04/18/24
November 17, 2014
Penny-pinching, no more!:
The Miami Marlins have signed their slugging star Giancarlo (don't call me Mike) Stanton to a 13-year, $325million contract.
Too long? Too expensive? There are some who would say:
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.*
But perhaps enough of a team might be built around Stanton so that:
The self-same moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.*
There are a few, and have been many in the past, who not only deserve such a contract but also can play so as to deserve it. Stanton seems to be one, as is Trout. The big worry is injury, but I'm sure there are injury clauses built into these contracts, and insurance is available.
* Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
posted by Howard_T at 03:20 PM on November 17, 2014
The big worry is injury, but I'm sure there are injury clauses built into these contracts, and insurance is available.
There is always insurance, but I'm not hearing any talk about "milestones" for any of the money he is getting, so it's probably just "get paid for living", and if he doesn't play because of injury, then the insurance covers some of it.
posted by grum@work at 03:32 PM on November 17, 2014
Dang, Howard has done won the literary reference wars this rainy evening.
Encountering Coleridge was where I found out that the word "soporific" had nothing to do with hygeine.
posted by beaverboard at 08:54 PM on November 17, 2014
Surely that poem is more relevant to the Seattle-based baseball franchise?
posted by owlhouse at 03:02 AM on November 18, 2014
Surely it was written by Bruce Dickinson, not Coleridge. At some point I need to finish Richard Holmes two-volume bio to see if Dickinson gets a mention.
I highly recommend Holmes' The Age of Wonder to all you nerds
posted by yerfatma at 08:21 AM on November 18, 2014
Kevin Bacon, fuggetaboudit. SpoFi rules. Loria to Holmes in just six posts.
posted by beaverboard at 09:41 AM on November 18, 2014
If anyone is old enough to remember Dick Stuart's days as the Boston Red Sox 1st baseman, they might also recall that Coleridge's words were also applied to him for his lack of prowess with the glove:
"There was an ancient mariner and he stoppeth one of three."
Only on SpoFi can one write a comment containing references such as these and actually find that most readers actually understand it. I love this place!
posted by Howard_T at 05:13 PM on November 18, 2014
Not old enough but I still remember he was called "The Boston Strangler" for the same reason.
posted by yerfatma at 09:30 AM on November 19, 2014
I've read there is an opt-out in 2019 or 2020 in the deal, which makes oodles of sense getting this deep into bed with Jeffrey Loria. If his end goal was the money, he got there, but if consistently being on a competitive team matters to him, he's perhaps got the leverage to make that happen.
It's hard to imagine with Loria's track record he's going to consistently have someone behind him in the lineup that strikes enough fear for teams to consistently give him eminently hittable pitches.
This also makes Mike Trout's deal even more of a steal for the Angels, considering he's a better player on a similar arbitration-avoiding deal for about $1m/year less til 2020, when in theory they both could be free agents.