The Dipsy

If Contreras retires I don’t believe his salary counts. However,f he gets paid anyway why retire?

Blanton won’t be tradeable until he proves his health. Then, perhaps, a package deal would work and Amaro might not have to eat so much salary. I doubt, however, that Oswalt will even be available mid-season. He’ll likely sign with the Cards at a cut rate before he’ll sit out half the season.

As a consultant, Utley would not be on the roster, and anything he was paid at that time could not be averaged for the luxury tax. Only that front loaded part would count, and that isn’t much less than his current AAV.

Also, How did you arrive at the 11m figure, by percentage? I’m not challenging it, I have no idea what it should be. Just curious.

It would be useless to hope that Contreras doesn’t come back. If he’s injured all year, he gets paid anyway.

1. If the goal is to get rid of Blanton, would it be better to package him with one of the ‘Pig Pen arms now and get someone to eat most of his salary in return, or wait and see if he gets off to a good start, trade him alone and eat half of the salary. But, if he does get off to a good start, would it be better to keep him around all year, or try to dump him midseason, and use part of the salary savings to see if Oswalt would pull a 2009 Pedro and come back for a partial season on a low salary?

2. Going by AAV, if the Phillies signed Utley to a (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) 10 year, front-loaded extension for a base of $60 million, that would push his AAV down considerably, right? Perhaps most of the money could be paid in the first 4 years, with a $1 million annual base salary after that, with huge plate appearance bonuses, just in case he’s actually still playing after 4 more years. And if he isn’t, he becomes a $1 mill/year “consultant.”

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlNFQRpCbkZAdFU2MUlmZlJ5T1BRS2JsZTZWUVA3Q2c

You get two weeks vacation for the December holidays boys, enjoy it and stay in shape!

Yadier Molina, one of the best catchers in the game, signed for 4yrs./ 15.5 in 2008. I don’t think Chooch is being vastly underpaid. He’s my favorite Phillie, but 3/8.85 isn’t too bad in comparison with Molina. It’s about 900,000 AAV less.

“Payrolls are for 40-man rosters and include averages of multiyear contracts; health and pension benefits; clubs medical costs; insurance; workman’s compensation, payroll, unemployment and Social Security taxes; spring training allowances; meal and tip money; All-Star game expenses; travel and moving expenses; postseason pay; and college scholarships.”

Under these circumstances the Phillies are likely already well over the threshold. That’s 15 more players being paid minor league contracts right? I suppose there is no rule requiring that you carry all 40 players on the 40 man, you could cut costs by carrying 38. But In that case you’d be exposing a couple of players.

These are projections and not the final figures. There’s no way to really predict which bonuses will be attained yet, and although some of them seem attainable, DFAs and trades also happen, some of which can change the budget picture even more drastically than a Cy Young bonus. Injuries also happen, often preventing some of these bonuses.

Patti Piersol:

I agree. Carlos Ruiz is probably the most underpaid catcher in the league.

Pat Gallen:

I see you’ve updated the Kendrick pay. I didn’t think you’d let that one go by.