Serious or Delirious: Paying A-Rod $300 Million

It's common knowledge that Alex Rodriguez and his agent Scott Boras will be looking for a ten year contract worth $300 million or more. I decided to look at both sides of the argument to see if paying A-Rod that much money is Serious or Delirious. Let the debate begin!

Serious

• Over his career A-Rod's stats are arguably among the best of all time, and he doesn't appear to be slowing down. This past season he had his highest home run total (54) since 2002 and his highest RBI total ever(156). He also finished the season with an impressive .422 on base percentage which is .33 points higher than his career average. Those stats combined with higher than average speed and an ability to wear out pitchers easily make him baseball's best offensive player. Plug him into any line-up and it will improve drastically.
  
• Whoever the big spender is, they won't have to worry about A-Rod's durability. In the past seven season's he's only missed an average of five games a season. Since most of his salary would be guaranteed money, as long as he played to his highest capabilities, the team will get what they paid for.
  
• From a marketing stand point signing him could be huge. A-Rod would guarantee more ticket sales and higher television ratings for any team he plays for. If Major League Baseball was smart they would market him as 'The Face of Baseball'. Baseball hasn't had a 'Face of Baseball' since Ken Griffey Jr. left the Mariners. Having A-Rod as it's main man would generate lots of revenue for whatever team he signs with.
  
• There's a very good chance that A-Rod could break the all-time home run record. As one of my readers pointed out last week A-Rod has 517 career home runs at the age of 32, while Barry Bonds didn't hit his 500th until he was 36. If A-Rod breaks the record he won't do so under a shadow of steroid conspiracy, and his legacy and the team he did it for would forever be remembered.

Delirious

• As good as he is during the regular season, A-Rod has been just as bad during the playoffs. He's proved to be extremely inconsistent during the playoffs, and his numbers have been horrendous. So basically he's proved that he has what it takes to help a team reach the playoffs, but once their there, he's a write off. He still had plenty of time to make up for his lack of post season success, but for $300 million you'd think you'd be getting a proven, clutch playoff performer.
  
• When A-Rod signed with the Rangers seven seasons ago to become the richest baseball player ever, the Rangers became one of the worst teams in the league for several seasons. Having one superstar player on your roster won't make a huge difference in the win/loss column. Unless he signed with a team like the Red Sox and Mets, that team won't have a whole lot of left over money to maintain or go after other proven talent. Baseball isn't like basketball where one player can control the course of a game. A roster needs more than one good player, because he'll only have four at bats a game, then the rest is up to the other players on the team.
  
• A-Rod isn't necessarily the best liked player in baseball. Whether it's yelling at a third basemen try to catch a pop fly, his reputation for dividing a clubhouse, or for the many other reasons, there's no guarantee that fans in any city will like him. His arrogance and narcissist personality don't make him easy or fun to cheer for.
  
• If A-Rod's numbers start to go south, and they will with age then you're stuck paying him all that money. The last time A-Rod signed a huge 10 year contract like he's supposed to this winter, it blew up in the Texas Rangers face. They ended up trading him after only three seasons, and still needed to pay a huge chunk of his contract. Is the risk worth the reward?
  

Final Verdict: Delirious! There's no way you can justify paying this guy $300 million. Is A-Rod a great player? Yes, he's one of the best of all-time, but halfway through a ten year deal he'll be 37 and his best year will be behind him. Baseball's most clutch player David Ortiz made a little more than $13 million in 2007. Is A-Rod worth more than double than Big Papi? I don't think so. The team that signs A-Rod could very easily find themselves closer to the basement that to a Pennant Race. Add all this to the fact that he's known around the league as a playoff choker, and the dollars don't add up.

Video of the Day: Mascot Madness

Tuesday's Top Ten: Worst Team Names

With last weeks announcement that the Tampa Bay Devils Rays will change their name to the Rays, I thought it would be a good idea to look at the worst team names in sports. Here we go!

