Barry Zito: The best gig in sports
The Giants are paying Barry Zito $126 million over seven years.
Broken down, that’s $18 million a year. Broken down further, that’s
roughly $500,000 a start!
All I can say is Mr. Zito better have a hell of a great season.
Or better yet, a great run for the next several years. After all,
he is the highest paid pitcher in baseball history.
Barry Zito: The best gig in sports
The Giants are paying Barry Zito $126 million over seven years. Broken down, that’s $18 million a year. Broken down further, that’s roughly $500,000 a start!
All I can say is Mr. Zito better have a hell of a great season. Or better yet, a great run for the next several years. After all, he is the highest paid pitcher in baseball history.
Imagine what Nolan Ryan is thinking right now?
The bottom line is when you’re making enough money to buy a home in the Bay Area – for cash – every time, or at least every two times, that you take the mound, you’d better produce. There’s just not a whole lot of room for error with a contract that lucrative before anxious fans start engulfing the stadium with boos.
It’s one thing making this kind of money for playing an everyday position (even then it’s way too much), but Zito only has to show up to work once every four or five days, throw a 100 pitches and say see you later.
And think about this. Zito’s contract far surpasses the $90 million, five-year deal the Giants gave to Bonds after his record-setting 2001 season. No wonder Barry was in no rush to show up for training camp.
Here is Bonds, the guy who will one day be the No. 1 homerun hitter of all-time, the guy who put McCovey Cove on the map, making less money than Zito. It just doesn’t sound right, does it?
Previously, the largest contract for a pitcher was Mike Hampton’s $121 million, eight-year deal with the Colorado Rockies before the 2001 season.
Sure, Zito is a great pitcher and he’s proven to be extremely durable too. In fact, he has been among the most durable pitchers in the majors, making 34 or more starts and throwing 210 or more innings in six straight seasons. He also has never missed a start.
But look at his numbers last year with the A’s. He went 16-10 with a 3.83 ERA. Do those sound like $500,000 a start numbers? Before long, we’ll see bullpen catchers making $50,000 a warm-up session.
For his career Zito has a 102-63 career record with a 3.55 ERA. Granted, he won the 2002 AL Cy Young Award after going 23-5 but this guy is no Roger Clemens.
My question is when are these sky-high contracts going to stop. What’s most amazing about Zito’s is that it is only the sixth richest in the history of the sport.
A-Rod is in the middle of a $252 million-dollar deal. Derek Jeter is nearing the end of a nine-year $189 million-dollar deal with the Yankees. Manny Ramirez has the Red Sox accounting department on the hook for $160 million over seven years. Need I say more?
With numbers like those it won’t be long before you’re paying $15 for a hot dog and $50 to park. This money has to be made up somewhere.
I just think it’s all getting completely out of hand and has to stop at some point. Tiger Woods makes more money than this, yes, but then again he’s doing it all himself. He’s not relying on the eight other guys in the field to make plays. And if Tiger Woods misses a cut, guess what? He gets nothing. Zito makes $500,000 a game even if he gets rocked. For any contract this big there should be some sort of performance clause that works in reverse too, not the typical ones that only kick in when these guys have good years.
I just think these professional salaries are truly getting asinine. Then again, I suppose I wouldn’t be complaining at all if the pay for a sports editor were comparable.
