Phillies sign Bryce Harper to a 13 year $330 million dollar contract

[Barbershopman]

When I heard this happen, I couldn't help but harken back to A-Rods 10 year $252 million dollar contract with the Texas Rangers in 2000. A few years into the contract, the Rangers were looking to unload A-Rod, but the only takers were the only ones who could afford to eat the contract, the Yankees.

While the money, although ridiculous doesn't surprise me, what surprised me more was the length, 13 years!! The Nationals offered him $300 million, but just 10 years which is long enough in itself. I'm just wondering what the Phillies were willing to offer Harper that the Nationals weren't. How long before the Phillies feel they can't afford the contract and look to unload it. There might be a team desperate (read stupid) enough to eat Harper's contract.

The players are partly to blame for the idiocy, but, in my opinion, the agents that represent these players are the real villains. They keep upping the ante for their clients and owners are crazy enough to keep shelling out the money. How many more of these mega-contracts can baseball handle before no team can handle them and the entire system implodes on itself?


Barbershopman

 

[FJSLikesTickling]

Major League Baseball generates billions of dollars in revenue. The only reason people watch and spend money to enjoy this product is because of the extraordinary talent of the people who play the game. If the owners, all of whom are billionaires, are allowed to reap huge profits, why shouldn't the players be allowed to share in those profits. If you were very good at your job, and your company made a lot of money as the result of your singular talent, you would expect to be compensated accordingly, and would be right to feel that way.

In my mind, it's embarrassing that it took so long and that so few teams were interested in signing Harper and Manny Machado. Why are so few owners willing to spend the money to put the best possible product on the field for their fans? Last I checked, prices for tickets, concessions, parking, etc. are not going down. The owners have plenty of money. They simply choose not to spend it and then seek to demonize players and agents as "greedy." I don't understand why fans continue to let owners off the hook in this regard.

 

[Mitchell]

I think that the Phillies took a huge risk/made a mistake by signing Harper to that length of contract.

The money itself does not surprise me. We knew Harper was going to get a huge contract.

The problem with the length of the contract is the unknown about his production.

While he will undoubtedly have likely many productive years.. the likelihood of significant decline, especially at the back end of such a contract, makes that long of a deal, very, very risky.

We'll see how it all plays out.

 

[Barbershopman]

In my mind, it's embarrassing that it took so long and that so few teams were interested in signing Harper and Manny Machado. Why are so few owners willing to spend the money to put the best possible product on the field for their fans? Last I checked, prices for tickets, concessions, parking, etc. are not going down. The owners have plenty of money. They simply choose not to spend it and then seek to demonize players and agents as "greedy." I don't understand why fans continue to let owners off the hook in this regard.

You bring an interesting point to the table FJSLikesTickling. Yes, it is the agents who are looking out for their clients, but it is the owners that continue to pony up the money for these players. It's why the Yankees were so dominant in the 70s despite the inner turmoil, they had an owner (Steinbrenner), who was willing to pay the money for the players and win the championships.

When the Royals were going through years and years of futility, the joke (at least in Kansas City) was "well what do you expect our owner is the president and CEO of WAL MART!!" He's used to putting a bargain product out on the field and then reaping the profits. It's true, for years David Glass's profit margin was the largest in baseball.

In starting in 2012, he actually loosened the purse strings and started paying the players, and with a core of young players, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez etc. and with Dayton Moore's shrewd business acquisitions of Ben Zobrist and Jonny Cueto the Royals went on a magical ride, and back to back World Series, winning it all in 2015.

So yes, you actually can buy a World Series and I wonder if that is the dream of Phillies fans now.

Barbershopman

 

[luvgirlsfeet]

Just glad he and Machado didn't go to the Yankees

 

[Barbershopman]

Just glad he and Machado didn't go to the Yankees

Can you imagine, Aaron Judge, Juan Carlos Stanton, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado all in the same lineup? It would be Murderer's Row all over again!!

Barbershopman

 

[milagros317]

Can you imagine, Aaron Judge, Juan Carlos Stanton, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado all in the same lineup? It would be Murderer's Row all over again!!

Barbershopman

That is what the Yankees of my youth (1950's and early 1960's) used to do, buy World Series championships by assembling a team with the highest payroll in MLB.

 

[Mitchell]

Mils, what about the Yankees of the 1990s/2000s?

Also.

In your youth, the prices were nothing compared to today.

I remember reading an article saying where the theory was. "No baseball player should earn more than the President of the United States"

For example, in 1961, Mickey Mantle earned a salary of $100,000 a year.

The newly elected President, at that time., John F Kennedy, also had a salary of $100,000 a year.

Now, the numbers for the players are so outrageous, the ceiling seems to never end.

 

[Philip_2006]

Mike Trout $430 million 12 years Anaheim/LA Angels.
First Take ESPN also has the G. Stanton Yankees contract practically tying Bryce Harper's ($325 m vs $330 m)
https://youtu.be/EFGxIwfFIRU?t=156

 

[Mitchell]

Trout's contract is insane.

He's an excellent player, but as he gets later into that contract, it's inevitable that he is going to decline.

The goal with that contract is that Trout will likely remain with the Angels for the rest of his career.

 

[Philip_2006]

Trout's contract is insane.

He's an excellent player, but as he gets later into that contract, it's inevitable that he is going to decline.

The goal with that contract is that Trout will likely remain with the Angels for the rest of his career.

Mike Trout's eventual decline will probably be worth the trouble.
Compound interest in the luxury tax is the real problem.
MLB has the absurd 2nd 30%, 3rd 40%, etc. cap rule.
NY Yankees cleaned house for that very reason.
Resetting hurts entry level players...
...meanwhile each owner's awarded billions worth of television rights ($3 billion Anaheim/LA Angels)...2nd link covers cap space $206 million to $210 million 2019-21
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/08/sports/la-sp-angels-fox-tv-20111209
http://m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/competitive-balance-tax

 

[Barbershopman]

Arguably Stanton, Machado, Harper and Trout are the best players in the game today and all deserve the money they have gotten. That being said, the money ponied up by the owners to just these four players is 1.385 billion, with a B, or in longhand $1,385,000,000.00.

I have a college degree and make less than one-tenth of one percent of this money, how convoluted is that? Makes me wish I'd have worked a little harder in little league, but then again, much of their success is dedication to the craft, and part is pure talent.


Barbershopman

 

[Mitchell]

I hope this is okay to post here.

Its about another baseball superstar.

I read an article which stated that another great player, Freddie Freeman, is supposedly seeking to remain with the Braves for the rest of his career.

According to the article, Freeman has three years remaining on his current contract, and wants to negotiate an extension to remain there until he retires.


As a fan, I like this.

Not just because I'm a Braves fan.

I personally think it is excellent for a superstar to remain loyal to the team they started their career with, as Trout has and as Freeman has said he wants to.

The three modern day superstars/Hall of Famers/Future Hall of Famers that proved this were Rivera and Jeter with the Yankees, and Chipper Jones with the Braves.

I think such is positive for the player, the fans, and the city they play in.

 

[Mitchell]

I can now comment on this because the NL East race is over.

When the Phillies signed Harper, I thought that the Phillies were going to win the NL East, perhaps easily, and the Braves would be at best, one of the wild cards.

As baseball fans are aware, the Braves won the NL East, a few days ago, and had a rather easy ride to the division title.

The Phillies, in the meantime, may not even make the postseason, and they say that their manager, Gabe Kapler, is one of the most likely managers to be fired at the end of the season.

This goes to show that one overpaid superstar, even with the potential of Harper, does not guarantee an appearance in the postseason.

I have a feeling that looking back, the Phillies are going to regret this move.