Go West Young Men!

In 2010, the Gosselins still (inexplicably) had a TV show, Courtney Love hadn’t changed her name to Courtney Michelle and Sandra Bullock didn’t know her blind side was under attack from Michelle "Bombshell" McGee. 

That year, Carl Crawford hit career highs for home runs (19) and runs batted in (90) as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez was in the midst of 4 straight 30+ home runs/99+ RBI seasons. Even Josh Beckett flashed signs of the form that propelled him to winning 20 games during the Red Sox 2007 title run. On the back of these performances and their career development, Crawford, Gonzalez and Beckett earned $365 million in contracts from the Boston Red Sox during the offseason.

Funny how things aren't like they were in 2010, right? The Red Sox sent Crawford, Gonzalez, Beckett and more than $250 million remaining on their combined contracts to the Los Angeles Dodgers last Friday. The Dodgers are turning into MLB's Real Madrid, acquiring the most expensive talent with all the restraint of a spoiled teenager planning a party on "My Sweet 16". This massive trade with the Red Sox comes weeks after the Dodgers traded for Hanley Ramirez, the Miami Marlins’ franchise player. If you can't beat them…pay for them to join your team.

Grade the trade:

Red Sox: A+

No grade inflation here, folks. This is a good baseball decision and an even better financial decision. Shedding a quarter of a billion dollars in salary for players that are already in their early 30s and would be in their late 30s by their contracts’ conclusion just makes sense. The logic is so easy to follow, a caveman Missouri congressman can get it. Athletes on the wrong side of 30 underperforming is as cliché as a short marriage in Hollywood. Even though we still expect it, we act completely surprised when it repeatedly happens. At 32, Beckett is easily enduring the worst season of the 3 former Red Sox with 5 wins, 11 losses and an ERA north of 5. He may never regain the form that made him a dominant pitcher. And despite how good you feel about paying Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez $42 million/year in 2012, you can’t feel too excited about paying the 37 and 36 year old versions of Crawford and Gonzalez that same kind of money in 2018.

The returns from LA are decent too. James Loney is a journeymen veteran that can start at multiple infield positions and pitcher Rubby de la Rosa was once the prize of the Red Sox minor league system. The Red Sox will also gladly accept the $11 million the Dodgers placed on their door step. Ultimately, this move gets graded by the players leaving Boston and on that front, Red Sox management did their homework.

Dodgers: B/Incomplete

I know, I gave them two grades, but there’s reason. Fans enjoy their teams acting aggressively in the trade market. It shows a desire to remake the franchise and (usually) establishes winning as a priority. That starts the curve at a B. Nonetheless, when you take on $42 million in yearly salary AND you’re already paying your best 3 players a combined $36 million a year, you’re all-in on winning RIGHT NOW.

We’ve seen the superfriends approach in other sports (Miami Heat, Philadelphia Eagles, Real Madrid, any Yankees team after 2002) and the results are mixed. Assembling the best team on paper only secures one title: “Best team on paper”. Chemistry, trust, and the other intangibles that successful teams own in spades are very difficult to measure on paper. It’s why the Yankees spent over $1 billion in player salaries over the last decade and only have one World Series title to show for it.

Embracing the superfriends approach places the Dodgers under an unrelenting microscope. A win-or-bust mentality is the definition of being between a rock and a hard place. The Dodgers sacrificed their financial flexibility in the future for a chance to win now. That’s where the incomplete comes in and although the chance to trade any of the players on the roster exists, it doesn’t seem like that Dodgers are headed in that direction. At least MLB’s best are headed to 90210. 

Baseball money

“Boston Red Sox hat, I get baseball money"

 - Lil Wayne

You know you're on the fast track to gluttony when rappers are envious of your lifestyle. What exactly is baseball money?

Baseball money is 9 of the 10 largest contracts in the history of sports.  Or 17 of the 20 largest contracts or 30 of the 50 largest contracts. That’s amazing. 60% of the 50 largest contracts in the history of sports belong to one sport. But these salaries don’t match with the popularity of Major League Baseball and hint at changes in the future.

In 2011, the sports universe almost imploded. The potential of protracted work stoppages in the NBA and NFL, far and away the two most popular sports in the US, almost trapped fans in sports' no man’s land. I don’t know what I was going to do without an NFL AND NBA season last fall. It’s the sports equivalent of sending fans into the Heart of Darkness, savagery was almost guaranteed.

These work stoppages produced immense change in NBA and NFL landscapes. The NBA completely revamped its business model, amnestying almost $342 million worth of contracts and adding jersey patch sponsorships to try to rake in an additional $100 million. The NFL made drastic changes as well. Rookie contracts were growing faster than Rex Ryan’s waistline (shoutout to Rex for dropping over 100 lbs this summer) but now these contracts are scaled. Even star players in the NFL have trouble demanding sizable contracts (remember the Drew Brees saga?). Meanwhile, the Houston Astros signed Carlos Lee to a 6 year/$100 million contract (in 2006) that was twice the size of the Red Sox's David Ortiz’s contract that same fall. When you have a chance to lock up a guy that’s half as good as David Ortiz for twice the money, you have to do it, right?

More troubling is that MLB salaries don’t correspond with baseball’s popularity. The NFL has the lowest average salary despite the best fan attendance and largest television audiences in the 4 major sports. NBA players enjoy much greater endorsement contracts than their peers in MLB and they can’t demand the salary that MLB players take for an afterthought. Consider, the top 10 compensated athletes in MLB and the NBA:

• 90% of the $250 million earned by the top 10 MLB players in 2012 was from salary
• 61% of the $308 million earned by the top 10 NBA players in 2012 was from salary
• These NBA players earned $120 million in endorsements or 380% more their peers in MLB
• NBA endorsement money is equal to 53% of the salary made by MLB’s top 10

The posterchild for baseball money is the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez and he demonstrates the salary/popularity mismatch. Rodriguez, the highest paid player in MLB, has signed two contracts totaling over half a billion (that’s with a b) in salary. However, A-Rod only made $3.5 million in endorsements last year (I love putting "only" before an amount in the millions…). In contrast, Kobe Bryant, the NBA’s highest paid player in 2011, collected $28 million in endorsements. MLB stars like the Minnesota Twin's Joe Mauer who are not tainted by the specter of steroid aren’t that marketable either, Mauer pulled down $2.75 million in endorsements last year.

I bring up endorsements as a way of gauging popularity because I’m not sure the American sporting public will miss baseball if a work stoppage is imminent. The NBA and NFL are stocked with stars that marketers and the public enjoy courting and even that level of popularity wasn’t enough to derail work stoppages in each sport last fall. Maybe baseball owners are wealthier than owners in the other sports so they don’t care that their business model doesn’t look as endurable as the other major sports. One thing is certain, when it comes to giving $100 million contracts, MLB owners have less restraint than Christian Grey in his red room of pain. Only time will tell if fans can free themselves from these seductive billionaires.