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It's silly to say it's a "3 year deal at $50 mil", as Sheehan tries to imply.

The Cards are getting him for less than $13 mil per year average because they're extending him. 2 years from now, I seriously doubt if he would have signed a 3-year contract for $13 mil.

The old contract is shredded. This is a 5-year contract, for less than $13 mil per year average. That's what it is. I'm not sure why people insist on making it something else.

And yes, there's some risk. That's not a revalation.

"A nice deal was put together by Walt Jocketty and the Cardinals to lock up Chris Carpenter at below-market rates. They'll fill out their roster card with similar deals. Somehow, St Louis seems to get more for less than any other team."

Will Carrol

ghostrunner wrote:

Fat Strat wrote:Our well documented reluctance to pass out 5 year deals just died a quick death.

I don't think so. As long as we don't make it a habit. It's pretty clear to most that there's a good relationship established there and we wouldn't go long on Burnett. We'll see what happens with Schmidt though.

Good point. I'll go one further and say that the real message is that just because a player gives us a home town discount, doesn't mean that at some point in our relationship we won't reward him for his allegiance and superior performance. Because we give Carp a three year extension to a sweet 2 year deal doesn't obligate us to consider a five year extravaganza for a free agent. Why would it?

Well I read this on rotowire...

Chris Carpenter (P) STL 9/20/2008
Carpenter (shoulder) had an MRI on Friday, and is awaiting a radiologist's reading on the results, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The weakness and nerve irritation in Carpenter's shoulders are starting to sound a bit more serious than originally thought. Carpenter is already done for the season, but it would not be surprising if he needed surgery on his shoulder, putting the start of his 2009 in doubt.

...and I was bored so I thought I'd give this thread another read. Not one of the times I'm happy to have been right. The 43.5 million we owe him over the next 3 years makes me a little uneasy.

Well, it's not like Carpenter hadn't already earned the money, when he gave us those 3 good seasons at a cut-rate price. Still, it's a shame.

this is what I was looking for.

Thoughts on the Carpenter contract in hindsight? Obviously it has worked out well but was it not a great move that relied to much on good fortune?

Well, he's lived up to his contract but that still doesn't make it a good deal at all.

The old contract had an extension for '08. He basically missed all of '07 and '08. IF we had waited to do the extension like many of us thought, we would have been negotiating with a player who had just missed the previous two seasons. You think he would have gotten anything close to $14-$15 million that he's making now from '09-'12? Not a chance.

He would have been looking at something closer to $10 million per year, but for less time. By now he would be making big bucks again, but we definitely cost ourselves $10+ million in that extension.

And,again, Carp has definitely earned every cent we've paid him. We just should have would have been paying him less if we hadn't done the extension when we did.

i like how people assumed we would have at least a 115 million dollar payroll by now

Fat Strat wrote:Well, he's lived up to his contract but that still doesn't make it a good deal at all.

The old contract had an extension for '08. He basically missed all of '07 and '08. IF we had waited to do the extension like many of us thought, we would have been negotiating with a player who had just missed the previous two seasons. You think he would have gotten anything close to $14-$15 million that he's making now from '09-'12? Not a chance.

He would have been looking at something closer to $10 million per year, but for less time. By now he would be making big bucks again, but we definitely cost ourselves $10+ million in that extension.

And,again, Carp has definitely earned every cent we've paid him. We just should have would have been paying him less if we hadn't done the extension when we did.

Not to re-hash this, but you can't negotiate a contract under the assumption that a player is going to be injured. So the only other option was to wait until Carpenter became a free agent. Let's assume they did that. Sabathia got $23 mil per year. Halladay got $20 mil per year. You have to assume that Carpenter would have been in that range also, if he had been "healthy Chris" in '07 and '08. As it is, the Cardinals gambled by signing him early for a presumed "discount". It turned out about right.

Socnorb11 wrote:

Fat Strat wrote:Well, he's lived up to his contract but that still doesn't make it a good deal at all.

The old contract had an extension for '08. He basically missed all of '07 and '08. IF we had waited to do the extension like many of us thought, we would have been negotiating with a player who had just missed the previous two seasons. You think he would have gotten anything close to $14-$15 million that he's making now from '09-'12? Not a chance.

He would have been looking at something closer to $10 million per year, but for less time. By now he would be making big bucks again, but we definitely cost ourselves $10+ million in that extension.

And,again, Carp has definitely earned every cent we've paid him. We just should have would have been paying him less if we hadn't done the extension when we did.

Not to re-hash this, but you can't negotiate a contract under the assumption that a player is going to be injured. So the only other option was to wait until Carpenter became a free agent. Let's assume they did that. Sabathia got $23 mil per year. Halladay got $20 mil per year. You have to assume that Carpenter would have been in that range also, if he had been "healthy Chris" in '07 and '08. As it is, the Cardinals gambled by signing him early for a presumed "discount". It turned out about right.

But the Cardinals signed him to an extension 2 full years before he hit free agency, which is really rare for pitchers who aren't arb eligible. So they could have easily waited another year before locking him up.