Major League Baseball and the Players Association have informed teams and agents that they will no longer approve personal-service deals and special "milestone" bonus clauses similar to those contained in Albert Pujols' contract with the Angels, officials of both agencies told ESPN.com.
A couple things come to mind. First, the "milestone" clauses are very close to pay for performance, which the MLBPA does not want becoming part of any salary structure (pay for past performance is much better for the players).
Second, personal service contracts circumvent the salary structure and luxury payroll tax. This is generally bad for the game, and could depress the top tier salaries against which other lesser FA salaries are indexed. Instead of paying Pujols higher FA wages, he gets a lower salary structure and a bunch of sweeteners that are essentially off the books.
AdmiralKird wrote:Albert. You made me lose a win in Fantasy this week because of your awful Average. Please figure it out.
I'm hating the Angels, Scoscia and Scott Downs. Never seen so many games blown in the 8th inning. I have Dan Haren and Jordan Walden on my team and every time Haren pitches, this holds true for the past couple years too, they're leading 1-0 or 2-1 going into the 8th only to seen it blown. Today Scoscia decided to stay with Haren in the 8th and he let the first two guys on before letting Downs blow the lead. Walden has only had 1 save opportunity so far this year. The only thing that's good about it is that the Angels suck so far and so does Pujols.
The last line of that article really hit me. 10 years. Wow. Just think about how different your life will most likely be in 10 years. Your infant will be in middle school. Your random hookup three weeks ago will have somehow turned into a wife and two kids. You'll be in a totally new career (that one was for me, not the second one. I swear. alright I'm deleting that number now).
Ten freakin' years. And the Angels will still be paying Pujols his quarter billion dollars.
(2022 Maclowery will probably be reading this and shaking his head as he looks at 40 year old cyborg Pujols smashing 50 homers a year)
