In many’s eyes, Albert Pujols is the best baseball player around and quite frankly, his numbers support that claim.  Pujols’ career statistics are superior  than many of the other players that hold down spots on the highest-paid list in the MLB; names such as Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter and Carlos Beltran.

Here is a list of these players and their current contracts:

• Alex Rodriguez – $238 million, 9 years
• Carlos Beltran – $119 million, 7 years
• Mark Teixeira – $108 million, 8 years
• Derek Jeter – 2009: $20 million, 2010: $21 million
• Manny Ramirez – 2009: $25 million, 2010: $20 million

Seeing as Albert Pujols’ career stats (.334, 40/122, 1.053) are better than A-Rod’s (.305, 42/122, .966), I think it is safe to say that Pujols should be a $200+ million man in the immediate future. Anything less would be tragedy!

In actuality, now that everything is settled, the contracts are more of an indication of the kind of jobs agent Scott Boras and agent Mark Bartelstein did for their clients given the circumstances of the players and teams.

Ramirez’s agent Boras had been lobbying hard for a longer deal and an increase in salary for his client. He wanted around six years and $20-25 million per year. And the Dodgers clearly needed Ramirez throughout free agency after he initiated a resurgence of the team and the city following his trade from Boston. So how did Boras whiff on getting a better deal (and the answer is not the economy)?

While on the other hand, Warner’s agent Bartelstein started off in a difficult position as Warner stated the only other option other than re-signing with Arizona was retirement. But Bartelstein used the media and a trip to the 49ers to leverage a two-year $23 million deal that is more in Warner’s favor.

Boras spent time using his tricks and ploys, chipping away at Los Angeles owners Frank and Jamie McCourt and GM Ned Colletti, but the Dodgers refused to budge. A week after the Dodger’s initial offer of two-years $45 million in the beginning of November, Boras issued the statement, “On behalf of Manny Ramirez, we will, for the first time, begin accepting serious financial offers on Friday.”

Throughout the process, Boras was unable to solicit an offer from another team to pressure the Dodgers and four months later, Ramirez has a $0 increase from the first two-year $45 million offer.

In fact, according to Fox Sports’ Mark Kreigel, the present day value of Ramirez’s deal is actually $1.5 to $3 million less than the original Dodger offer.

At the end of last month, Bartelstein told the media that his client deserved to be paid among the top five quarterbacks in the league. The final deal fell short of that number, which according to Bartelstein is $14.5 million, but he managed to get an increase from the $10 million per year the Cardinals were first willing to pay and Warner still has the luxury of Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.

Plus, Warner was never going to leave in the first place, already entrenched in Arizona with his family and happy with the situation with the Cardinals. He probably didn’t want to retire either, after having one of his most successful seasons in a few years. The meeting with 49er brass was a smart move to push negotiations along and find a suitable deal for both parties.

Bartelstein didn’t have much to work with, but he still coerced Arizona to up the offer. Everyone has their off days, and this time around, Bartelstein just flat out beat Boras.

“There is a growing feeling within the industry that the nation’s economic struggles are going to have a major impact on the decisions of some teams. Some executives and agents believe a lot of teams might shy away from long-term obligations knowing that the disposable income of many of their fans might disappear —— and disposable income is what the baseball industry relies upon. More clubs may be apt to cut payroll or hold their budgets in place, rather than spend, because of the fiscal uncertainty. Some executives and agents talk about the upcoming off-season and increasingly sound as if they are coastal residents preparing to batten down for an economic hurricane.”

When all is said and done, the current economic climate and its effect on professional sports might be the biggest sports story of the year. While the current recession has not affected the New York Yankees who spent considerable money on free agents C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira, it clearly has influenced the decision of other organizations to sign big name free agents. Take for example Bobby Abreu. Abreu was looking for a contract somewhere in the ballpark of three years at $15 to $16 million per year. Yet Abreu remains unsigned and it appears that he is looking at offers in the range of one to two years at $8 to $10 million per year. Several other big names such as Adam Dunn, Ben Sheets, Orlando Cabrera, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez and Jim Edmonds remain unsigned. Teams are hesitant in the current economic climate to spend millions of dollars on players who are past their prime or injury prone. Even players like Andy Pettitte and Jason Varitek, who initially turned down offers from the Yankees and Red Sox to look for more money appear to have no other options out there. They will be forced to return to their former teams for a lower salary or to retire (Pettitte has already signed).

It will be interesting to see how this story plays out in 2009. A number of free agents may have to take significant pay cuts or sit out the upcoming season. It will also be interesting to see how the economic climate affects attendance figures. While the big market teams such as the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers should have no problem selling tickets, will fans in Pittsburgh or Kansas City want to spend their hard earned money to watch mediocre teams?

Andy Pettite

Jason Varitek was offered arbitration by the Red Sox, where Varitek would have received at least $10 million.  Scott Boras advised Varitek to reject the arbitration offer.  Since no other teams have bit the Varitek line, the Red Sox have all the leverage and are offering a Pettite-like $5 million guaranteed for one year of service plus a couple of options.

How long will Manny Ramirez play the waiting game?

In an interview, Manny stated, “I want to see who is the highest bidder. Gas is up and so am I.”

This past Wednesday, General Manager Ned Colletti said that the Dodgers’ offer would give Manny the second-highest average salary, only to be outdone by Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that the Dodgers’ offer is believed to be for two years at roughly $45 million.

Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, is reportedly seeking a long-term deal.

It seems to me that the Dodgers are being very hesitant on pitching Manny the long term deal for a couple of reasons:

• Manny is 36-years-old
• The Dodgers need to invest in other priorities with the highest being their bullpen.

In 53 regular season games in LA, Ramirez hit .396 with 17 home runs, 53 RBIs, 36 runs scored, 74 hits and 35 walks.

In the playoffs, Manny hit .520 with 4 home runs, 10 RBIs, 9 runs scored, and 11 walks in 8 games.

Other teams like the Orioles, Blue Jays, and Yankees will not be able to offer Manny a deal until November 14 (see this post for more free-agent info).

Manny Ramirez was eying the end of his contract with the Red Sox; an eight-year deal worth a total of $160 million.  The Red Sox had an option to hold onto the slugger for $20 million in 2009 and 2010, but Manny apparently wanted to test the free-agent market.  He fired his former agent, Greg Genske, who took over LS Legacy Sports Group when Jeff Moorad left to become CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Genske has a very impressive list of clients, including Pat Burrell, C.C. Sabathia, and Scott Kazmir, but Ramirez was not happy.  In February of this year, he dropped Genske and picked up Mr. Boras.

So why the investigation?  Maybe Manny was content playing in Boston, but Scott Boras was inconspicuously pushing him to move, putting money into Boras Corp sooner than later.  Had Manny stayed in Boston, Boras Corp could have been representing Ramirez for the next two years without any commission (if Boston chose to retain Manny’s services at $20 million per year).  Personally, this scenario is hard for me to believe.  I do not think that Scott Boras or his company would be interested in having Manny’s options dropped just so that they could rake some quick dough.  Would an agent ever tell his client to play at half speed just to have his club’s option dropped due to a trade?