10. San Diego Padres: Padre is Spanish for Priest. It just doesn't seem all that intimidating. It makes me wonder if a team from Boston might change their name to the 'Boston Catholic Priest'. That probably wouldn't work out. Not there anyways.

9. New Orleans Saints: The name Saints isn't actually that bad, it's just ironic that New Orleans has one of the highest murder rates in the US. They're really contradicting themselves with that one.

8. Columbus Blue Jackets: What kind of a name is this? Is everyone in Columbus a big fan of wearing 'Blue Jackets'? I guess Blue Jacket was actually the nickname of a war chief in the 1700's, but it still makes me wonder if blue is the most popular jacket color in Columbus.

7. Green Bay Packers: I guess they named their team after a popular profession in their area. It's still odd to name your team after people who packs dead animal parts for minimum wage. Why not just name the team the 'Green Bay Customer Service Representatives'?

6. LA Lakers: Why would they name their team after a guy who works on a lake? It just seems like it would be a boring job. I suppose someone doing that job would be a weird loner. I can actually think of a guy on the Lakers who could be considered a loner, and no, I'm not thinking of Luke Walton.

5. Anaheim Ducks: A lot of teams chose animal names for their teams. For some reason Anaheim decided to choose one of the wimpiest and most disrespected animals on the planet.

4. Cleveland Browns: This is the laziest team on earth. They name themselves after a horrible color, and then make that color their logo. Yes, their logo is the color brown. I feel sorry for the people in their marketing department.

3. Tie-Boston Red Sox & Chicago White Sox: What's up with sports teams naming themselves after generic items of clothing? Socks are probably the most boring piece of clothing a person can wear. Here's an idea - The 'Boston Green Jogging Pants'. Seriously. That makes more sense that naming your team after a pair of socks.

2. New Jersey Nets: When they were choosing their name it was between the Nets or the Basketballs. This name took zero effort and zero creativity to come up with. It's like a baseball team calling themselves 'The Bases', or a hockey team calling themselves... Well, 'The Nets'.

1.Tie-San Francisco 49ers & Philadelphia 76ers: Does anyone honestly know what a 76er or a 49er is? Is it was simple as adding an 'er' to the end of a couple numbers? If that's the case why isn't their a team called the 69ers? Just imagine the logo!

Also receiving consideration: Arizona Gaylords, Vancouver Cabbage Eaters, and the Detroit Tight Leather Pants.
-Joe Osborne

Video of the Day: Dan Marino Snaps

Friday's Fives

The following are the top and bottom five sports related things of the week.

Top Five

1. Adrian Petersen- This guy is the best rookie to come into the NFL for a long time. On Sunday he broke the league's single game rushing yard total with 296 yards. So far this season he's averaged close to 20 carries a game for 6.6 yards a carry. Imagine how good he'll be when the rest of the Vikings Offense comes around.

2. Sidney Crosby- Sid the Kid is now on an incredible 15 games point streak. Last years NHL leading scorer will get even better this year when the rest of the Pens start to pick it up.

3. Boston Celtics- So much for all the haters saying they won't live up to the hype. The team is 3-0 to start the seasons, and the teams 'big three' have gelled better than Pat Reilly's hair. How long before Boston fans start to talk about another possible undefeated season?

4. Curt Schilling- This week he accepted a $8 million contract for the up-coming season with the Red Sox when he could have got close to double somewhere else. It's refreshing to see that some guys still put winning first.

5. UFC Match Makers- The UFC announced two big fights for up coming PPV's. BJ Penn will take on Joe Stephenson in January, while former WWF Champion Brock Lesnar will take on former UFC Heavyweight Champ Frank Mir in February. It should be fun to see Lesnar's transition from the wrestling ring to the Octogon.

Bottom Five

5. Roger Clemens- It was announced this week that Clemens will accept a job with the Houston Astros, but there's still no word on whether or not he'll actually retire from pitching. Why won't this guy just retire like normal people do instead of tarnishing a Hall of Fame career.

