Stephen Strasburg Price Tag

74 K's in 34 IP is SCARY good.

Those stats are awesome!

He shouldn't get that much when guys like Bobby Abreu take deep paycuts.

Remember the part about small-market teams are supposed to benefit from the draft?

Strasburg is great, sure, but Scott Boras must be angry about how his offseason went...

Baseball should buy out Scott Borass, or ban him for ruining the game! If Pete Rose can be banned, why not Borass? He is hurting the balance of clubs worse than steroids have hurt players. All the players lose is baseball longevity and a few years off their lives. ALL OF US are hurt by Borass, unless you are a Yankee fan.

Just another example as to why Scott BorASS needs to be banned from baseball. All major league owners should blackball his clients, then they would dump him. Of course, this will never work when you have teams like the Yankees who will bid against themselves to sign one of his clients.

If Strasburg is as good as they say, the Nationals should pay him what he's asking him. Simple as that.

College statistics aren't meaningless.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Some anonymous 'club official' making up a number means absolutely nothing.

I don't care if he throws 168 mph and is a Tibetan orphan who graduated from Harvard he isn't quadrupling David Price's money.

I saw him pitch live in Ostrava on the Academic WC against our national team, 7IP 0H 14Ks...never seen anything like that in my life

It doesn't matter how crazy awesome his stats are- NO player is worth that money with NO MLB numbers to show for it. IMO, money should never be guaranteed completely on the basis of potential and no MLB numbers for it.

Secretone-- Go hard or go home. It's the reality of baseball nowadays that Boras asks exorbitant ammounts of money for his young clients. Will the amount really come to 6 years, $50 MM? Probably not. But it's not like the Nationals don't know that he's going to cost tons of money if they draft him. Quit bashing Boras for doing his job: getting tons of money for his client.

i say 10-15 mil signign bonus and then a normal deal will follow. The kid is as sure a shot as there ever will be. but hes not getting 50 mil for 5 yrs. Even though he is going to be the best pitcher in MLB the second he is drafted. If fatboy, 4 ERA in the AL, Sabathia can get them oney he just got its gonna be hard to keep BorAss from cashing in on Stras. Why aren't more agents undercutting BorAss' cut to steal his clients? It makes no sense to me.

"Scott B., one word you used describes your depth of logic, SIMPLE."

Says the guy who talks about buying out Scott Boras, and compares him to Pete Rose. Who is the simple one really? I am surprised, there were only two examples of "omg Boras is so stupid he is ruining the game he is worse then steroids omg durr!!!" I'm proud of you guys.

"Secretone-- Go hard or go home. It's the reality of baseball nowadays that Boras asks exorbitant ammounts of money for his young clients. Will the amount really come to 6 years, $50 MM? Probably not. But it's not like the Nationals don't know that he's going to cost tons of money if they draft him. Quit bashing Boras for doing his job: getting tons of money for his client."

Exactly. Boras just does what he gets paid to. What he gets paid to do is make maddddddd money for those that he works for, and to not pay the slightest bit of attention to the, errr, lets just say not so smart people who think he is somehow ruining the game. He plays the bad cop when he has to. And by the way, a guy is worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for him.

"The kid is from San Diego, and wants to remain close to home, either with the Padres or with a west coast team. So I think that is the reason for the possible demands."

I'm not sure but I think Japan isn't very close to San Diego.

nrmax88...."A guy is worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for him." Good thinking! Is Andruw Jones your example?

Borass is hurting baseball badly. Say all the words you wish, but Borass is hurting baseball and keeping team balance from being possible.

The Nats would get the #2 pick next year if they don't sign Strasburg.

"Would it help baseball for that money to go back into the pockets of the owners?"

Naw, it would help if the money was never spent and ticket prices were dropped just a little.

But I'm not holding my breath on that one.

NRMAX88...."Would it help baseball for that money to go back into the pockets of the owners?" PROBABLY. Pittsburgh and Oakland could be competitive, along with several others. And what about Andruw Jones being worth "what people are willing to pay"?

$50M over 6 years, for a rookie? No doubt about it, he'll be a Yankee by summer's end.

(AP) This just in..."Yankees Buy Nats, Get Strasburg"

""Pittsburgh and Oakland could be competitive, along with several others."

You can't blame the uncompetitiveness of some teams only on the salary cap. It has to also be blamed on missed opportunities, bad ownership, etc.

And who said Oakland wasn't competitive? I'm sure melonis rex would disagree with you."

Seriously. Oakland is always competitive. This guy secretone is clueless. He takes one quote out of my post which he chooses to try and debate, which he does so unsuccesfully, and completely ignores the rest of it, which he has no answers for. As for Andruw Jones, yes, at the time he was worth 18 million, because somebody was willing to pay it. You act as if Boras forced LA to sign him for 18 million. There will always be bad contracts, there were bad signing before Boras came around. Anyway, anybody who puts the Pittsburgh Pirates and the A's in the same category is probably not the sharpest baseball mind.

