The Harper and Machado Deals

It took until the beginning of Spring Training games, but baseball’s two most hyped free agents have finally signed. Last week Machado signed a 10 year, $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres. Today Bryce Harper signed a 13 year, $330 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. After all the hype, speculations and waiting (and waiting) the saga is over. So where does this leave us?

At the beginning of the offseason, it was assumed these two would command record breaking deals. So did they? Well yes and no. Machado’s $300 million deal set the record for biggest total free agent (not extension) deal ever, previously held by Alex Rodriguez’s 10 year, $275 million contract. Machado’s record was then just broken by the Harper contract. Harper’s contract also set the record for biggest contract of any kind, topping the 13 year, $325 million extension Giancarlo Stanton received while in Miami. So in that sense, these were record breaking contracts. 

However these contracts did not break the record for highest annual average value (AAV) for a contract. Machado’s deal averages $30 million a year and Harper’s is only at $25.4 million. The highest AAV contract is that of Zack Grienke, whose 6 year, $206.5 million deal has an AAV of $34.4 million. 

Then there is the question of “Is Free Agency Broken”?  At first glance the answer would seem to be no. The two biggest total value free agent contracts were just signed. They will be making a stupid amount of money. All seems well. However there are still two top quality free agents still unsigned in Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel (most likely a future Hall of Famer). How could star players still be unsigned at this time? Not to mention the dozens of other quality mlb players who should be on someone’s roster.  So is free agency broken?  That’s still unclear. 

So what I think of Machado and Harper’s deals?  First off, finally!  Months and months of waiting and speculation and waiting and rumors and waiting and waiting, finally over. I’m just glad to see them finally signed somewhere. Machado signing with San Diego was a surprise. They have not been good for a while and LA and Colorado will offer some pretty steep competition in that division. But money talks.  Harper to Philly is not as much a surprise. They said they wanted to spend “stupid money” this offseason. Looks like they have.  Unpopular opinion, but I wish the Cardinals would have signed Harper still. His contract goes through age 38. I feel he will be productive through most of that contract. And there will probably be the DH in the NL by then, so that would have helped. I wonder how much beyond the $330 million St. Louis would have had to go in order to get him.  I’m disappointed I missed both my predictions for where they would sign. You can see the full list here. I had Machado to Philly and Harper to the Dodgers. Would have gotten Harper had he taken the 3/4 year, $45 million a year deal they reportedly offered him. Darn.  

So that’s it. Harper and Machado have signed. Finally. For lots and lots of money. With the wrong teams. Still waiting on Keuchel and Kimbrel to sign. And Bartolo Colon. Come on guys.  Someone has to give Big Sexy a contract. 

My 9 Worst Sports Injuries

I wanted to do something a little different for a change. Decided to discuss the 9 worst sports-related injuries I’ve had in my life. So without further ado: me getting hurt a lot. 

9. Bruised Chest

        In high school I was playing baseball over at my friend Tyler’s  house. I was pitching and he lined the ball right back at me and pegged me right below my left shoulder.  I went down and he and his mother ran out to check on me. When they got there I was laughing my butt off because it didn’t actually hurt, I just found it hilarious. I did end up with a nice, yellow bruise with the seams imprinted. 

8. Injured Hand

        I played rec baseball up through my freshman year in high school. During a game in middle school injuries was batting and the pitcher threw pretty hard. He threw an inside pitch and jammed me. I swung and instead of the ball hitting my bat, I hit it off my hand.  Didn’t break anything, but it hurt really bad and I had to sit out until my next at bat. 

7.  Various Crotch Shots
        When one plays sports, this periodically happens. It’s no bueno. The worst one I remember was in middle school when I was playing catch at my friend Joe’s  house. I thought we were done, so I took off my glove. Apparently he wanted to throw another one, so he fired one at me and I was completely unprepared. Went down, wanted to vomit. Standard stuff. Felt better about 15 minutes later. The peak pain was highest here but it does subside much quicker.

