We will get to the hoopla surrounding the Super Bowl later in this week’s column, as I want to tackle an issue that got buried in the hype of the big game: Johan Santana, best known for his multiple Cy Youngs with the Minnesota Twins, signed a six-year $137.5 million deal with the New York Mets.
The fallout from the deal has led to Armageddon with loyal Indians fans. With Santana getting this many years, and the option to make up to $150 million with extensions and incentives, it now seems impossible that Tribe ace C.C. Sabathia will stay with the team when his contract is up after the 2008 season.
Basically, the fear is that the middle-market teams – even successful ones like Minnesota – are being priced out by the upper financial echelon of the league. And that upper crust isn’t just the Yankees and BoSox. Remember that Santana’s large deal wouldn’t have seemed workable just two seasons ago. But after Barry Zito inked a seven-year $126 million deal with the San Francisco Giants, the price for so-called left-handed aces continued its Wonkavator trend of going straight through the roof.
So here’s the bad news: Sabathia compares more than favorably to Santana. At 28, Santana is actually a year older than C.C but he has less wins (100 for C.C. to 93 for Santana). Santana has a better overall winning percentage (67.8 percent to 61.3 percent), but an argument can easily be made that he’s played on better teams. Moreover, the argument that C.C. has been anything but clutch in the postseason doesn’t hold water: Santana has been an underwhelming 1-3 in the playoffs.
No two pro sports contract situations are the same, but if you could draw similar blue prints for MLB deals, C.C. and Santana would be a great model.
The good news is smaller but available. One, Santana is out of the Indians’ division, which is great. Many will note that the Tribe went 5-0 against him last season, but to expect another season like that would be silly. Santana is one of the five best pitchers in the league, so his exit makes the division a little easier to play in. The Twins constantly find ways to rebuild, but this should help make them a non-factor for at least 2008.
The other thing that could be turned into good news is what I call the fail factor. If Santana has a tough season he will earn boos from the New York faithful; that’s what they do. If Santana fails it will be coupled with the fact that Zito has been a bust for the Giants (11-13 with a 4.53 ERA in ’07). With two $100-million contracts for left handers failing in two seasons maybe fiscal responsibility will return to the league.
Finally, C.C. wants to stay in Cleveland. At least Public C.C. does. There is no way of knowing where his heart truly is, but he is clearly a passionate guy who wants to have a legacy. He’s already built one here in Cleveland, and another serious run at the championship might help dig his roots a little deeper into Indian soil.
Overall, the potential to keep C.C. took a big hit when Santana signed his contract. There are no sure things in sports except the death of dynasties and higher beer prices, but the desire of the big lefty to stay in Cleveland probably won’t match the desire to have a diamond-studded checkbook. I would caution young C.C. with tales of Jim Thome, another fan favorite who took the money and ran, but know that it won’t do any good. Perhaps 2008 will be the year that C.C. grows into a postseason pitcher and the Tribe wins it all. If that’s the case, we should enjoy the ride because it might be our last one with the big guy as our ace.
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Though I haven’t been able to give you much notebook information lately, I was able to scribble a few thoughts on one of the finest Super Bowls of our generation. Here are those notes, which will hereafter be known as MoneyMike’s Super Bowl Notebook:
Super Bowl XLII: I have long loathed use of the word unbelievable in sports media and last night’s game was the reason why. Unbelievable is often used to describe something that is amazing, but readily believable (LeBron James’ dunks are usually, ‘UN-B-elievable’ to cable broadcasters, yet he has one nearly every game so I’ve decided to just believe in them).
That said, I fell pray to my own pet peeve in describing the Giants’ 17-14 win in the Super Bowl. I literally could not believe what happened. In the Patriots last drive I refused to believe that Tom Brady was sacked, expecting a roughing the passer penalty to somehow just appear during the timeout. During the final prayer throws to Randy Moss I felt the same way, expecting a pass interference flag to pop out on two relatively clean plays.
Even after the Giants took the last snap of the game I wholeheartedly believed that something would stop the game from ending without the Patriots winning – perhaps the Sith Lord blowing up the field or Tom Brady running onto the field and stealing the ball from Eli Manning.
Truly, truly unbelievable.
On the Patriots legacy: The Pats went 16-0 in the regular season and destroyed the record book. Tom Brady went from (this is my opinion and I regularly get blasted for it, but I believe it to be true) a good quarterback on a great defensive team to a great quarterback carrying an old defense. But will this Super Bowl loss be the end of the Dark Empire or will it be a building block for the next step of evil?