Uhh, just to clue secretone (is that a new Viagra clone) that Oakland has been pretty damn competitive for years now, and probably will continue that way so long as Billy is manning the ship.

And as far as asking about Andruw Jones' worth? I thought my man nrmax put it pretty simple for you, but a baseball player is clearly worth whatever a team is willing to pay. Did Jones merit his contract in LA? Clearly not, but Colletti was willing to shell out that money. Its just the same as how all my baseball cards I thought would be goldmines by now are only worth what some shmuck is willing to pay me for them. Simple simple economics.

BTW, nrmax...does anyone wanna see the Penguins right now? I think not.

"BTW, nrmax...does anyone wanna see the Penguins right now? I think not."

Agreed. Penguins are flying right now, even though Penguins don't ordinarily fly ;-). My guys are looking a lot better though also, should be a fun playoffs. Amazing the jolt firing your head coach can give a team huh?

I like the way Major League Baseball free agency and the amateur draft work.

If Strasberg and Boras demand $50MM now I'd think they're realistically expecting 1/4 of that. And if that's not enough would Strasberg actually go though with moving to Japan? LOL. I think not. Independent League maybe.

I've been saying for the past month that Boras will demand an astronical amount to scare the Nats away. I was thinking "maybe" $20M...but $50M?! Wow!

It's known Strasburg does NOT want to be on the East Coast, but the west coast, and especially NOT locked under club control to a team like the Nats.

Strasburg and Boras have all the control here!

I say they will spend the next 2 months scaring the Nats out of selecting him. It's gonna be REALLY bad PR if the Nats sign "another" #1 overall pick that doesn't sign!

I think the Nats will be scared away, and Stras will go as the #2 pick to Seattle. Once the Nats are out of the picture the demands will lower and he will end up getting a $10-12M signing bonus from Seattle. Seattle has Washburn & Batista & Bedard ($30M) coming off the books in their rotation after 2009.

I think the Z-man will try and lockup Felix/Bedard/Beltre to extensions though, before next offseason.

Seattle 2010 Rotation
Felix
Bedard
Strasburg
Morrow
Silva

Damn that would be potent!

Come on Boras...threaten the Nats that you want $160M 6-year contract for Strasburg! :)

The only problem with Boras? He wouldn't drop his demands he puts out there for ANY GM!

Case in point look at Seattle's Josh Fields signing this past month. They wouldn't budge for 8 months on $500k! It costs Fields some games in 2008, and THEN they eventually met half way for a $1.75M signing bonus last month.

Quick! Somebody get midtown a nice block of cheese to enjoy with his WHINE! Again, if it wasn't Boras representing Tex, it would be another agent. These guys are getting paid astronomical amounts of money no matter who their agent is, if they are worthy of the money. Besides, if your team didn't sign any big name guys, you would just be complaining that the team stinks and has no motivation to win. So boohoo you can't have it both ways. I would rather have to stay home and watch a really good team then be able to afford tickets to watch a team that blows donkey nuts because they weren't willing to go after a Boras client who would have dramatically improved the team.

Once again, don't hate the player, hate the game.

It's all about the Bruins! Also, if the money wasn't there the teams wouldn't be able to offer it. And if teams don't want to spend the big bucks then they can find other ways to build a team as the A's and Twins have. You don't have to deal with Boras if you don't want to.

The B's are on a bit of a slide, we're only 4 or so points behind.

The Rangers are decent, Antropov and Morris were good pickups and Lundqvist is a gamesaver. Redden is a piece of crap though.

I like Redden.... offensive defenseman being totally wasted by Renney. The contract was gross, though, I agree on that. He has no value if he can't jump into a play and you make him stay home. Since Torts arrived he has been way better. But we need to stop before people get mad at us for getting off topic :).

As for Strasburg, what do you guys think is a realistic and fair contract for him to be offered after he is drafted?

"As for Strasburg, what do you guys think is a realistic and fair contract for him to be offered after he is drafted?"

Well I finally found it. Unless I missed something, the most ever guaranteed money has been Mark Prior (I smell irony), 5 years $10.5M which included a $4M bonus. Largest bonus was Justin Upton at 6.1M.

Realistically, expect both records to be broken. My bet is Boras holds out for $15M for 6 years, 7M in bonus.

No team will give 50M to a kid out of college, I don't care if they are the second coming of Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Sandy Koufax, and Bob Gibson all combined. No one would dare to start that trend. Even if it means letting an elite prospect go to Japan.

Washington is not a small mark and the lerners are billionares...time to pay the piper

One more reason to have slot drafting. If the draft is designed to help struggling teams how is holding the Nats feet to the fire for an unproven kid pitcher doing that?

This is absurd and it will only lead to more and more talk about a cap.

Bill James on the subject of College Numbers: "College numbers are neither reliable nor meaningless. There are players who hit .450 with power in good college leagues who wash out at AA in the pros. But the better you hit in college, the better your chances of succeeding in the pros."

"But the better you hit in college, the better your chances of succeeding in the pros."

That's not exactly groundbreaking information. If there wasn't a stats correlation between what someone does in college and the majors then James wouldn't really be considered a guru.