6. Bruised Foot
         When I was in college, possibly still high school, I was out at the park playing baseball with the same friend who pegged me with the line drive. I was batting and fouled the ball straight down off my left foot. I gained so much respect for professionals who do this, because I can’t hit a ball nearly as hard as they do and I was in a ton of pain. Ended up with a nice bruise on my foot. But not on the top of my foot where the ball hit it. No, on the bottom of my foot where my foot hit the ground. That was so weird. It hurt to walk for a few days.

5. Broken Shoulder and Collarbone
         Being born is a sport, right?  Maybe?  Anyway I was born with a broken shoulder and collarbone. Also jaundice. I was a messed up baby.

4. Hypertended Knee
          Again middle school rec baseball. I promise this is the last baseball one. I was on first base. Ground ball to the second baseman, He threw it to the shortstop for the out at second. Normally the shortstop would then throw it to first. Baseball. No. The shortstop once they had made the out at second, ran directly at me. We collided and I went down in a ton of pain. I said earlier the crotch shot was the worst peak pain. Actually this rivaled that. Coach ran out to check on me. Helped me walk off the field. He said he was really worried at first because my knee went backwards. Thankfully there wasn’t any structural damage.

3. Concussion
          Last year we were playing slip and slide kickball up at church (you can already tell where this is going). I kicked the ball and was running to first.  I went to slow down and my feet came out from under me and I fell backwards. I lost consciousness for a second or two. I remember coming to and realizing I must have been out but no one had reacted so it must not have been for a noticeable amount of time.  Felt fine after that, except for a little dizziness about an hour later.

T-1 Broken Finger
          In 3rd grade we were playing capture the flag at church camp. The other team got the flag and I was chasing that person. I made a dive for his flag (missed) and my left index finger went straight into the ground. It hurt after that and I told my counselor and but they figured I was fine. When I went home, we went to the doctor and it was in deed broken. It healed up in the normal amount of time, But it didn’t heal completely straight. To this day the tip past my last knuckle is slightly bent outwards towards my thumb.

T-1 Undetermined Ankle Injury
          In college, I was up at church playing basketball with a couple of friends, Matt and Adam. At one point Adam and I went after a loose ball, we collided and both went down. When I tried to stand up, I couldn’t put any pressure on my right ankle. Eventually made it over to a chair and after a few minutes decided to head home. The difficult part about driving though was that it was my right ankle, attached to the foot I use to drive.  My ankle hurt so bad I couldn’t push down on the pedal. So I decided I had to drive with my left foot. That’s not easy. Once I got up to speed I was able to just put it in cruise. Now I call this injury undetermined because I was a broke college kid and didn’t want to pay to go to the hospital. So I bought a brace from Walgreens and wore that for 3 months until my ankle felt better.

And there we have it.  My 9 (really 8) worst sports related injuries. They are my battle scars and I will wear them proudly. Hope you enjoyed me being hurt. 

Alliance of American Football

Last weekend a new professional football league debuted, the Alliance of American Football (AAF). This is an 8 team league with a 10 game schedule. The 6 of the 8 teams are located in cities without an NFL team (San Diego, Birmingham, San Antonio, Salt Lake, Memphis and Orlando). The two exceptions are Atlanta and Arizona (Phoenix). A majority of the players have been in the NFL at one point. Some notable names include RBsTrent Richardson and Matt Asiata, QBs Christian Hackenberg, Zach Mettenberger and Aaron Murray and K Nick Folk.  The AAF is billing itself as wanting to be a supplemental league to the NFL, feeding them talent and helping players make it back.  

