Why did the eggplant cross the road?Which came first, the eggplant or the egg?
And, why is Randy Johnson still pitching? Inquiring minds want to know.
There was a time when the very thought of facing Diamondbacks hurler Randy Johnson would cause opposing batters to lose sleep. Nail-biting, bed wetting, facial tics and other bad behaviors were not uncommon. Sometimes whole teams would face the lanky fireballer with terrified deer-in-the-headlights faces that begged “mercy.”
This year, he is making 15 million dollars. To do what? He finally broke a six game losing streak (yippee) and does still throw strikeouts, but man, once you have an ERA over 5, what are you doing on the mound? At what point do you hang up your cleats?
OK, maybe I'm being harsh. And maybe that’s partly the problem with baseball today. Are there too many teams and not enough pitchers to go around?
Former Cleveland Indians pitcher Herb Score once said that any pitcher with an ERA over 3.00 should not be playing. He was roundly criticized, since that is what most pitchers in the game are doing. To be merciful, it should be noted that adjustments have been made in recent decades to give hitters more advantages. Nevertheless, look at the dollars some of these guys are getting?
That fifteen million dollar salary has to be embarrassing to lug around. But then, baseball today is full of these kinds of salaries with performance that has only limited relationship. Pick a team at random, for example the Toronto Blue Jays, and look at their pitchers. Here’s a guy named A.J. Burnett – and believe me I'm not picking on him… I do not even know a thing about him, though a Google search will yield truckloads, no doubt – and I see here that he is making 13.2 million dollars this year. He is 31 years old and is, essentially, getting mediocre results this season. He’s won eight games and lost eight games. In his last ten he’s been bombed three times where he actually gave up eight runs before they took him out of the game. That’s gotta be embarrassing. But the paycheck… how can they give these guys so much money to be average? His 4.92 ERA puts him…
Hold the line. I see he throws strikeouts. Like, a lot of them. I guess he gets a few points for that. But I thought the aim was to actually not give up any runs.
Alas, there may be another side to this story. If so, your intrepid reporter will endeavor to keep you in the loop. Keep your eye on the ball.
5 comments:
>>>>>>>Burning Questions
1. Are the US/Israel really insane enough to attack Iran on rumors that Iran might be gonna get nukes some time in the future?
2. What will happen to oil and food prices when the US/Israel attack Iran?
3. What are the poor people in the cold countries going to do this coming winter if they have no jobs, insufficient heat or no shelter at all, and not enough food to stay alive?
Well, yes, those are good questions, too.
Doesn't have much to do with America's "favorite pastime" but they're relevant.
Keeping my eye on the ball.
May I remind you that the topic of your post was "Burning Questions", by the way, not "America's favorite pastime". I cut and pasted the title of your post, and responded to it.
You yourself included questions such as the following, which have nothing to do with America's "favorite pastime", either, though they are perhaps more relevant to the "Burning questions" topic than mine were:
"Why did the eggplant cross the road?
Which came first, the eggplant or the egg?"
Keep your eye on the ball, indeed.
Actually, the title of the post was Burning Questions, but the topic was baseball salaries and how the game has changed. It is strange to see the salary for the New York Yankees exceed two hundred million dollars, which must exceed the GNP for some of the world's poorest countries. (I am speculating here, without stats in hand.)
Nevertheless, the burning questions these days are many, and your questions above are not irrelevant.
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