Are there any true aces anymore?

[griswold]

Holy cow! Cain, Sale, Gallardo....these guys are getting killed this year!

Even Verlander, Strasburg and many other "aces" are getting slaughter....not just beat....but slaughter....

WTF????

[Judge Jude]

Harvey....

[Riff Raff]

Kershaw will be paid a LOT of money.

[JudeBaldo]

Wainwright :-)

[popeye]

Even if he were pitching well, Gallardo shouldn't be included in a discussion about aces.

And Verlander, with two wins and an ERA below 2.0 easily still qualifies as an ace.

[Gregg]

Cliff Lee 1.08 era and .060 whip for 2 games is maintaining his ACE status.

[ThatRogue]

Kershaw will be paid a LOT of money.

But will he live up to the contract?

[Sour Masher]

But will he live up to the contract?

Based on the fact that big money teams keep giving these overblown contracts to aging stars, I think most of them recognize that they will be overpaying for the back end of most of these deals. They are probably happy if players live up to the first two-thirds of these deals in most cases. I think Kershaw may be one of the few cases where he lives up to the whole deal. It is rare that a player gets one of these deals so young and with so much of his prime ahead of him. If you look at the deals that worked out as good deals for the while length of the contract, it is almost always cases where the elite player was signed before his prime, not after. Kershaw is just entering his prime. He should be great for another decade.

Hell, if player salaries keep going up (although I have to think they are reaching their peak for the foreseeable future--no more surprise jumps in revenue after all these long term tv deals get done) Kershaw's deal, whatever it is, may end up looking like a bargain in 5 years.

[B-Fly]

Maholm

[Stephen]

Maholm

That's Mr. Paul "Hershisher is shaking in his boots" Maholm to you, sir!

[ThatRogue]

Maholm

That's Mr. Paul "Hershisher is shaking in his boots" Maholm to you, sir!

If the streak ends, the next time out...we know who to blame.

Signed, Maholm Owner!