If you install a cap you must install a floor. If a team doesn't like it then sell the franchise.

The floor must be reasonable and in line with the bottom tier revenues. Owners shouldn't be forced to take losses because the floor is $60m. However, they also shouldn't be guaranteed a profit. You could easily do something like $50m - $125m.

That would leave the Yankees ($209m), Detroit ($139m), Mets ($139m), and Red Sox ($133m) on the high side. On the low side you would have Florida ($21m), Tampa ($44m), Oakland ($48m), and Pittsburgh ($49m). Getting teams to conform to that range would be pretty easy for everyone other than the Yankees and Marlins.

Owners charge for tickets what they can. Attendance has set records in two of the last three seasons, so perhaps they have been guessing too low on the market.

Owners pay workers as little as they think can.

Please avoid calling someone a "moron" until you demonstrate at least a remedial knowledge of which you speak.

"Watching the reaction of baseball fans across the country. . . I'm embarrassed; Americans are petty, jealous, economically illiterate bitches."
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1625

Actually, the age makes him even MORE of a hot commodity. Which makes 6/50 look like chump change.

"Why shouldn't Strasburg get 6/50 or whatever he demands. Especially if the demands are announced BEFORE the draft, so a team that isn't willing to pay wouldn't draft him."

Yankees fan, right?

midtown - lemme guess, you're the type to always blame someone else for your own failures, eh?

Teams should charge what fans are willing to pay. Economics 101. Try going to college, and you'll learn that.

Or what, should Congress ban teams from charging more than the $3 you have in your pocket?

"Teams should charge what fans are willing to pay. Economics 101."

Let me guess... freshman? Maybe sophomore. Try the grad level microecon class or even a high level economic theory class... you'll find that simple supply and demand models don't necessarily conform to the real world. There are not just 2 variables to consider.

""Teams should charge what fans are willing to pay. Economics 101."

Let me guess... freshman? Maybe sophomore. Try the grad level microecon class or even a high level economic theory class... you'll find that simple supply and demand models don't necessarily conform to the real world. There are not just 2 variables to consider."

Graduated, making nice money, thanks.

I'm trying to figure out why teams should charge $20 when fans are willing to pay hundreds.

You have a logical reason, other than 'because I want to pay less'?

Too bad the Nationals didn't try and screw Aaron Crow out of a few hundred grand. A starting three of Strasburgh, Crow and Lannan would be one of the most promising in the entire league.

Posted by: Casanova Wong | March 21, 2009 at 03:40 PM

Agree. Arguably one of the best in baseball

:"You have a logical reason, other than 'because I want to pay less'?"

My point is simply you can't apply simple supply and demand models. Basic microeconomics is based on assumptions from a simgle principle: Assume rationality. However, as seen in the real world, humans are anything but rational. They are emotional and sensitive to economical class. Let's say I own a 20,000 seat stadium and 200,000 people will buy a ticket for $50 and 20,000 will buy a ticket for $500. Econ 101 says set your ticket prices at $500, where supply equals demand. In real life, you've pissed off 180,000 people who'll start cheering on other teams in other sports. Those 180,000 people will stop buying hats, shirts, other assorted gougeables, and even stop watching the sport on tv. As ratings go down, so will high paying sponsors. Etc etc. It's not a 2 variable model."

I disagree that those people will stop paying up because they can't afford the top tier tickets.

I'm a Cardinals/Yankees fan (Cards by birth, Yankees by marriage) and live in the Northeast. Tickets (face value) range from $5 to $350 for a Yankees' game.

Anyone who can't afford the $5 to sit in the bleachers doesn't want to go to a game live. As is, my wife and I go to 3 games a year, max (we did go to the All Star Game last year, though), mainly due to transportation difficulties (it takes me 4 hours to get home from the stadium).

""Why shouldn't Strasburg get 6/50 or whatever he demands. Especially if the demands are announced BEFORE the draft, so a team that isn't willing to pay wouldn't draft him."

Yankees fan, right?"

Wrong.

My team actually is almost always in the lower half in payroll.

I'm all for a slotting system, but until it is implemented, it is heavily hypocritical to say that it is wrong for Boras/Strasburg to demand 6/50MM for what is an elite talent. Something like 6/50MM with 5-6MM of that being a guaranteed bonus (like what other top 1st round draftees would get) and the rest of it being contingent on him making and staying on the MLB roster sounds perfectly reasonable. If teams aren't willing to pay, simple, Strasburg will just go to Japan/the indy leagues. He still has leverage.

See to me this is just smart by Boras, If he can jack up the price for Strasburg he might even get past the first few teams. I mean in the long run he is gonna be more successful the further into the draft he is taken so not only will he get a nice payday now when it comes time for free agency or even arb years he's going to be making even more of a generally more successful team. Why not command 100 mil over 5 years then when its the red sox or yankee's turn to pick say 20 over 6 or something stupid.

Steven Strasburg is gonna set the bar that Bryce Harper hurdles.

iceonfire, that's an awful arguement.

Casanova, you'd take Harper over Strasburg?