There are some notable rule differences between the AAF and the NFL. Many of these have to do with kickers. Poor kickers. In the AAF there are no kickoffs. Teams instead start the drive on the 25 yard line. With no kickoffs, there are no onside kicks. In place of that, teams have the choice to convert a “4th and 12” from their 28. Also, there are no extra points, only 2 point conversions. Other differences include a 35 second play clock, instead of 40, a “sky judge” who can correct egregious incorrect calls, a mic’d replay official and an overtime consisting of both teams getting a first and goal from the 10. Games can end in a tie after 1 OT. 

Personally I am very excited about the AAF. For me, the most boring time of the sports year is after the Super Bowl to the beginning of baseball season. This can help to fill that void. The first week of games was quite entertaining. One thing which became apparent is the AAF seems to allow for bigger hits on players. The most popular was a sack of San Diego’s Mike Bercovici, which you can see here. As is normal with the NFL, it may take a few weeks for the offenses to get up to speed and start to gel.  Perhaps the most popular part of the games was the replays. The ref in charge of reviewing calls is on air and it allows everyone to see and hear what they are thinking when looking to perhaps change a call. I found that transparency quite refreshing. I would love to see that adopted by the NFL. 

Overall I was very impressed with the new AAF.  As there is not a team from St. Louis (waiting on the XFL next year) I’ve decided to root for San Diego as their coach is former St. Louis Ram head coach Mike Martz. It’s good to see Mad Mike back at the helm. Go Fleet!  (Update: forgot former St. Louis Rams RB Zac Stacy was on Memphis. So I’ll be rooting for him as well.)

Baseball Hot...Luke Warm...Cold Stove

The Super Bowl is over (thank God). Pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in about a week. This is an exciting time of the year.”! There’s just one problem though. There are still over 100 free agents yet to be signed. The list includes some of the best players available, such as Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. This free agent class had been touted for years as potentially one of the best groups of free agents to be available, yet now that the time has come, no one is signing them. Why is that?

This isn’t completely new. Last year’s free agent class moved very slowly as well, with many players not signing until Spring Training had begun or the season had started. Albeit that group was not nearly as good as the collection of free agents this year. One reason mentioned for last year’s offseason moving so slowly was that teams did not want to play players for past production. The logic being players perform well, reach free agency and then are paid for how they had previously done. But by the time many players reach free agency, they are one the second half of their career and their upcoming years might not be as productive as the previous ones. However, in order to sign these players, teams generally have to pay them more than their earlier years.  That had been the accepted norm for years. Lately teams have not been wanting to offer those contracts and the result is a stalemate between teams and players (or owners vs. agents). This seems to be the case for Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel.  Both  are in their 30’s and teams appear to be worried about being on the hook for a bad contract if these players’ perfermance decreases.

In the past decade, there have been some bad, long-term contracts given to players.  Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera were two of the best players of this generation.  Both were given contracts that could last through their age 42 seasons. Now age has caught up to the two of them and they are not nearly the players they used to be. This leaves their teams with those huge contracts and a lack of monetary flexibility to sign. It is believed Harper and Machado are looking for 10 year deals like the one Pujols signed and that teams are gun shy about offering those deals now because of how the previously mentioned contracts have turned out.  This may very well may be the case but personally I don’t think that logict makes sense.   Harper and Machado are both 26, and therefore, a 10-year contract for them would end when they are 36. Most of these superstars who sign long term contacts are still productive at that age. It is typically in their late 30s when they tend to deteriorate. Harper and Machado are young enough to make it though that contract with solid productivity.

Another potential factor for the slow offseason is the potential for a work stoppage/strike in a couple years. The collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association will expire after the 2021 season. This current conflict between teams and players about contracts could play a major factor in new agreement being completed. With that potential strike looming, there is a theory teams are leery about having those huge contracts on the books. If there is a   strike, it could take a while for fans to start coming back to games in the same numbers once baseball resumes.  In the meantime, teams would not have the same income to which they have been accustomed but would still have to be paying those contracts.

In the meantime, until this is all figured out,  baseball is still looming, players are still unsigned and fans are increasingly frustrated.