This One Takes The Cake

Of all the ridiculous contracts handed out to NFL players, this one's the worst. Tampa Bay inked WR Michael Clayton to a 5 year - $26 million deal. Yup, the same guy who killed your fantasy team a few years ago. After a sweet rookie year, he's basically been Todd Pinkston...but worse, much worse. Clayton's career numbers:

2004: 80 rec, 1193 yds, 7 tds
2005: 32 rec, 372 yds, 0 tds
2006: 33 rec, 356 yds, 1 td
2007: 22 rec, 301 yds, 0 tds
2008: 38 rec, 484 yds, 1 td

26 million dollars...awesome.

Buyer Beware?

Julius Peppers is turning slowly, but surly into a full-fledge knucklehead. About %99 of Packer fans would love to shower this guy will trainloads of cash to bolster the defense. I’m telling you…DON’T DO IT! Every week he’s giving me proof that he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.

1) 2007 - 2.5 sacks. 2008 – 14.5. I’ll give him a pass and chalk up 2007 as an off year. But scoring a career high during his contract year, hmmmmmm….

2) He wants nothing to do with Carolina, which seems like a pretty good situation. Went to college at UNC, the Panthers are a very solid organization, who finished 12-4 last year.

3) Immediately after the season, Peppers states his desire to play in a scheme that “showcases my talents,” I.E. play in a 3-4. Um, first off, I just mentioned he set a CAREER HIGH in sacks last year in a 4-3 defense. Second, he wants to be a 3-4 OLB and put up James Harrison/DeMarcus Ware sack numbers. That’s fine…if he wasn’t 6’7”, 290 pounds! Everyone says Kampman needs to shed 10-12 pounds for the shift to OLB. AK is 6-4, 265.

4) Today, he listed a mere 4 teams he would agree to join via trade. This isn’t baseball, NFL players don’t have no-trade clauses. Even if they did, why only give 4? Trading in the NFL seems hard enough (it rarely happens), why make it even harder?

5) Dallas is one of his desirables, the other 3 are unnamed. Why would you would want to join the Barnum and Bailey Circus in Dallas – I have no idea.

This was all summed up pretty well by CNNSI’s Don Banks a few weeks ago:

"We saw in 2007 how Peppers can drop off the radar screen when it comes to impact, and I don't think Carolina will take the chance there's either a protracted holdout coming or any repeat of his 2½-sack output of two years ago.

Peppers is an undeniable talent, but he can be maddeningly streaky, and now he says he wants to play in a 3-4 rather than a 4-3 defense (which some theorize is just posturing aimed at increasing his marketability). And even more puzzling, Peppers is making noise about playing outside linebacker in a 3-4 to best utilize his pass-rush skills. But outside linebackers aren't usually 285-290 pounds, are they?

Plenty of teams will come after Peppers hard -- maybe Denver or Seattle -- but I say buyer beware on this one. Something about Peppers' story just doesn't sit well."

In fact, Scout.com lists him as the 21st (yup 21st) most desirable free agent.

Buyer Beware, indeed.

I Thought Ted Never Spends Any Money?

I'd like to temper the excitement of delusional Packers fans who suggests Green Bay should go out an dump heaps of money to Albert Haynesworth, Terrell Suggs, Julius Peppers, Jordan Gross, Reggie White, CC Sabathia, etc... They can't. The common myth is that the Packers are boatloads of money under the cap. While they do have a nice chunk of change - it will shrink as soon as they extend Greg Jennings and Nick Collins.

Here's a list of available cap space in 2009 for every NFL team. The link has an explanation for each team, but I'll only show Green Bay's comments or this post becomes gigantic. From DraftSharks.com via FootballGuys.com.

** All 32 teams ranked by current salary cap space against the 2009 limit of $123 million per club. They are ranked from most cap room (Tampa) to least (NY Jets). These figures are not exact, but after weeks of exhaustive research at the NFLPA website, NFLMedia, ESPN, FOX, & local newspaper sites, they are pretty close. Detailed free agency & contract info included.

