One interesting point on Crawford....much of his value is defensive, but you don't really need much of a defensive star in left field at Fenway.

Bet it's done tomorrow, since NY has gone to six years.

You can bet after the Red Sox haul that the Yankees will stop at nothing to get Lee. That's probably good for the Royals, as Texas is probably the best option, other than maybe the Jays. The Angels have money burning a hole in their pocket, any chance they'll go after Greinke? I haven't heard their name at all.

Ridiculous contracts for him and Werth. Crawford is a stud but not that damn good

Haven't seen a single report linking them to Greinke, but they owe us big for snaking Hunter at the last minute.

Its going to be crazy to see what Pujols is going to get.

That's what I was going to say.

Pujols is in an unusual category, however. It's not possible to overpay him because of the money that he's generated for the franchise AND the city. $30M per? Big deal. He brings in far, far more than that per year.

Honestly, he might be the only ML player who has achieved this type of Jordan status for what he means to an organization and city.

He'll get an ARod Rangers contract most likely

Crawford playing LF in fenway is a waste, why not play him in center

Ummm, I immediately knew that last sentence had to be wrong, so I checked. We spent about 516 million the last 10 years on payroll. The first part of the decade we were cheap and near the bottom averaging about 35-40. Last year we were at 71, which put us higher than about 1/3 of the teams in baseball. Another 10 million or so and we are average.

Lets not make this a bigger deal than it is. Its not the amount per year thats amazing, its the length of the contract. If a team wants to take a risk that a contract will look bad 5 years from now, fine. Crawford is getting $21MM per year. Thats not all that far off what we are giving Greinke (if he stays) and Meche next year.

Crawford is probably only worth about 15 or so million right now given his easy to fill position and his WAR, so hes being overpaid a little, but the red sox are taking the risk that they might have one of the worst contracts in baseball 3-4 years from now.

I knew it was wrong when I typed it, but I left it for effect. The point is the same. The gap is widening between the haves and have nots. Eventually, even the best scouting and development in the world won't be able to overcome.

Again, part of the point is that it really isn't a risk for Boston, because if he struggles on the back end they can just buy their way out of it.

We spent more than the Texas Rangers last season. A LOT more.

My point wasn't an indictment on the Royals, just the frustration related to these free agent signings. When guys like Werth go for $120M, the Royals won't be able to compete at some point, even with good scouting and development.