Two baseball stories grabbed my attention yesterday.
First, it appears that talks have started to break down between the Giants and two time Cy Young winner, Tim Lincecum. This is Lincecum's first year of arbitration eligibility. He has only 2 full years of service time but he was able to bypass his third pre-arbitration year due to his performance on the field. And to this point, the Giants have gotten a huge bargain.
Ignoring his initial signing bonus of about $2 million in 2006, Lincecum has only earned $405,000 and $650,000 in the last two seasons. The numbers that Lincecum and the Giants have exchanged are terribly far apart, $8 million vs. $13 million. It appears that no agreement will be made before the arbitration hearing. On top of that, the Giants appear to be unwilling to commit to a long term contract with the two time Cy Young winner.
The other story is in the American League where the Tigers have just signed Justin Verlander to a 5 years $80 million contract extension. Verlander will average about $16 million a season starting with his 6th year of major league service. Between 2005 and 2008 Verlander earned $316,000, $350,000, $400,000, and $500,000. Last year he avoided arbitration with a $3.675 million deal. Now remember, Verlander was the #2 pick in the 2004 draft. Verlander has had 3 seasons of 17 or more wins in his 4 full Major League seasons.
Ok...so why have I brought this up?
To this point in his career, Tim Lincecum has earned a total of a little over $1 million (plus a $2+ million signing bonus when he was drafted).
To this point in his career, Justin Verlander has earned a total of a little over $5 million (which includes a $3.7 million contract last season to avoid arbitration).
In his total of .152 years of Major League service, the Cubs top wide receiver, Jeff Samardzija has earned an estimated total of $5 million.
How many wins does he have? 2
How many Cy Youngs has he won? Ha!
How many touchdowns has he made? 0
Um.
Samardzija was a 5th round draft pick. And anyone who has watched his pitching motion realizes that this kid still has a long way to go before he will likely make any impact.
We've talked about bad contracts in the past, but this contract with Samarddzija may have been the one of the worst contracts I have ever seen the Cubs give out...and that's even if he does make a huge jump this season and starts to contribute. (Don't forget, he has a full no trade clause too.)
Just so you have an idea here, Samardzija is scheduled to make $2.5 million this season.
Theriot is going to arbitration with the Cubs because they only want to give him $2.6 million this season.
Something just isn't right here.
