it off our plate.
I don't think "corruption" had anything to do with it.
By all accounts, as people, Prince Fielder is nothing like his dad.
“absolute money corrupts absolutely” is a common money script in people’s heads. It’s a very limiting belief that can negatively impact people’s lives. We can think of many counter examples as well as situations where the opposite is true.
one example: how has money changed Jim Harbaugh? Is he corrupt once he became a millionaire? A ten millionaire? Any negative difference in him at all?
It's "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". Power mostly still in the hands of the owners and commissioner......
cecil was productive every year with the tigers
Yeah, his signing seemed more like a good publicity/fan favorite idea than really good for the team.
Eh in the end it was really the Rangers who bore the brunt of Fielders injury, the Tigers actually got two very productive seasons out of him, playoffs in the final year not withstanding, and then parlayed that into fleecing the Rangers in a trade for an all star in Kinsler before Fielder's neck issue was an issue.
He can thank the late Marvin Miller, first major MLBPA union Prez in the 1960s. He made it where players cashed in on big deals.
I'm in the DC area. When he came onto the scene, it was pretty crazy. Just sapped of a greater career from those injuries
The Nats were so fun to watch in timeframe with Strasburg and Harper. Strasburg injury sucked, he was really fun to watch pitch.
It's "Strasburg."
Although the capital of Alsace is spelled Strasbourg in French and Straßburg in German, his own family name is Strasburg.