Jon Singleton called up - and signs 5 year contract

[cardboardbox]

One of the few talking heads that actually knows stuff:

Jon (New Orleans)
What are your thoughts on the Singleton contract?

Klaw (1:34 PM)
Good deal for both sides. Given all his off-field issues, this was a no-brainer for him.

[cavebird]

I dont think its a red herring. He complained about this contract, not all pre-arb contracts in general. If he thinks all pre-arb contracts are awful, then that's a different discussion and one I believe he'd be on the wrong side also. From the player's perspective, its about getting paid now and reducing risk in exchange for making more money later. But the only way Singleton becomes vastly underpaid is like you said, he becomes a superstar. If he's just average or pretty good, then he isnt losing much. If he turns into Smoak, then he will come out comfortably ahead as Smoak will make $4.5M through 5 seasons.

It's the most recent pre-arb contract. I don't think I have hard much about it being worse than most pre-arb contracts. It was just the earliest, so he could theorectically be a superstar from day 1, unlike later ones, where both team and player have a better idea of the value of the player before the deal.

[mjl]

another data point: Billy Beane was in the office for a Q&A today (and for a public chat currently going on at https://plus.google.com/events/c2fov...irectToSandbox) and I asked him about the Singleton contract. He said (slightly paraphrasing) that It was obviously a good deal for Houston and people were saying that they got him really cheap but they weren't taking into account Singleton's personal needs or desires, and he thought both sides were happy with the deal.

[wannabegriffey]

Matt LaPorta retired today. I wonder if he would have been happier had he taken a 10 million dollar offer (if offered)? Not every sure thing becomes an everyday player...

[Msaint]

LaPorta must have been smart with whatever money he did make, though...he's reportedly opening a bunch of Pie Five pizza franchises in/near Tampa. Having worked in advertising for years, often with franchise groups (McDonald's, etc.), those franchisees make/have some serious cash.

[cardboardbox]

That is just a horrible deal for Singleton, horrible. Yes, he's guaranteed 10 million if he's hit by a bus tomorrow, but his pay ceiling is SO limited, it's almost criminal. I would hope that the players association does something about this in the next negotiation session...they're just taking advantage of these kids.

he'd earn more if he just agreed to go year to year. The Astros wouldn't have offered a multi year deal, no matter how much in their favor, if they didn't think that Singleton would succeed reasonably well.

Houston is playing with house money...nothing on the line and everything to gain. He would have to be a spectacular bust for this not to be a total win for the Astros...

You think that it's a fair deal, and I don't...we can twist numbers all day long and it doesn't matter.

Singleton could make as little as 11 million.

This is the internet, you don't get it and I can't make you understand...end of discussion.

I'm not getting pissy at all, it's just that this has become a typical internet argument...you cherry-pick your stats and arguments, I cherry-pick mine. You bring in other players as red herrings, I try to counter using their stats...it's a never ending cycle of futility.

I think it's a bad deal, you don't. Where can we go from there that we already haven't? I haven't convinced you in 3 pages, and you haven't convinced me...so why keep dragging it out? Thus, end of discussion as far as I'm concerned.

You still think Singleton got a bad deal? Total bust, collected $6M so far and will get another $4M + $0.5M buyout for doing absolutely nothing.

[Hornsby]

Wow, you really had to reach back 2 1/2 years to find something that you were right about? OK, knock yourself out. Singleton was a bust and got paid for nothing...happy now?

[cardboardbox]

Wow, you really had to reach back 2 1/2 years to find something that you were right about? OK, knock yourself out. Singleton was a bust and got paid for nothing...happy now?

Today was the first time I've read about baseball in over a year, saw Singleton still sucked, remembered this thread. LOL.

As I said 2.5 years ago, this was a great deal for Singleton unless he turned into an all star level player. Not sure why you couldnt see that at the time.

[cleo]

Wow, you really had to reach back 2 1/2 years to find something that you were right about? OK, knock yourself out. Singleton was a bust and got paid for nothing...happy now?

why do you feel the need to be a dick?

[Hornsby]

why do you feel the need to be a dick?

LOL....haven't been around here much? Do I really need to expand on being wrong on the internet? We argued almost 3 years ago about a player and his contract, he was right, I was wrong. Is there really a need to bring it back up? Is Singleton in the news? Did someone sign him? If so, cool, toss in a sentence from the news item as a jump point, and post it. If not, I really don't see the point.