Well, Ryan Howard is one rich Motherfucker. 5 years for 125 mil. I'm going to be honest I might be one of a handful of people that doesn't see anything wrong with this deal for the player other than the fact that they didn't need to pay him right now.
The main qualms that I have with this deal is that it could hamstring the Phillies with regards to the potential signing of Jayson Werth. With the money they just gave to Ryan Howard, why couldn't they have at least offered Cliff Lee market value for 4 years and try to have both Halladay and Lee anchoring their rotation. Lastly, they didn't need to do this deal now. Have that number in the back of your head and wait until the end of his current deal. Howard still had 2 years left on his deal and if you're the Phillies you need to find a way to keep Jayson Werth at the end of the season. Without Werth anchoring down their outfield in terms of power they would no longer be head and shoulders above everyone else because of the quality depth of his lineup.
Everyone says, "Mo Vaughn, move over, here's another albatross." But I disagree wholeheartedly. The Phillies and baseball evaluators told him his defense sucked so what has he done? Went into the offseason focused on making defense his priority. When the same people told him that his body type wasn't conducive to players that have the sort of longevity in the league (see Cecil Fielder, Mo Vaughn, David Ortiz), he goes out and shaves 30 lbs of flab and amazingly doesn't lose any power at the Dish. He has put in the work necessary to become one of the premier sluggers in the league and he deserves to be rewarded.
The logical question is what does this mean for the rest of the 1st base class: Pujols, Gonzalez, and Fielder.
Regarding Pujols- Not a fucking thing. This guy right now is a Hall of Famer and he just turned 30. Which means he has at the very least 5 more years of maximum production and he is the best baseball player on the planet. He plays defense BETTER than any first baseman in the league and of all the Hall of Fame 1st baseman. He hits for average like Pete Rose and Ty Cobb, yet has that raw Mantle and Aaron Power. You don't look at anyone's contract when you start the bidding for Pujols. You give him a blank check and say, "fill it in, I'm going to smile and know that I'm extending one of the top 3 all-around best baseball players that ever lived."
Gonzalez- You give Gonzalez the median between Teixeira and Howard. He's the same age as Tex and while I consider him a bigger power threat, Tex has him in the defense category even though Adrian isn't anyone to scoff at. Howard will hit for more power than Gonzalez but I consider Adrian the better all-around hitter. Gonzalez defense is leaps and bounds however above Howard's improved defense. 6-7 years 165 sounds good to me.
Fielder- He hits piss missiles but his defense is so bad that it will hurt him in Free Agency despite Boras being his agent. I can see Fielder getting the smallest contract of the three and it will still probably eclipse 125 mil. Because it's hard to dispel 50 taters and 140 Ribs. You can look between 5-6 years 130.
Stay Tuned
Ryan
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