What is Too Much?

People constantly look at everything as too much. 

Bryce Harper for example, when you look at 13 years separately, it comes off as too long. If you look at the overall total of the price tag, it appears to be too much... but when you look at the second-half of that contract, by then 2nd-tier stars will be making $25 million a year. That deal actually was great for both. People penalize players for jumping teams all the time, but then the same people penalize players for wanting to stay in one place, which was his #1 objective in the contract negotiations. I do wonder about his durability, but if they get even 10 years of that 13 from him, that would be great. It has already energized the city, it appears to be a marriage made in heaven (Harper-Philly) while it will only attract more starts to Philly, who now has the money to start acting like the big market team that it is.

As recent as the holidays, I would never have declared myself a fan of Harper... but since the contract, I have been in his corner for many reasons.

I get sick of the old-school baseball fans knocking a contract, just because they don't understand something simple like inflation. Yes, I do understand that baseball players make more money than pretty much any average human does on any given year, but that has always been the case dating back to even Ty Cobb. I know that we will have a billion-dollar baseball contract inside these next 10 years, that's a given!

So I can't even tell you how elated I was to watch this morning's highlights of Bryce's epic return to D.C. -- facing off against his ex-teammates. I was so glad to watch go 3-for-5 with HR, 2B & 3 RBI in that game...

The HR blast, the bat flip, which I don't have any problems with after those pathetic, thankless, DC fans booed in the manner that they did... Do they forget that he was a major (if not THE major) reason that they were winners in the first place? Boo your owner, who was afraid to commit to Harper. Harper wanted his new contract to keep him in one place for the remainder of his career, Washington had every opportunity to do this, much like Philadelphia, the L.A. Dodgers and whoever else did. He could have grabbed the $45 million-a-year contract the Dodgers offered, but he didn't.

This is the same pathetic fan base that should have embraced winning when they had the chance, I do think they will be winners with new stars on the rise in Juan Soto and Victor Robles...
But keep in mind that this is a fan base that knows nothing but losing for Washington Baseball history, as well as nothing but losing for its badly-offensively named football franchise and its silly-nicknamed basketball franchise. They are losers, and the fan base only echoed these notions by their actions.

Plus the Nats voicing on twitter, only opened up a nice response by Phillies above.

The Angels made sure that Mike Trout didn't go anywhere (go to Philly or the Yankees), by extending his contract. So there won't be no Andrew McCutchen-Trout-Harper 2020 Phillies outfield as some was projecting, due to Trout being a lifelong Phillies fan prior to becoming a big leaguer. He's the biggest star in the game, while there is only a small handful of players all-time that have had maybe a greater start to their career. Unlike Angels' previous contract disasters this one should be a win-win.

The Atlanta Braves won big time by extending Ronald Acuna, Jr. This deal was truly amazing for Acuna and the Braves, this was a no-brainer for both... while keeping a bona fide superstar for years to come right in one place. Plus the Braves' farm system echoes that of the early 90's... this team could be championship contender for years to come. The prospects that they STILL have coming up are so talented, it makes sense to tie down the future MVP.

Now the Braves landed a steal of a deal in extending Ozzie Albies on top of that, with many from the players union and many former big leaguers scratching their heads on why Albies settled for such a small amount (7 years, $35 million). Maybe Albies knows as much as I do that the Braves may be the next dynasty in the making. The team has its best farm system in 20-25 years, and will make a lot of noise, much like those 90's Braves with prospects such as Mike Soroka, Kyle Wright, Ian Anderson, Cristian Apache, and Austin Riley to go along with young studs Acuna, Albies, Dansby Swanson & veteran leaders such as Freddie Freeman, Brian McCann, Josh Donaldson & Julio Teheran.

Extensions might start becoming the new norm, while the crusty people will lose their heads when that first superstar gets a billion-dollar contract inside this next decade.