Ryan Howard Now Has To Figure Out How To Spend $125 Million

[UNHWildCats]

the higher the payroll gets the more complicated it gets. Once you get to a the point of the luxury tax then a contract is esentially double what it actually is. For instance say the Phills are right at the lux tax threashold and then want to re-sign Werth for $11 million... in reality it ends up being $22 million because of the tax. This was a problem for Boston as they didnt want to go over that mark this offseason unless it was for an elite player (example they would have gladly gone over it to get Adrian Gonzalez) So they had to be creative and in the end gave Adrian Beltre a 9 million deal that alone would have triggered the cap tax on part of the salary so they added a $5 million player option which is unlikely to be exercised to average out the salary to 7 million which kept them under the tax threshold.

Isn't the luxury tax well above where the Phillies are now? I thought the tax started at something like $170M this year - the Phils are currently something like $32M under that right now, even with the Howard extension. The Phils aren't keeping payroll down to avoid the luxury tax, they're just keeping it down because they don't bring in anywhere close to the revenue that a Yankees do (and no one else comes close). Eventually, the Phils only have so much money to go around.

Just saying it can get complicated. For instance 5 players (Halladay, Hamels, Victorino, Blanton and Ruiz) will see their salaries jump a combined $18 million next season.

[Fact]

Other than Pujols who's really better than him? Him and Fielder are pretty identical, and I'd take Howard over Gonzo.

I'd take Pujols over everybody, then Adrian, then Fielder, then Howard.

Berkman needs to be in that discussion (when healthy)

[OSBF]

I'd take Pujols over everybody, then Adrian, then Fielder, then Howard.

Berkman needs to be in that discussion (when healthy)

mabee 3-5 years ago, today, i'm not positive about that

The thing is that now the bar has been set, a sort of baseline established

Hope the Cardinals get some paper in front of Big Al real quick, something like 5@25m and see what he says

I'd do everything possible to not let him hit the open market, don't even let the bidding war start