Locking Up Young Stars: Martin, Kendrick, Kotchman, Pedroia, Uggla

exactly JD. Its probably an ego thing. But really, think about it, Hanley Ramirez is set for life on this contract. Does it really make more sense to hold out for an extra 100 million that you wont ever need and risk ending up with nothing? He may sign a 200 million dollar contract after this one, but odds are he never even touches that money and never probably never even touches 40 of the 70 million he just signed for? What can you do with 170 mil that you cant do with 70 mil? 70 million is plenty to have multiple nice houses, a nice car for each day of the month, and pretty much anything else you could ever want. Unless you are a chronic gambler like Sir Charles, most guys that sign big contracts never even spend half of that money. Hell, I could live incredibly comfortably on a 6 year contract worth 1 million over the life of the deal. I could only imagine what I would do with 70 million.

Seriously I need to know this.

I'd be wary of giving a catcher, even a young one, an eight-year contract. Actually, I'd be wary of giving anyone eight years.

Granted, Martin's built more like Campanella than say, Joe Mauer, but 8/100 is a lot to commit to someone who is one knee injury away from DHing in a league without the DH.

I agree with regard to Martin, solely because of his position. Still, does it have to be eight years; couldn't they agree on, perhaps, a bit more money over a shorter period. Y'know...a compromise?! Crazy thought, I know, but giving Martin, say, 5 years at a better rate still keeps him under wraps, gives Martin security (and shows him Dodger love), while hedging the commitment a bit.

More importantly, for an O's fan like myself...WHEN THE F*$K ARE THE O'S GOING TO EXTEND MARKAKIS!!! The kid is 24, one of the top all around talents in the game, and the face of a rebuilding franchise. LOCK HIM UP!!! If TB can give Evan friggin' Longoria a buyout longterm deal, Baltimore can show Nick some love. I will KILL PETER ANGELOS if Markakis leaves town. When...for the love of all things holy, are we going to be rid of this monster?! The day he sells the team to Cal will be...I've got chills down my spine just thinking about it. This town will go ape poo. Ticker tape parade and all that. This city loves their O's and that sonofabitch hijacked 'em to line his motherF*(^# pockets!!! Now, Camden Yards is a ghost town, we're a laughing-stock of a franchise and the rest of baseball thinks we're an organization without a strong fan-base.

But what do you do when a tyrant steals your team? Keep headin' out to the ballpark; shelling out hard earned money to watch a crap team pieced together with absolutely no chance of competing, year after year while that d-bag gets rich?!!! F@#* that!!!

This was once one of the proudest and strongest franchises in the game and continues to be a team with an incredible base of fans who live and breath orange and black. People forget the days before Angelos and in his early years, before we knew what a tool he is. You couldn't get a seat in Camden Yards to save your life; it was sold out almost every night for the first few years. Hell, we used to sell out Memorial Stadium (a monstrosity to tell the truth) back in the '80s. Angelos destroyed EVERYTHING. For all my hope and optimism pertaining to this year's success and the rebuilding plan under McPhail, I just don't trust the b@st@rd in the warehouse. I pray I'm wrong...but mostly I pray he just sells the damn team!!! The Ironman would lead us back to our former glory. I'd almost guarantee it. And you know what he'd do first..?

HE'D SIGN NICK MARKAKIS TO A LONG TERM EXTENSION!!!

Martin for 8/100 seems like an awful big risk. The highest contract for a C ever was Piazza for 6/90 and the highest annual salary now is Posada at 13M. 8/100 is the kind of deal teams end up eating.

You bring up a decent point about his ability to move positions, but even if he continues to improve on his numbers they aren't premier numbers for a corner IF. To date, his numbers are very average for a corner and 12.5/year would make him the 5th highest paid 3b in the game. If he has to move away from C he loses a lot of his value.

I'm not really sure how a deal like that saves the Dodgers any money. Even if he sets arbitration records every year for the next 4 it would be 4 years at less than 50M. To save 20-40M he would have to sign a FA contract at 4yrs for 70-90M, and that would make him one of the top 10 highest paid guys in MLB.

I'm not saying he isn't a great player, but even big market teams needs to be a little smart about money.

This is the first time since 1999 that Posada won't play atleast 137 games. His durability is hardly up for question.

"No matter how inferior Piazza's defense is compared to Martin's, it nowhere nearly as inferior as Martin's bat was to Piazza's. It's not even close, it would be ridiculous to even try to explain. Seriously, not even close, it's like comparing the two most uncomparable things that ever existed."

Martin may not have Piazza's home run power, but he has a hell of a lot more speed, a lower K rate and a higher walk rate. Further, Piazza had only 7 more extra base hits in his age 24 season than Martin because of Martin's ability to stretch singles into doubles.

Piazza isn't really the catcher to compare Martin to anyway. The right guy to look at is Pudge, and Martin compares favorably with him.

"I'm not arguing he's not a good player, but your financial math has me praying your not an accountant."

Again, you need to take numbers from both past and future to evaluate this. Piazza got his contract 10 years ago, when the best player in baseball (Bonds) was pulling down $9 million a year. Now, the Dodgers' number 4 starter is making almost $12 million a year. Now look at the math.

"Piazza was as good at 34 as Martin is at 25."

Piazza hit more home runs. Meanwhile, he played fewer games, walked less, ran FAR slower and allowed more than 100 SB in 8 different seasons along with double digit PB in 4 seasons. Don't get me wrong, I love Piazza and hated the day he was traded by greedy Dodger management, but when you combine overall salary inflation with Martin's talents, there is substantial weight behind a big contract.

"The REAL comparable is Brian McCann. He signed for 6 years and 29M. that leaves the last 2 years of your contract at 35M/yr."

Martin is better than McCann in pretty much every way you can find. The only comparable is home runs. Martin also plays 10 more games a year behind the plate, and will probably play 10-20 games at third. All that, and Martin is arb-eligible. McCann had only 1 year of service time when he signed his contract, which means he would most definately take a discount, as Atlanta could have chosen to simply renew McCann twice. Martin is playing 3 years at $500K or less.

"Your comparing Martin to 3 of the greatest Cs of all-time."

Posada is nowhere near one of the greatest catchers of all time. Piazza is the greatest hitting catcher of all time, but a below average defender. Martin and Pudge do compare.

And for your comparisons of Piazza to Martin, you should try checking that out too. Piazza k's every 6.2 abs and martin every 6.4. I'd definitely take that .2 in favor of your boy over a guy who hit more HRs in 9 different seasons than Martin has in 1100 ABs.

Gold Gloves? That's your argument? Gold Gloves?

I think you're ignoring the crucial fact that Martin did NOT win the Silver Slugger OR the Rookie of the Year in his rookie year! He also didn't go to the All-Star game! He is clearly TERRIBLE.