EDGECRUSHER
Uber Member
Posts: 10137
|
 |
« on: July 17, 2011, 02:29:35 am » |
|
"What do you care how much he gets paid? You don't pay his salary", I present to you John Lackey, and to a lesser extent, Derek Jeter.
John Lackey makes roughly $17 Million a year. He makes that because he became a free agent when the pitching market was thin. At the time, he was on the decline and wasn't worth much more than $10 Million a year, tops. The Yankees did a similar thing with AJ Burnett, although they just signed everyone in 2009.
Fans should care what a player makes because if he is high-priced and is absolutely terrible, he won't miss a start anyway because of his huge salary. Lackey has a 6.70 ERA in a year when a 14-4 record and a 2.64 ERA will net you a 4th place finish in the AL Cy Young race, so that's extra bad. Yet, he won't be skipped in the rotation because of his salary. Now, the Red Sox have a loaded system and even if a rookie comes up and doesn't do well, it's unlikely he would do as poor as Lackey. So, that's when a fan should care what their team pays a player, when it's going to hurt their team if he sucks.
Jeter is in the same boat to a lesser extent because he is a legacy player. His salary doesn't help at all, but because he is "Derek Jeter", he will bat leadoff with a .328 OBP with groundball power. Anyone else with an OPS well below .700 would never bat leadoff in the Yankees lineup without question. He has $34 Million to go after this season, I doubt he retires or is benched no matter what he hits.
I'm done, off to drinking dark beer.
|
Author