4. Toronto Maple Leafs- After another brutal week the Leafs have now allowed a league high 62 goals. Outside of Maple Leafs fans, I'm sure Canadian sports fans are sick of all the attention the Leafs get from Canadian Sports Media. For a below average team they're on the cover of the sports page way too much. How about putting some good teams on Hockey Night in Canada for a change?

3. The California State Athletic Commission- UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk's steroid suspension appeal has been put on hold for a ridiculous third time. The CSAC needs to get their act together, because it's holding up one of the UFC's most exciting divisions.

2. Miami Heat- So far this season they're 0-4 and have only managed a measly 82.75 points per game. Shaq is having a rough time too, only getting around 13 points and 6 boards a game. Dwayne Wade couldn't come back any sooner.

1.Don Shula- Sure, Shula's Dolphins are the only team in the history of the NFL to have an undefeated season, but that doesn't give him the right to say the Patriots will deserve an asterisks if they go 16-0. Sounds like a major case of sour grapes to me.

Somewhere in the middle- Baseball's Tampa Bay Devil Rays have officially changed their name to the Tampa Bay 'Rays'. In other news, The Kansas City Royals have changed their name to the Kansas City Dave's and the San Diego Padres will now be the San Diego Herbert's.

Have a great weekend!
-Joe Osborne

Video of the Day: The Next Basketball Phenom

And you thought Lebron was good at a young age!

The Best Job in Sports

If there's one certainty in professional sports, it's that pro athletes have it pretty damm good. Getting paid obscene amounts of money to do something that you love to do and be envied by millions. Where do I sign up? Being paid to play sports would be incredible, but what's the best job in professional sports? Being a starting point guard in the NBA? Nope. How about hitting lead-off and playing center field for the New York Yankees? Not even close. Maybe it would be playing on the top line of the Pittsburgh Penguins? Ice Cold. The best job in all of professional sports is being a third string quarterback in the NFL, and here's why.

-The first reason is obviously money. How much money could a guy who never plays get paid though? A lot. The majority of third string QB's are probably making somewhere around the league minimum. This is how the league minimum salary breaks down:
-Rookies and first-year players $275,000
-Second-year players $350,000
-Third-year $425,000
-Fourth-year $500,000
-Fifth- through seventh-year $585,000
-Eighth- through tenth-year $710,000
-Eleventh-year and longer $810,000
The average salary in the United States is $26, 036. Standing on the sidelines looks pretty good compared to any nine to five.

-Speaking of standing on the sidelines, that's another perk to being a third string QB. Fans dish out millions of dollars each year to attend games and watch them on TV. All the while, third string QB's get to chill out on the sidelines and get an unbelievable view and perspective of the game.

-It's not all fun and games for third stringers. Professional athlete's are expected to be in tip top shape, so these guys are pretty much being paid to exercise daily, and have a fit body. Imagine getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to go exercise with world class trainers using state of the art equipment and facilities. It's really not fair.

-Some of you are probably thinking you'd love to be Lebron James or Alex Rodriguez for a day. Why? You could never go out in public, you'd barely have anytime to yourself, and you'd constantly have the pressure of an entire franchise and city on your shoulders. How are these guys supposed to relax and live a normal life? They probably can't. Being a third string QB you'd be able to live a pretty normal life. You could go out and people wouldn't recognize you, you'd have a ton of time to yourself, and the last time I checked the NFL pays pretty good. So basically you'd be a rich guy who's in great shape with a lot of free time on your hands. Plus imagine being able to brag to your friends that you're an NFL QB.

Next time your at work complaining about your job , instead of thinking 'I was I could win the lottery and quit my job' you should be thinking to yourself 'I wish I was Matt Gutierrez'. Who's Matt Gutierrez you ask? He's a guy that gets paid $275,000 a year to stand on the sidelines and watch the New England Patriots play football. Now that's the best job in sports.
-Joe Osborne