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Leaving $$$ on the table

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by JackReacher, Dec 14, 2010.

  1. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    Cliff Lee is an idiot if he looks at his bank and investment accounts in 2016 and he's unhappy. This is not nuclear physics.
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    If he's paid less than he's worth (also factoring in mitigating circumstances like location and preference to pitch in one league or another, for example), then he should be unhappy, regardless of how impressive the zeroes look to us middle-classers.

    Life does not have a salary cap.
     
  3. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Exactly. The idea was to give players a choice, and Lee got that. He had the Yankees and Rangers tripping all over themselves in pursuit of his services and landed exactly where he wanted to be. And even though he didn't grab up every penny he could, the guy still got a huge payday. Nothing at all wrong with that.
     
  4. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    Exactly. The man exercised his right to choose where he works and the strong AAV protects his fellow players. Good deal.
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm always surprised at how anti-union this site can be.

    That's not a value judgment, even though I think it's clear which side of the fence I stand on.

    In a way, it's praise for journalists, who are accused of being "liberal" so often, but actually seem to be independent thinkers.
     
  6. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    Paid less than he's worth? Surely you can't be serious.

    If you take the salaries of all the players in MLB and cut them in half, 99.99 percent of them are obscenely overpaid. If you take those reduced salaries and cut them in half again, 99.99 percent are still overpaid. Take those twice-reduced salaries and cut them in half again, 99.99 percent . . .
     
  7. We're not talking about a guy turning down a $50,000 a year job To stay at his minimum wage gig at McDonald's here. Is there really anything you can't do with $120 million that you could have done with $160? Even as a Phillies fanboi let's not make Lee out to be some kind of Messiah here.
     
  8. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Give $40 million to charity? Spread $40 million around to help fulfill the dreams of extended friends and families? Spend $40 million to start a business?

    Bottom line: Lee took less money than he is worth to sign with Philadelphia.
     
  9. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Baseball history suggests Lee's deal will have little to no impact on other union member salaries. There are many cases of players accepting less than total maximum dollar deals to go to or remain with a team they were happy playing for. A Phillie, Mike Schmidt, is one example, Kirby Puckett another. Both got big money, but could have made more.
    By the same token, there will always be star players greedy/competitive (mostly the latter) enough to seek the most money possible in free agency, and those guys will drive the market as they always have.
    When the law of supply and demand is in its favor, individual player salary decisions will not drive the economics of the union.
    "Overpaid" is a value judgment which, for better or worse, America as a society does not make, or at least, doesn't act on its judgments.
     
  10. JC

    JC Well-Known Member

    So what? He is not obligated to take the highest bid, his obligation is to is family and himself, not what some labor lawyer on a message board might think
     
  11. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    Its simplistic to say that Lee taking less money to sign with Phils will hurt the overall players marketplace.

    Neither the agents/player reps nor the owners are that stupid. The value of Cliff Lee's services were dictated by the marketplace and the marketplace placed his value at $160 over 7 years. The fact that he took less does not diminish the value that was determined by the marketplace.

    In future negotiations, agents will cite the highest offer to indicate the market value for the top pitcher in 2010, not the amount he signed for. Both the players' reps and the owners' reps know the reality.
     
  12. JC

    JC Well-Known Member

    Bingo
     
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