By John Miller, Draftsharks.com

1. Tampa Bay -- $42m under
2. Arizona -- $41m under
3. Denver -- $34m under
4. Kansas City -- $33m under
5. Tennessee -- $31m under
6. Miami -- $28m under
7. Buffalo -- $27m under
8. Detroit -- $26m under
9. San Francisco -- $26m under
10. Houston -- $25m under
11. Philadelphia -- $25m under
12. Cincinnati -- $22m under
13. New England -- $21m under
14. Minnesota -- $20m under
15. Atlanta -- $20m under
16. Pittsburgh -- $19m under
17. Baltimore -- $19m under
18. Chicago -- $19m under

19. Green Bay -- $18m under - Getting rid of Brett Favre and his $12 million salary for a 3rd-round pick turned out to be the right move. Then they signed Aaron Rodgers to a cap-friendly 6-year, $65 million deal on Oct. 31 – shoveling $12 million onto the 2008 cap before the league deadline. If they waited another 24 hours the entire pay increase would have to be treated as a signing bonus -- and pro-rated over the length of the contract for cap purposes. Now they have cap room to extend WR Greg Jennings, S Nick Collins, and S Atari Bigby.

20. Cleveland -- $17m under
21. Jacksonville -- $16m under
22. San Diego -- $14m under
23. New York Giants -- $11m under
24. Dallas -- $10m under
25. Carolina -- $9m under
26. Seattle -- $9m under
27. St. Louis -- $8m under
28. Oakland -- $4m under
29. Indianapolis -- $2m over
30. Washington -- $3m over
31. New Orleans -- $5m over
32. New York Jets -- $7m over

$160 Million Reasons not to sign CC

Ok...so it looks like it's a done deal. $160 Million over 7 freaking years. Good lord.

Good for CC. Good for any man really. Nobody knows the specifics of the contract or anything, but the big fella was basically handed a pen and told..."if you sign here, and don't retire or anything...uhhh...you get $160 Million dollars over the next 7 years." Quite frankly, there's not much you can do when you think about in simple terms.

And you know what? If I were running the Brewers, I would laugh at that figure. Melvin probably heard the offer, and sent a text to CC saying: "Thx for the ride, enjoy the money, take me out to lunch next time you're in town."

Let's play with the numbers some more. 7 years $160 Million. We've got Braun under contract for the next 7 years too...but at ONE FOURTH OF THE PRICE!

The Yankees wanted him. They got him. They overpaid for him. They can absorb the wasted money if he goes down.

The Brewers obviously wanted him. They made a damn good offer for a ridiculous price, and it wasn't enough. Even if CC would have taken our 5 year, $100 Million deal, he still would have accounted for 25% of our payroll. If he would have went down, the Brewers wouldn't have been able to absorb that kind of hit and their ability on the field would be severely diminished.

Am I happy CC won't be pitching for us anymore? Hell no. But I'm also realistic. Now that all this is over, I find myself actually breathing a small sigh of relief that he didn't take the deal. The risk was just too high. I want the Brewers to remain competitive every year. The thought of one player taking up such a huge chunk of payroll and then going down with injury would just be devastating.

Stay the course Doug & Mark. Keep the nucleus in place. Keep plugging in gaps with well priced veterans (see: Mike Lamb & Jason Coffey).

We now need 1 starter. Get to work.

CC staying here?

Last Friday, I received a phone call from a guy who told me that he heard that CC Sabathia approached the Brewers, and said he would resign with them for $100 million dollars over 4 years. I said, "no way, who is reporting that?" My guy said he knows a guy who knows a guy in the upper levels of the Brewers front office. CC approached the team with that figure, and that the team was in the process of working the numbers to find out if the deal was plausible.

Oh ok, "knows a guy that knows a guy." Whatever right? EVERYBODY knows that the Brewers had no chance at resigning CC right? Whenever the topic gets brought up, all that gets said is the Brewers have "no chance."

