Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
Richie Sexson of the woeful Seattle Mariners is simply the latest example of the silliness of Major League Baseball’s love affair with high-priced superstars whose production is pathetic.
Pity the Seattle Mariners, whose 37-58 record through Sunday (7-13-08) in the American League West Division was tied for the second worst in the majors, a whopping 20 games BEHIND the league-leading Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim, who are 57-38.
Only the Washington Nationals in the National League East have a worse record at 36-60; they are 16 games behind the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies at 52-44.
The San Diego Padres in the National League West Division match the Mariners 37-58 mark, but the Padres are ONLY 10 games behind the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks, who sport a 47-48 mark (.495 win percentage). The Diamondbacks have nothing to write home to mom about, but the Mariners are even more horrific.
Interim General Manager Lee Pelekoudas had seen enough Sunday when he gave over-priced and under-achieved Richie “The Rich Man” Sexson his walking papers. Seattle released Sexson and will pay the remaining $6,793,000+ due on his contract just to get him out of the clubhouse.
“Richie wasn’t going to play regularly,” said Manager Jim Riggleman, “and I saw his body language on the bench . . . that was reason enough to do this. We can’t have negativity on the club. I think the players would agreeRichie needed a change of scenery.”
Over the past 3.5 years, Sexson had hit 105 home runs and driven in 321 runs. This season Sexson hit the halfway mark batting .218 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs in 74 games. His departure was prolonged by three weeks when the Mariners canned General Manager Bill Bavasi and Manager John “Johnny Mac” McLaren.
So the Mariners get nothing for Sexson because they could not even give him away to another team with his $15.5 million contract this season. Sexson has already received $8,706,000+ in pay for doing much of nothing, and will now get another $6,793,000+ for doing absolutely nothing. This is what you call a bad hiring decision. Such is the state of big-time contracts in MLB.
Sexson’s lousy 30 RBIs this season have cost the Mariners $290,226 for each and every paltry one.
Will Major League Baseball, team owners and general managers ever learn how stupid this policy is that gives free agents horrendous salaries on the dare that they will produce rather than occupy space and demonstrate a bad attitude?
Whatever happened to the idea of developing the team’s farm system, paying players a whole lot less and giving them more time to prove themselves at the major league level, and then bumping up their salary to keep them on board.
Raul Ibanez is the perfect example. He was picked up by the Mariners in the 36th round of the 1992 amateur draft. The Mariners would bring Ibanez up to the majors, give him a couple of weeks to prove himself and then, unhappy that he did not tear it up, send him back to the minors.
Ibanez spent 8 years in the minor league system and made all of $275,000 his last year before Seattle lost him to the Kansas City Royals, who were willing to pay him $800,000 his first year.
During his second year playing full time in Kansas City, Ibanez hit 24 home runs, drove in 103 runs and batted .294, so Seattle brought him back at a first-year cost of $3.9+ million. In his last 3 full seasons in Seattle, Ibanez hit 74 homers and drove in 317 runs.
Raul Ibanez’ salary for his last 3 years COMBINED was nearly $3 million less ($2,916,666 less) than Richie Sexson’s $15,500,000 salary for THIS YEAR alone. Sexson has been one overpaid, underachieved multi-millionaire with the Mariners.
We can only hope the Mariners’ owners and front office staff have learned something from this experience. Paying players a lot of money does not correlate to winning world championships. If it did, the New York Yankees would win the World Series EVERY year.
About the Author:
Read my complete 2008 NCAA March Madness coverage, including:
“First 2 Rounds in 2008 NCAA Tournament Produce 1 Major Upset in Every 6 Games”
“The Final 4 for the 2008 NCAA Tournament: North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA and Kansas”
“For Kansas Coach Bill Self, the Long Wait Is Over as His Jayhawks Outlast Memphis”
Find my Blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/Sports.html
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – The Silliness of Major League Baseball’s Stupidity With Payroll
baseball free agents
|
|
A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood’s Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports $3.25 Curt Flood and the landmark Supreme Court case that changed professional sports forever Upon being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969, Curt Flood, an All-Star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, wanted nothing more than to stay with St. Louis. But his only options were to report to Philadelphia or retire. Instead, Flood sued Major League Baseball for his freedom, hopi… |
|
|
Free Agency and Competitive Balance in Baseball $35.00 As early as the 1880s, baseball owners and sportswriters were decrying the greediness of players as the leading threat to the national pastime. Nearly a century later in 1976, the Player’s Association was able to finally tear down baseball’s permanent reserve clause–the contract language that essentially bound a player to a single team until he was released or traded–and owners and sportswriters… |
|
|
Free-agent market trends.: An article from: The Sporting News $5.95 This digital document is an article from The Sporting News, published by Thomson Gale on October 14, 2005. The length of the article is 672 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Free-agen… |
