For some reason this has been a week of ridiculous contracts (and contract talk) with NBA Free Agency, the NFL offseason and some odd baseball extensions. Overall the money doled out has been pretty preposterous, but then again you generally have to dish it out to hold onto (or snag) a star player. The contracts that have most caught my eye have been the A-Rod talk, Rashard Lewis, Ichiro, Dwight Freeney and what I'll call "the white role-players." There have been innumerable other contracts making news, and other bad ones, but I thought I'd just give a brief run down of what I think of these 5.
Rashard Lewis (6 years - 110 to 126 Million): This is probably the worst contract to come along in some time. Rashard Lewis is a "nice" player, 22 ppg, 5 rpg but is not a savior, is not a star, and will not even be the best player on his team! To top it off there didn't seem to be anyone else willing to pay this outrageous sum to Lewis, the magic we're not in a bidding war, and likely could have paid 20 million less and still had him. Just some food for thought, the Magic opted not to re-sign Milicic who ended up getting 7 Million a year. So they're paying one borderline all-star (Lewis) 20 million a year, when they could have had Milicic for 7, and Gerald Wallace (18 ppg, 2 stl, 2 blocks) who is a better player than Lewis for 10-12 Million (
Just Look at this link). All of a sudden you'd be looking at a lineup that has a good young PG (Nelson) shooters (Redick, Milicic) Shotblocking and Post defense (wallace, milicic, howard) and a ton of rebounding from those same 3. What a miserable job by the Magic.
Ichiro (5 years - 100 million): This one is pretty simple, the Mariners gave ichiro about 50% more than he deserved. When the red sox gave Manny Ramirez 20 million a year some time ago, it was a crazy offseason with sky-high prices (A-rod netted 262 million). However, at least for 5 or so years, Manny was basically a triple crown threat. Flash forward to 2007, and the Mariners are paying a 33 year old singles hitter 20 million a year, and this makes sense how? Ichiro's a great player blah blah, but his speed will decline which will hurt him, and he's not getting any better, so given that he's not worth 2 million now, it's unclear how he will be post-age 35.
A-Rod (rumored in the neighborhood of 30 million): As crazy as it is to say with the season that A-Rod is having, he simply isn't worth that percentage of a team's payroll. Even if you expect him to continue to have seasons like this (which is unlikely). The reason it doesn't make sense is that the next highest paid players are all around 15 million. You're telling me you wouldn't rather have two 15 million dollar players than one 30 million? In a fantasy trade in a keeper league if I were to offer you Vlad Guerrero (also 31 years old, 14 million) and Daisuke Matsuzaka (26 years old, 16 million) you wouldn't take it? How about Josh Beckett at 12 million, Vlad, and a good relief pitcher? It just doesn't make sense to pay one guy that much money.
Dwight Freeney (6 years, 72 million): I'm kind of ambivalent on this one. On the one hand Freeney is 27, so these 6 years will essentially be his prime. He is clearly very productive, if not the most productive at his position. Also, if Nate clements is worth 10 million, Freeney is worth 12. Then again, thats a ton of money to have locked up in a player who is not a Quarterback and really specializes in one thing, sacking the Quarterback. He makes any defense much better, but is he worth 12 million? I'm not sure. Another thing to consider, how are the colts paying for all of this? We know they're paying Peyton Manning a ton, Marvin Harrison a ton and have or will pay Reggie Wayne a ton. Now add in Freeney's mammoth contract. I can't help but think the Colts are going to continue to lose some of the guys who are not stars necessarily, but helped them win a championship, with all of this payroll on the books.
White Role Players (16 years, 81 million): Jason Kapono (4 years 24 million), Matt Carroll (6 years 27 million) and Luke Walton (6 years 30 million) are all overpaid. The worst is probably Kapono and the best is probably Walton. You're going to give a guy who has only one skill, three point shooting, and is very poor in all other areas, especially defense, 6 million a year? What a waste. Unless you're an NBA fanatic, you probably don't even know who Matt Carroll is, so I think that says enough about giving him 27 million. Luke Walton's contract is probably the most reasonable, because he is at least average at rebounding and passing and can score 12-15 ppg. Still, why give him 6 years? There's no reason to do that when he's missed more than 10 games a season the past 3 years, only recently averaged double figures in points, and only recently shot over 45% from the floor when he is a forward.
Year after year GM's continue to amaze us buy paying outrageous sums of money for players, some wise investments, some not. We'll have to wait and see about these guys, but I'd bet these GM's will end up regretting that they didn't fight harder to save a few million when they could use another piece to their team, but all their money is tied up in a "star".
