from Amazon
Monday, October 20, 2008
Mark Ellis
Why did Mark Ellis give the Oakland A’s millions of dollars in free agent money, when he’s already given them millions of dollars in arbitration and slave-wages money? Will Mark Ellis go down as the one player in my generation who has earned the least amount of money for a player of his talent level (which is well above average)? Is there anyone in any sport who can even come close? At least Marian Hossa turned down a 12-yr deal that would have made him the second-highest paid player in the NHL for a one-year deal with the defending Cup champions, and he’ll be a free agent at 30 years old. Ellis will be 34/35 years old once this new ridiculous deal is set to expire.
Or, was his surgery so risky that this is the best he could do? Why in the world would he not let the market dictate how much his surgery cost him? At the very least, he could have told the A’s: “Whatever the market bears, I’ll take 1 year off and 1MM per year off”. To do what he did was simply irresponsible to the player market, and the MLBPA must be having a fit right now. As are all other middle infielders.
The only question is if the other 29 GMs are upset at not having a crack at Mark Ellis, or elated that Billy Beane could have managed to set the market so low for players of Ellis’ high caliber.