The loss, which was surely stinging for obvious reasons, will have a hangover effect like no loss before it. If you can find any opposing fan who will talk about the Patriots’ legacy without mentioning this loss then you are talking to a fan not fully trained in the vicious art of verbal sports assassination. What’s worse for the Pats is ‘Spygate’ (I have to put the quotes around it because I hate that’s it’s called this. Here’s a newsflash: This story is not quite equal to Watergate. In fact, few other scandals involved a U.S. president, so we should start being a little more creative with our scandal names. From here on out I’m calling the consistent use of gate in scandals lack-of-creativitygate), seems to be coming to a head. Fairly or unfairly, the offseason will be filled with questions not only of how the Patriots failed, but if they could have ever won without cheating.
To make matters worse, Randy Moss will be a free agent and his record-breaking season will make him feel as though he’s earned a high price tag – despite the fact that he will deal with another off-the-field legal issue this year.
On line play: Despite open hatred for the Patriots I have long been able to concede two things: They had the best offense in the league and that stemmed from having one of the best lines in NFL history. In loss I would love to revoke both claims and, like a child, stick my tongue out and say, ‘Nah, nah,’ but I cannot. The Patriots’ offensive line is truly one of the greatest ever.
That said, the Giants were regularly able to confuse the Pats with a four-man rush. Mixing powerful end play with occasional speed rushes and delayed stunts, the Giants simply out-manned the Patriots five- and sometimes six-man offensive line. When this game gets played on NFL films – and it will be a regular replay very soon – I want you to watch the way New York’s front four handled the Pats’ line. It was believable, but quite amazing.
On the Manning legacy: It may have been safe to say before, but it now seems more than obvious to say that the highest pedigree in the NFL goes to the Manning family. With back-to-back Super Bowl wins from Peyton and Eli, and a father who is a legend in his own right, I find it difficult to find another family that can even make a legitimate argument for their namesake. In fact, I’m contemplating a column comparing the Mannings to the other great family names in sports (the Griffeys in baseball, for example) to see if they are the greatest family in sports. If you are a loyal S*KM reader then I know you are guilty of having more free time than a death row inmate. Think of some great sports families and let me know why they compare with the Mannings.
More ads: With brother Eli the MVP of the big game, I’m wondering if Peyton will somehow turn this moment into more commercial work for himself. A possible set up might be a 30-second clip of all the times they showed Peyton in his seat last night followed by this sound bite: “Winning Super Bowl XLI: $15 million in endorsements. Another pass-heavy NFL season: $10 million in endorsements. Watching your little brother win a Super Bowl earlier in his career than you did: Priceless (and by priceless I mean you get a life filled with brothers with Super Bowl rings-themed commercial spots)
A final thought on Super Bowl XLII: The tests have not been scientific in nature, but don’t you think that those testing the theory of playing the end of the NFL season have won out against the theory of resting your starters?
This year the Colts and Buccaneers were the two teams that fully tested the resting theory – neither team played with any thought of consequence in the last week of the season – and the Giants tested the theory of going all out. The results say something, though I don’t know what: The Colts and Bucs went 0-2 in the playoffs; the Giants went 4-0. Again, the study is not scientific, but there is something there.
Next Week: With football gone I can give the Cavs’ midseason report card. Here’s a hint on how it will turn out: LeBron James is probably going to get a better grade than Shannon Brown.
-MoneyMike is the S*KM’s biggest Eli Manning fan. He is also pretty down with Brandon Jacobs.
I would like to say that they Manning sack-no wait a second he got loose-no nevermind, seymour has him-no wait, he spun out and launches it downfield play may very well go down as the single greatest Super Bowl play ever considering when it happened and the ramifications of getting that long first down with 40 seconds left.
Also, I would like to say congrats to Awful for the Super Bowl. At least this one won’t be tainted my friend. I love it.
You sure to love to overblow everything… C.C. doesn’t leave until after this season; calm down.
Miles’s Boy:
“… it now seems impossible that Tribe ace C.C. Sabathia will stay with the team when his contract is up after the 2008 season.”
You sure love to misconstrue things; learn to read.
MoneyMike:
I know a guy who could, not only play leftfield, but, teach CC a thing or two about loyalty to the Tribe, if need be. What do you think?
I can take a loss like a man.
New York was the much better team on Sunday, you can’t dispute that.
The New York front four were the real MVP’s of the game.
Eli Manning? Where the fuck did that come from?
I was really upset at the loss, but I wasn’t crushed. I can handle it when my team gets outplayed. The Patriots didn’t really shoot themselves in the foot, they just got beat. I can handle that.