I'm sure the agents and players are FAR too simple to look at time-value of money concepts. Wait, those are taught in high school? :hmmm:

The bolded part is the relevant word.

I can be based on duration, not based on skill. It's a very stupid rule, but it is what it is.

MLB contracts do not allow for performance-based incentives.

Ya ok... Lets pretend that another player isn't going to be signed with the money saved for the early years and that teams don't have individual salary caps.

For decades general managers in all major sports have been back-loading contracts (including the most successful in every single one of them).

Who'da thunk that they've been doing it wrong all this time? I mean hell, not only the GMs, but the billionaire owners their authorize their actions and the highly paid legal and financial consultants that are scattered throughout their respective organizations.

Thankfully some guy with the economic training of a house-cat is here to straighten them all out.

jcrasnickJerry Crasnick

Source says Pujols continues to negotiate with clubs other than #Cardinals. But Albert will not be going to Florida.

Exactly, especially someone who lived on backloaded contracts like Jim Hendry. Sure did him and his organization a lot of good. He got fired and the team went bankrupt.

Just as long as you'll continue to ignore that you're talking about a completely different analysis.

How to contract is structured is completely different than how the money intelligently saved should thereafter be spent.

Then again, I already mentioned that and you ignored it. Besides; don't you think the $9 million the Cardinals spent on Berkman this season due to deferred payments owed to Holliday, Lohse and Westbrook more than paid for itself through the World Series they won this year? So even if you want to consider money re-spent, that's an investment in its own right.

Oh yeah, and just keep on ignoring the fact that payroll in baseball has been rising by about 5% annually on balance, as though that's not relevant at all. Nor is the fact that revenue is increasing at a similar clip. That perhaps pushing off the real-time cost of a player will be off-set by commensurate increases in revenue streams such as television, advertising and ticket sales, once again greatly diminishing the 'real dollars' spent on the contract.

You keep looking at this through the eyes of a kindergartner if you'd like, but you're just dead-ass wrong here and by literally every logical analysis.

Wish Pooholes would hurry the hell up. He's had two years to do this shit, and now is holding up all the other deals till his is finalized. Got some Farve in him

Pujols is just waiting to schedule his special with ESPN to announce his decision.

He got fired and his team went bankrupt because he was an idiot and signed Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano. He got fired because he overspent on bad players, not because of how he structured the contracts.

Once again - do you care to explain to me how giving Alphonso Soriano $90 million over the last 5 years would've made more sense than giving him $76 million over the same time period?

Or are you just going to continue to ignore facts, logic and reason?

Go ahead and tell me why there are no GMs in MLB giving front-loaded contracts? Is every single GM and billionaire owner in this league completely economically inept? Hell, have none of them been bright enough to consult an economist?

Other way around. The Cardinals had 2 years to do this.

Cardinals low balled him and he laughed at it. They never budged from that offer and here is he making other teams have the Cardinals step up.

John Lackey.
Alex Rodriguez.

How many teams do you see offering 10 years to a 31yr old?

Who refused to negotiate once the season started? The Cardinals?

...

Who refused to increase their offer after the best player in baseball said no?

Because his agent insisted on it, not because the Red Sox did.

Look at Adrian Gonzalez - minor backload.
Crawford - fairly significant backload
Beckett - Backloaded in his original deal, static in his new one
Youkilis - backloaded
Pedroia - heavily backloaded
Lester - heavily backloaded

Yeah - looks like Epstein makes it a habit of backloading those deals because they make a lot of economic sense...

Oh wait, John Lackey was a free agent with several suitors and his agent insisted on more money up front for a slightly lower AAV.

Stupid !@#$ing facts. Why do they have go to making your argument look stupid all the time...