Major League Baseball 2010

[Jive]

It's odd to me how people tend to forget how great Youk was at 3B as well. Sure, he has been out of practice for a couple seasons, but part of the reason he is so valuable is his high caliber defense on both ends of the diamond.

[naiwf]

Can someone explain to me why the Nats would give $126 million to a guy like Werth? Couldn't you just get 3 $42 million guys to put into your lineup and substantially improve the team that way? It's not like Werth is Pujols and can carry a lineup by himself. By the end of year 2 or 3, that's possibly going to go down as the worst contract given to a position player in MLB history. The Barry Zito gold standard if you will.

[Jive]

If anyone could they'd be a MLB GM, naiwf.

A bad one, probably.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Jive

[Meacon Keaton]

Quiet, Sox fan.

[sahyder1]

Can someone explain to me why the Nats would give $126 million to a guy like Werth? Couldn't you just get 3 $42 million guys to put into your lineup and substantially improve the team that way? It's not like Werth is Pujols and can carry a lineup by himself. By the end of year 2 or 3, that's possibly going to go down as the worst contract given to a position player in MLB history. The Barry Zito gold standard if you will.

Buster Olney said it best earlier today. It was something along the lines of Nationals single handedly proving that owners aren't colluding this offseason. Sandy Alderson had a couple of hilarious quotes. The one I really liked was "I thought they were trying to reduce the deficit in Washington"

Don't know what Nationals are thinking with this. Werth is leaving a hitters and a lineup loaded with protection to the Nationals. This move makes very little sense unless they are also adding other pieces.

[naiwf]

Can someone explain to me why the Nats would give $126 million to a guy like Werth? Couldn't you just get 3 $42 million guys to put into your lineup and substantially improve the team that way? It's not like Werth is Pujols and can carry a lineup by himself. By the end of year 2 or 3, that's possibly going to go down as the worst contract given to a position player in MLB history. The Barry Zito gold standard if you will.

Buster Olney said it best earlier today. It was something along the lines of Nationals single handedly proving that owners aren't colluding this offseason. Sandy Alderson had a couple of hilarious quotes. The one I really liked was "I thought they were trying to reduce the deficit in Washington"

Don't know what Nationals are thinking with this. Werth is leaving a hitters and a lineup loaded with protection to the Nationals. This move makes very little sense unless they are also adding other pieces.

Unless they're planning on getting government help, I don't see how they can add Werth's massive contract and still add pieces. It's not like they have been splashing cash around for years trying to make a run at the title, and to go out and give a dude who's never been in the top 5 in MVP voting one of the richest contracts in the history of a sport as old as baseball is just crazy. At least Tulo's deal made sense since he is essentially the face of the Rockies. The only people who think this is a good deal are the Nats, the Werths and Scott Boras. I thought that the Yankees had signed Lee today when I saw the numbers scrolling along the bottom of ESPN's screen, and nearly swallowed my tongue when I saw what actually happened.

[sahyder1]

Jayson Stark is reporting that the Nationals offer for Werth was so far ahead of everyone else that Boras didn't even go to the other teams to see if they wanted to match.

Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports is reporting that Cliff Lee has told Rangers teammates that a 6 year deal would get him to return.

[Lowerdeck]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Whoa-Jayson-Werth-signs-with-Nationals-for-7-ye?urn=mlb-292024

The Werth contract has had an impact of an 8.0 earthquake. Rival gms, execs are going nuts about the terms.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN)

December 5, 2010

This makes sense to nobody either, except maybe Boras.

[naiwf]

From that yahoo page,

"Other teams dont actually think that having a barry zito albatross on your team is the key to winning the world series do they?"

Maybe the Nats are smarter than we give them credit for

[sahyder1]

From that yahoo page,

"Other teams dont actually think that having a barry zito albatross on your team is the key to winning the world series do they?"

Maybe the Nats are smarter than we give them credit for

Vernon Wells is the 3rd guy who got 7 for $126 million

[The Buscher]

[gunnar hendershow]

You don't sign a guy to a 7-year contract unless he's a bonafide MVP candidate ever year. It's a good thing Boras has those fake MVP ballots he shows to teams who are interested in his client. Did you know Jayson Werth has been runner-up to the MVP 11 times in his career? Did you know Jayson Werth has better hitting mechanics than Babe Ruth? Did you know 9 other teams have interest in him and you should take this deal now?

It's amazing teams fall for it and destroy themselves in the process.

[Lint]

According to the reports, The Nats offer was so far ahead of everyone else, Boras didn't even give other teams a chance to counter offer..which is good, because the other offers would've been..you know..sane..

Werth held a press conference today "I signed here in Washington with the same aspirations. I signed here to win, and I believe we're going to win." Yea..not gonna happen. Enjoy your ring, its the last you'll get, have fun losing

[Meacon Keaton]

Yeah, but what was he to do? He wasn't going to say "I signed here today, because they were the only team to offer me four times what I'm Werth ()."

You're just another broken hearted Phillie fan.

[Lint]

Honestly, I'd say disappointed rather then broken hearted. I knew we weren't going to resign him, but I figured he'd go to a decent team...not the Nats

[naiwf]

I think I just heard that Gonzalez got a 7 yr/$155 million extension from Boston. I'm going to assume we're heading towards a lockout/strike in the not so distant future since the contracts are getting out of hand again.

[Toe]

With Adam Dunn leaving, the Nationals had to sign someone to try to replace those numbers. Plus, look at that team. They had to overpay to get someone to sign there.

[DYSI]

I really don't think Gonzalez should've gotten THAT much. Let's face it, he's no Jayson Werth..

[Ananas]

With Adam Dunn leaving, the Nationals had to sign someone to try to replace those numbers. Plus, look at that team. They had to overpay to get someone to sign there.

If they had to cripple their team's payroll situation to get an A free agent to come to Washington, they should just stick to the draft. But there's no reason whatsoever to think they had to overspend that much. Werth is 31 years old. That gives them 1, maybe 2 years before the decline phase starts. Then you count in his VICIOUS home/away splits (OPS 161 points lower away from Citizens Bank) and the fact that he's actually going to a bit of a pitcher's park and this could get real ugly, real fast. And he's a right fielder! Did they not just draft Bryce Harper as a RF less than 6 months ago? Let's see where they are in 2013 when this contract makes it harder for the Nats to retain Ryan Zimmerman, a much more valuable player.

[gunnar hendershow]

If there's any positive to this it's that the Nats don't have fans, those ex-Oriole fans who jumped ship have now just given up on baseball entirely. So nobody will suffer through "The Jayson Werthless Years" as they are already known.