Speaking of unlikely things to happen, I’d sure take 30 five-inning starts from Joba (150 innings) with an ERA of 3.60 and no losses (4-0 in ST)…

(although for that to happen, Jeter would have be to traded to the Mets!)

Now we are dealing with having a declining great player. And so we whine about it. Cake and eat it to or something.

OH HAPPY DAY

Pointing to Jeter’s $20 million per in the last years of his contract takes that figure entirely out of context. As william points out, you have to look at the contract as a whole. The Yankees have and will always overpay in length and $$$ to guarantee getting the best talent available at the time (by and large). The 20 million should not be seen in isolation, but rather it should be spread over the whole length of the contract (as William put it at [8]). Jeter signed for 10 years, 18.9 million, or about 19 million per year, more or less regardless of how the money is structured (because the Yankees have essentially an unlimited budget, so paying Jeter “too much” by 10 million one or two years does not significantly constrain them from signing other players).

Now, is 19 million/year “too much” for one of the top few shortstops in the game EVERY year of the contract so far (including last season, for despite the nay-sayers, Jeter was still easily in the top third of SS league wide including both offense and defense).

Finally, as OYF points out [5], when Jeter was signed his contract was commensurate with the superstar deals at the time, and he was clearly one of the “Holy Trinity” of HOF destined SS. Now let’s see, what has happened to the other two? Nomar is a broken down (steroids?) mess playing part time around the diamond, and A-Rod no longer plays at SS. It does not matter that his move to 3B allowed Jeter to remain at SS–the fact remains that of the three big name SS of the 1990s, only one is still standing at his position. In many ways, Jeter has more than lived up to his back-loaded contract.

Now the time comes for the team to pay the piper. That’s the deal with such contracts.

One last point. Instead of talking about total dollar figures, it might be more instructive to consider Jeter’s contract as a percentage of the Yankees payroll. In 2001 the team payroll was well below 150 million; now it’s right around 200 million. In other words, in terms of average salary (19/year), Jeter’s is costing the team LESS per year relative to their budget. In annual terms, his contract continues to hover around 10% of the teams salary, give or take. In other words, again, his back loaded contracted does not mean that he is costing the team MORE (in functional terms) in the later years.

Sometimes, it’s difficult for me to keep up when new articles get posted.

Sheffield actually started out as a SS …. he’ll be Jeter’s late-inning defensive replacement!

Then again, in the “Steroid Era”, isn’t 600 the new 500?

http://tinyurl.com/d4vpqr

As much as we lambaste the A-Rod contract, he’s STILL been healthier than Chipper.

Depending on how long the recession lasts, it’ll be interesting to see what new contracts look like, especially for the Yankees with the new ballpark to pay off and the ridiculously expensive tickets.