re: Strasburg continues to steal money from the Nationals.

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Nats fan here. WS MVP, all good. Definitely made of glass though. I don’t think he will come back from this surgery.

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I’m not sure either, which makes it an albatross of a contract they can hopefully offload by year 4 through insurance.

I used to go regularly to Nats games. My team. I always thought he was injury prone. Always something with that guy. He would miss 5-8 starts a year like clockwork.

MLB teams have very short memories. They never seem to learn. You never pay a pitcher that many years, that much money after 32. After 30, it should never go longer than 4. Ever.

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Guaranteed contracts worst thing ever in baseball.

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How often do these contracts work out in favor of the team and their on field success?

They don’t win the World Series without him

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It was disappointing his career did what it did I was really hyped for his time in the pros

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My memories of him have been how hyped he was coming out of high school as the next "gifted elite" pitcher for MLB.

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Did you watch him pitch in the World Series?


He wasn’t lighting the world on fire

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he won the World Series MVP

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How often do these contracts work out in favor of the team and their on field success?

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I’m not sure. Don’t have the data but I doubt they ever deliver the entire term.

Stras won the WS MVP. He had a great year. Still, it’s hard to see how they allocated risk on this frickin contract at 280M. They think he was going to be worth $35M at 38 and 39? Few pitchers that age are even worth a roster spot.

The whole deal was dumb for the team. I know they felt obligated but this is going to kill this franchise the next 4-5 years.

I understand baseball thinks they can spend forever and the chickens never come home, but they always do eventually.

They should have let him walk for that level of money even if it was a PR nightmare. The ring would have satiated the fans.

Kris Benson comes to mind stealing money as well. Didn't he marry some psycho years back?

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My memories of him have been how hyped he was coming out of high school as the next "gifted elite" pitcher for MLB.

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He wasn't even drafted out of high school... was named to the "second team" in his district.

He was a reliever his freshman year and then really broke out as a sophomore and in international play.

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Guaranteed contracts worst thing ever in baseball.

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Won't somebody think of the poor billionaires?

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How often do these contracts work out in favor of the team and their on field success?

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The long-term mega contracts for pitchers have actually worked out pretty well for teams historically. Here's the list of largest pitcher contracts in history.

1. Gerrit Cole- 9 years, $324 million. Still early to call it a success but Cole has been excellent in his first two years with the Yankees.

2. Stephen Strasburg- 7 years, $245 million. Looking bad so far.

3. David Price- 7 years, $245 million. Bad contract.

4. Clayton Kershaw- 7 years, $245 million. Opted out after five years finishing top 5 in Cy Young voting four times. Outstanding contract.

5. Max Scherzer- 7 years, $210 million. Great contract.

6. Zack Greinke- 6 years, $206.5 million. Good contract.

7. Justin Verlander- 7 years, $180 million. Terrific contract.

8. Felix Hernandez- 7 years, $175 million. Mixed bag. Hernandez was outstanding for two years, a little above average for another two years, and really struggled for three years. Overall, I would say it was a fair contract.

9. Stephen Strasburg- 7 years, $175 million. Opted out after three years but was outstanding during those three years. Good contract.

10. CC Sabathia- 7 years, $161 million. Opted out after three years and was very good in those three seasons. Great contract.

Only contracts that didn't work out are Price and the second Strasburg contract. The other contracts were good and in the cases of Scherzer, Kershaw, and Verlander outstanding deals.