Some General Managers get it, some have still yet to catch on. With Free Agency just starting up in two of the four major sports, it makes me wonder how some of these general managers keep their jobs.
I know when a team is struggling you have to make a splash in free agency to give the team hope, to bring fans back to the stadium, you see return on your investment in that reguard. However, what is becoming more of a trend is that the teams who are spending the most money on the free agents are seeing less return on their investment as far as the win-loss record goes. Yes a premire free agent may bring in more fans to put butts in the seats, but how many more wins is that free agent going to get you.
Not only is it becoming less likely that the key free agent is going to translate directly into more wins, but it is becoming more and more likely that the free agents that hit the market are not going to be the top notch ones that many of us are accustomed too. Teams are signing their younger players early and not allowing them to hit free agency by giving them lucrative offers to keep them with an organization much longer than they would if they hit free agency when they were originally suppose to. These general managers have learned.
Instead of over paying an athlete that will bring mediocrity, because many of the players who hit the free agent market are mediocre and that is why their respective team did not want to resign them, but the player gets overpaid and that hurts the franchise not only now, but for the duration of the contract.
For example, look at the NBA. It is hard to get rid of bad contracts, and teams feel the effects of these contracts for years. Teams spend over 100 million dollars for 6 years for a player, and most of the time these players aren’t superstars because the way the slary cap is structured, the team that the superstar plays for can easily get more money for staying in town. Plus if the teams give one or two bad contracts out, they have no more money to move around at other players, so they are stuck until they get rid of the obscenely bad contracts.
In the NHL many teams, especially in the youth movement, have been signing their young superstars to lengthy extensions to ensure that they never leave and they have a face of the franchise for the next decade. NFL does the same, even though the contracts are not guarenteed, more young NFL players are failing to reach free agency because GM’s are signing them so quickly before they can reach free agency.
Which leads to a problem, you have teams overspending because the market is not filled with players and their is a limited number of players that can fit their need. Not only are their a limited number, the number of good and great players is also very limited, but in order to get any player, because the market is so sparse, the team has to overpay. What happens when they overpay, they don’t have money to get other pieces to help out later on.
What should teams spend money on, well at least in NFL, MLB and NHL where the draft is an intracite part of the team, spend that money on scouting instead of throwing away millions of dollars on mediocrity, that way in three or four years you can offer your young talented players extensions to keep your key positions at a high quality for many years, without having to combat the stupidity of a poor contract that will have to be paid off for the duration of the deal, and handcuff your entire front office and what they can do.
Unrealted to Free Agency, but related to freedom: They need to give back Tommie Smith and John Carlos the medals that they won at the 1968 Olympics, and give Smith back his World Record. This year at the ESPY’s (ESPN’s annual award show) both Smith and Carlos will be receiving the Arthur Ashe courage award for what happened 40 years ago. I wasn’t born until long after they did what they did, but I applaud them and they are two of my track and field Icons and they always were growing up. Not as much as Michael Johnson, but more than Prefontaine. What they did, stand up for what they believed in, did not care about anything except to tell you what was right. Try to fight the injustice of the unfair nature that humans were being treated all over the world. Obviously their fight was specifically to the African American culture in the United States, but they wanted everyone around the world to be treated fairly.
The IOC suspended them for their actions, many people were against what they did, many others found it brave. Second Place, Peter Norman from Austraila took part in the protest, demonstration, whatever you want to call it, he stood up with Smith and Carlos to show how they felt about human rights. It is good to see Smith and Carlos honored by someone, and I will be eager to watch later this month.
Loves me some weekend: Well I guess I have not writen in a week, I don’t know how many people read what I write regualarly, if anyone does. I know a lot of people have searched and found my blog through Wimbledon searches, but I have been extremely busy. I was visiting some old friends from school during the end of last week, and I was at a bachelor party over the weekend. I have a wedding to go to each of the next two weekends, and after that my summer kind of calms down.
I was dissapointed at how interleague played ended, with the Cubs being swept by the White Sox, and losing two of three at home to Baltimore. Injuries have amassed, but I think they will still prevail, hopefully the Giants and Cardinals allow the Cubs to get back on track.
The Bulls, they took Derrek Rose with the first pick in the NBA draft. I would have rather had Beasley, honetly, because he can score down low and that has been the Bulls problem in the past, but if they are able to lure in a big man who can score (I don’t know Tyson Chandler and Elton Brand sound nice, but they traded both of them away) or can trade for one, that will help them, unless they are just going to run, because they do have the athletes to do such. I will be interested to see what transpires.
