Papelbon Gets $775K

what a crybaby

Somebody get Smoltz his cell number!

manny is worth more than 160 million over 8 years bro.

i'm happy they paid pabelbon big, as a yankees fan, he is gonna be great someday.

You can complain about Papelbon bit you really can't complain about this from a Red Sox baseball operations perspective. The Red Sox organization is a cash cow, plain and simple. That whole region worships that team. In order to make one of your young stars happy, I think its worth giving up $100,000. When you make as much money as the Red Sox do, and therefore have that much money to spend, then overpaying in order to get the best players and keep them happy seems quite sensible.

I have no complaints with this. Everyone likes money.

Papelbon is still earning less than Sean Casey. What was the problem again?

No, the Red Sox didn't HAVE to pay him that much. They did in the hopes that it will encourage him to re-up with them later.

And it's not like Papelbon is the first good 0-3 player (or even the first closer) that's earned significantly more than he "had" to. The Yankees did it with Rivera.

And there are plenty of reasons for Papelbon to get more than Rivera did in 97-98: Papelbon's the same age as Rivera was then (27), but Pap's numbers are significantly better now than Rivera's were; salaries across the board are considerably higher than they were 10 years ago, so comparables are higher; Papelbon is already a hero in his city.

Doing this is just a tool that big-market teams can use. It's really not that much different than giving some free agent a bit more per year to sign him over another team: paying a bit more in exchange for (hopefully) building the future.

only a yankees fan would say manny is worth 160 over 8 years. when you compare that contract to some of the yankees contracts it looks like a bargain. ill just make a quick off-the-top-of-my-head list of overpaid players on the yankees and red sox combined.

giambi pettitte mussina matsui abreu
rivera posada damon rodriguez jeter drew ramirez varitek lugo dicek
lowell ortiz.

did i miss anybody? back when the cardinals used to spend money they paid for two way players. offense and defense. if only baseball had a salary cap. then i could stop hearing about how epstein and cashman are geniuses. give me something north of 130 million and i could put a championship team together too.

I am glad the Orioles didn't give Markakis the money. He was asking for Ryan Howard money and he is not Ryan Howard. He'll get paid next year when he signs long term.

Paps got a huge raise, but it isn't the 900K he wanted. I bet he's still unhappy with the amount. I hope he sticks it to the team in his arbitration years. The more the Red Sox cripple themselves, the happier I become.

The Sox MAY have overpaid for dice-k (he still has 5 years left on his contract...it's foolish to judge it already), but Dice-K himself isn't getting overpaid. The man is making 52 million over 6. If he puts up numbers equivalent to a #3 for the length of that contract then he's probably getting paid just about right. #3 is definitely a very conservative estimate though.

David Ortiz is overpaid at 12.5 million? riiiiight.

This is just wrong, Sox should have told him to go ask Julio Lugo for a couple of millions from his salaray since he is in the pile of mediocre/useless garbage that benefit from 0-3 year players being cheap. The players hve to realize that the total amount od salaray being paid is not going to increase just because guys lke Paps have a big mouth, someone else has to take less.

Whats fair about the prices people pay to get into Fenway yet it's sold out every game all year round year in and year out. Red Sox have the best fans in baseball period and we accept paying through the roof and as long as we do Sox will have a owner that fields a good team.

oh now the red sox have the best fans? i guess u have never been to st louis. boston fans are bandwagon jumpers. look at all those celtic and patriots fans. boston fans are good(hell you would have to be to put up with a century of futility) but the best fans? you should have been at the last cardinals home game last year. the team stunk all year and the fans were cheering and letting the players know how much they appreciated them. anyone can support a winner. only a true fan supports their team when times are tough.

once again red sox guy i didnt say the fans were bad, just not the best in baseball....period. i believe the cardinals fans are the best but without ever going to fenway or yankee stadium i wouldnt make that comment so neither should you. heck chicago fans are darn faithful but i have to say not very bright. they dont really understand the game like cards fans do. cards fans cheer when a guy sacrifices a runner to third. i guess for boston fans to cheer for that they would actually have to sacrifice. my problem with the yankees and red sox is simple. anyone can build a winner with a huge payroll. everyone says epsteins a genius but geez give me twice the money as half the competition and i build a winner too. maybe thats more of an issue with baseball itself and how there is no cap but still. everyone lately talks about cheating and getting an unfair advantage. well having twice the money to spend seems pretty unfair to me.

anyways i left two names off my overpaid sox yankees list. igawa and pavano. hard to remember since neither isnt going to pitch this year but geez i bet those guys have nice houses.