※ [本文轉錄自 Rockies 看板 #1CzC3HZ7 ]
作者: ygjhsu (杰) 看板: Rockies
標題: [討論] Tulowitzki’s big-dollar deal is a big mistake
時間: Tue Nov 30 17:15:58 2010
http://0rz.tw/tJZ97
Tulowitzki’s big-dollar deal is a big mistake
這標題...
Troy Tulowitzki didn’t want to be Alex Rodriguez. He didn’t want to be
Nomar Garciaparra, either. So he carved his own path.
The wrong one.
Far be it from anyone to impugn a man who Monday agreed to a contract
extension that will pay him nearly $160 million over the next 10 years. The
Colorado Rockies are lavishing Tulowitzki with an obscene amount of money. He
loves Denver. In that vacuum, the deal makes all the sense in the world.
這個用字...
What could’ve been, though. Oh, what could’ve been. On one hand, Tulowitzki
played things safe. He was reasonable. And on the other, he lacked the
fortitude to chase the greater glory that awaited him elsewhere. The money he
could’ve gotten and the championships he could’ve won had he simply played
out his current contract with the franchise that can’t help itself from
taking a blade to its jugular.
If this deal is bad for Tulowitzki, it’s ill-conceived and unconscionable
for a Rockies team that knows what long-term, big-money contracts do to
franchises with middling budgets: cripple them. And even if Tulowitzki is the
anti-Mike Hampton, and even if he can stay healthy like Todd Helton couldn’t,
and even if he is the do-everything, all-world, good-guy shortstop, heir to
Derek Jeter, he still leaves the Rockies in a compromised position:
with limited money to spend on the other pieces and parts that would comprise
an annual contender.
Tulo只能比Jeter??
The Rockies operate with a payroll of around $80 million. Last year, it was
$5 million more, the year before $3 million less. Tulowitzki’s contract
extension adds six years and $119 million onto the end of his current deal,
which, including a 2014 option, was to pay him $38.75 million. So, starting
in 2015, when Tulowitzki will be 30, the Rockies will give him nearly $20
million a year.
“If there’s a guy to spend a quarter of your payroll on, he’s it,” said a
GM of a low-revenue team, “but you just don’t spend a quarter of your
payroll on anyone. Period.”
簡樸球隊GM表示："花1/4球隊薪水在一個球員身上，謀摳零。"
The Rockies ignored that rule again, indulging in the prototypical shortstop:
amazing with bat and glove, a born leader, the sort over whom the New York
Yankees and Boston Red Sox and every other team with pockets deep and shallow
would swoon. By turning down the opportunity to hit free agency after 2014,
Tulowitzki potentially left millions of dollars on the table. He certainly
left the opportunity to play for franchises that need not operate with tight
margins because of one man’s deal.
對Tulo來說，他失去了原本2014年季末可以從豪門球隊拿到的大筆鈔票。也失去了加入
豪門球隊的機會。
The run on which the Rockies have gone since Tulowitzki arrived in 2007
certainly imbued him with the confidence that Colorado can mimic the
traditional powers’ playoff prowess. Tulowitzki played in the World Series
as a rookie. He made the playoffs again two years later. His 15-homer
September this year pushed Colorado to the precipice again.
從Tulo加入之後，他在這支球隊所經歷的一切讓他產生這是一支傳統強權的錯覺。
And yet Rockies executives admit that attaining such success with Helton’s
albatross nine-year, $141.5 million deal took an incredible confluence of
timing and luck. Locking up any other players of significance became an
impossibility. With attendance unlikely to return to the halcyon late ’90s,
new revenue streams to support such deals are almost impossible to come by.
The jump to a $100 million payroll isn’t happening.
但是洛磯高層也承認，過去三年的成功實在是有點僥倖。在簽下Tulo之後，要期待球迷
大量增加幾乎不太可能。因此，球隊payroll也不會增加到100M。無法綁住其他重要球員
(如UBall、CarGo等等)
So as the Rockies celebrate Tulowitzki’s new deal, they do so knowing that
Ubaldo Jimenez(notes) is now likely to leave after the 2014 season. And that
Carlos Gonzalez(notes), a Scott Boras client, is certain to do so. And that
rather than waiting until 2014 to figure out where to spend their money, the
team went all-in on a player who has missed significant time in two of his
four seasons because of injuries.
這麼說來，洛磯是把所有賭注都放在一個過去四年有兩年長期缺陣的球員身上。
The security of the Rockies picking up that $15 million option, then tacking
$119 million onto it, overwhelmed Tulowitzki, enough not to chase his A-Rod
moment. If he were to have thrived these next four seasons and entered free
agency at 30 and the game’s best shortstop, a $200 million deal would’ve
been possible.
Tulo:哭哭 當不成A-Rod了。
Except there was Nomar. His career that died at 35, and never did he make
more than $11.5 million in a season. And Hanley Ramirez(notes), the other
contender for best shortstop alive, signed away three years of free agency to
the Florida Marlins for only $46.5 million. Suddenly, close to $20 million a
year didn’t look so bad, not in such a great city with such great fans.
This is a marriage of convenience, though, a rarity in sports with good
reason: rarely do they turn out well. Even the model for great long-term
deals, Jeter’s 10-year, $189 million contract with the Yankees, comes with a
warning label. Over the life of the deal, even after splurging on $1.6
billion worth of contracts on top of Jeter’s deal, the Yankees won only one
World Series.
又被拿出來跟Jeter比。Jeter:"10年'只'拿一座世界大賽冠軍 怪我囉?"
The Rockies may spend half that, and even though general manager Dan O’Dowd
and his lieutenants Bill Schmidt and Bill Geivett do a commendable job
finding cheap talent and securing it to reasonable contracts, sustaining that
for a decade is Sisyphean. It took O’Dowd, after all, nearly a decade to
turn the Rockies from perpetual losers into a franchise worth emulating.
And what mummified the team for all those years? The contracts of Hampton and
Helton, of course.
落磯花了10年振作，這中間最大的障礙當然是Hampton跟Helton地長約。
So here’s to both sides enjoying the love-in while they can. Tulo got paid.
The Rockies got their man. It would be such a great happily-ever-after story
if only the ending were happy.
現在還是蜜月期。Tulo拿到大約，洛磯綁住他們的臉。王子與公主能不能過著幸福美滿的
生活，你得翻到最後一頁才知道。