Perez, Pelfrey, & Darvish Complete Overpaid Trifecta

It's clear to see with this Trifecta of names how
the system is broken for everyone but the players,
and yet though we as fans are larger in numbers,
still allow it to continue.

I last wrote that the New York Mets were basically
throwing money out the window by signing pitcher
Mike Pelfrey to a $5.6Mil contract for the 2012
season, and this was coming off of the heels of
paying Oliver Perez $12Mil to do nothing in 2011.
Perez was cut by the Mets in Spring training and
paid to stay home rather than have him around and
ruin games. Since no other team picked him up for
even the veteran minimum, the Mets were on the
hook for the final year of his contract ridiculous
contract.

Now yesterday the Texas Ranger beat a 5PM deadline,
and agreed to a 6 year $60Mil deal with Japanese
phenom du jour Yu Darvish This is of course after
they paid $52mil to his team in Japan for exclusive
rights to negotiate with him. So this will cost the
Rangers $112Mil over 6 years, or roughly $18.7Mil a
year. Almost $19Mil a year to someone who has not
thrown ONE pitch on the Major League level, not ONE.

Am I the only one who is having a hard time wrapping
his mind around this, or should we all continue to
act like sheep and keep paying the high salaries of
these overbloated athletes(with our ticket purchases)?
I know this is a very weak example but there was once
a very popular league, albeit short lived, in the US
called the NASL (North American Soccer League), and
though I know it was a combination of factors, one
trait they shared with MLB, and other leagues, is that
on a very consistent basis spent like drunken sailors.
They no longer exist, and ticket purchases were at
least one factor. Maybe fans need to shy away for a
while and bring some of the owners and athletes back
down to earth. You can watch on TV! Though you may
say that they can make this revenue up on the TV
revenue, I suggest this: When Nielsen calls you up
to ask you if you watched the game last night, LIE.
Though I don't advocate lying, it may be time to
play dirty. It's your money they're overspending,
can't you see that?


Tweet Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis

Texas Rangers Win Right To Overpay Yu Darvish, Fans Lose

AP Photo

The old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Well it's broke, so why isn't anybody fixing it?
I don't understand how we have gotten to this point.
You would think that after all that has transpired with
Japanese pitchers like Hideki Irabu(RIP), Kai Igawa,
Daisuke Matsuzaka, etc. we might have learned a thing
or two. Trust me, I am by no means saying, don't sign
them, but $51.7 to negotiate a contract and then in
turn pay the pitcher another $40-$80 million more.
That's nuts, insane and just plain stupid, but it gets
done over and over again for one main reason, it's your
money.

The argument is already being made that Darvish is the
best Japanese pitcher to come from Japan since Matsuzaka.
Well Matsuzaka cost the Red Sox $103 Million between
posting fee(51.1M) and contract(6 years for 52M) and his
record after five years he is 49-30 with 4.25ERA with a
very good team. This is not worthy of investing $17Mil+
per year on a pitcher that averages 3.9 games over .500
per year. Would you pay an American pitcher $17Mil if
he would be 10-6 every year? That's what he's averaging.

Yu Darvish has gaudy pitching numbers, but his numbers
hold the ultimate ***asterisk***. He pitches in Japan!
Smaller ballpark, smaller ball, smaller players, six
man rotation = pitching once per week. Do you know who
Tuffy Rhodes is? Rhodes was an American baseball player
who is the all-time leader for foreign-born players, and
tied for 10th overall, with 474 home runs in Japan.*
Do you know what his numbers are in the US? Six seasons,
13 Home Runs, .224 batting average. Get it?

My issue here is clearly not with Darvish, or even the
fact that he is half Iranian. I would never hold that
against him. My issue here is with the posting fee.
It's bad business that eventually only trickles down to
the fans, win or lose. It's broken, and needs to be fixed !

*Wikipedia

Tweet
Don't Believe In Plays, Believe In Players - Al Davis