Well, looks like Buster Olney has heard some of the same rumors in some capacity.

Others in the Brewers' organization say Milwaukee owner Mark Attanasio will try to make it very difficult for Sabathia to leave -- maybe to the point of risking a colossal mistake.

Through a clear-eyed, fiscally responsible lens, the idea of Attanasio competing with a Yankee offer is probably a little nuts. If he were to give Sabathia $22 million to $25 million a year, for argument's sake, that would probably represent something in the range of 25 to 35 percent of the team's payroll -- and if Sabathia were to get hurt, well, his dead salary could become a debilitating albatross for a team with a mid-level budget.

So ok...there appear to be two ends of the spectrum here. We've got Doug Melvin vs Mark Attanasio...in a matter of speaking. Doug is conservative. Mark is aggressive.

Doug understands the economics of baseball and the danger of a mid-market team shoring up a third of the payroll on 1 player (albeit potentially the best pitcher in baseball who's in the prime of his career).

Mark understands economics in general, knowing that with CC here, the Brewers are a contender every year, and that will keep 3 million fans coming to Miller Park every year. If that's the case, the attendance pays for the player. Everybody knows the effect 1 playoff appearance does for a team's revenue stream. 1 year in the playoffs equals several years after of increased revenue from everything: merchandise, increased ticket-prices & parking, & tv advertising.

Is it a gamble? Hell yeah it is. It's not one that I'm qualified to answer, because basically, it all boils down to 1 thing: Will CC get hurt? Obviously, there's nobody that can answer that.

This story is probably the most interesting subplot of the offseason, and much more will be written about it, since it can't be fully analyzed in 1 blog post. I guess we can leave it at this for now. With Gagne not going to be re-signed, and if they deny Cameron's option, they DO have the money to sign him. But...WILL they actually sign him?

I guess it depends on how Mark A's 401K is looking in a month or so...

2007 Brewers Bullpen

2007 Brewers bullpen update:

Francisco Cordero: 11 saves in 13 opportunities, 2.28 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 28 K/14 walks for the Reds.

Scott Linebrink: 25 games, 1.13 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 18 K/5 walks for the White Sox.

Not saying that the Brewers should have paid the money that these guys ended up getting from the Reds and White Sox....but those are pretty good numbers, especially for Linebrink.

8 more years! 8 more years!

Ladies in Milwaukee...stock up on extra panties now!

The man, the myth, the legend that is Ryan Braun has officially been locked up by the Beermakers for a cool $45 million for 8 years, including the current season. I'm assuming they are going to restructure his current year payment, so essentially we got him for 5.625 Million a year.

This is just a great deal for everyone. Great for Braun, the team, management, & the fans. It's a good time to be a Brewer fan. EVERYONE should be excited about this deal. It's the largest in team history, and it's the biggest deal signed by one of the core position guys since Bill Hall signed two years ago.

I have indirectly stated before my thoughts on Ryan Braun. I'm a HUGE fan. I love the way he plays. I love the confidence. I love the swing. He gives great interviews. Loves the fans. Has no problem watching Corey Hart's kids on Friday night so Corey and his wife can sneak in dinner and a movie (or not).

I'm looking forward to the "Ryan Braun era." Assuming he maintains any sort of home run pace he is currently on and he plays out the entire contract, he is probably going to hit the most home runs in Brewer history. The sky is the limit. I expect big things, and I think he's ready for it.

BTW...baseball has funny economics. Bill Hall makes more money per year than Ryan Braun. I'm just saying...

We lost...but we really won...

If this is true baby!

The Brewers have locked up the best pure hitter on the planet to a record 7 year deal! Holy record amount & time of contract in Brewer history Batman!

Here's the most interesting line:

Braun has agreed to a seven-year contract extension that will be a record in terms of both length and money for the team and the industry.

Industry? What does that mean? We'll post more when we see the numbers.

However...I'll throw the first question out there...What's gonna happen to the Prince?