January Jumble

Jason Michael Barker

An unusually interesting week (at least for the offseason) just passed in Major League Baseball, but some of the news was small enough that you might have missed it unless you spend your free time as I do, combing the news wire for any little tidbit of information.

The biggest story of the past week was Derek Jeter reportedly agreeing to a seven-year, $118M deal rather than head to arbitration. Of course, even if he and the Yankees do wind up going to arbitration he'll still be paid quite well: Jeter filed for $10.5M, while the team checked in at $9.5M. In case you're wondering why the rumored deal has yet to be finalized, it's likely because Jeter left the country to attend teammate Jorge Posada's wedding. So don't fret, Yankee fans.

This signing has larger ramifications than just the Yankees keeping their star player, because you can bet Scott Boras will make sure Alex Rodriguez tops whatever Jeter winds up with. And that isn't necessarily unreasonable, given that Rodriguez is two years younger and would seem to have the higher ceiling (it would help if Rodriguez would draw walks like Jeter, however).

While there are those fans who will no doubt declare that the game is going to end because of Jeter signing such a contract, this deal actually makes a ton more sense than similar deals signed recently by the likes of Mike Piazza, Kevin Brown, Mo Vaughn and Bernie Williams. Piazza and Williams are 31. Brown is 35. Vaughn is 32.

Derek Jeter is 25. So even at the end of his seven-year contract, he'll only be 32 years old. Other teams should be so lucky as to have their young stars locked up through their prime years and not much beyond -- do you think the Indians would like to have Manny Ramirez under contract until he's 32? No doubt.

Moving along to other money matters, it was revealed last week that the Baltimore Orioles had to pay close to $3.5M last season under baseball's "luxury tax" program, meant to level the financial playing field between big and small spending clubs. Over the three years the system was in place the Orioles racked up a bill of $10.6M, but you can hardly say owner Peter Angelos got his money's worth. The Yankees shelled out close to $10M over the same period, but that hardly seems too steep a price for winning the World Series twice in three years.

Last season marked the final year of the luxury tax system, so there is no penalty for big spending next season other than the humiliation of possibly finishing 78-84 and in fourth place in the American League East or 77-85 and in third place in the National League West.

Speaking of the competitive balance in baseball, Bud Selig now has the power to do just about anything he wants in order to re-establish (or just plain establish) a level playing field, including redistributing team income and blocking trades. While I personally don't feel the commissioner should be able to block trades, the redistribution of income is certainly interesting.

If used correctly, baseball stands to benefit from Selig's new powers. For instance, he could lump all television revenue together and then distribute it evenly among teams. Or he could do the same with Internet revenue, as the owners also voted to place all Internet rights in the hands of the commissioner. What's more, he can do all this without the three-fourths majority vote normally needed to institute a revenue sharing package if he feels it's in the "best interests of baseball."

I'm not saying Selig is going to make things better, because he's certainly screwed things up in the past. But the potential is there, and that's a start.

You know how, in recent years, every time there's a high scoring baseball game people like to say "Hey, that's a football score!" I couldn't help but laugh at the NFL Sunday, particularly the NFC Championship Game between the Rams and the Buccaneers, which ended 11-6. "Hey! That's a baseball score!"

Perhaps the most amusing piece of news to pass across the wire last week comes to us from South Florida, where it seems people can't keep track of all the new faces on the Marlins, or at least don't care enough to try. Joel Armstrong, principal of Hutchison Elementary School in Miami, allowed a man claiming to be a Marlins pitcher to speak to students last week without checking to see if he was really who he said he was. Using the oh-so inconspicuous name Bill Jones, the man aroused suspicion when he had trouble answering some questions posed to him by students. Remember this next time you start to open your mouth to yell, "I could pitch better than that guy!" at the television.

Finally, the Reds signed outfielder Deion Sanders to a minor-league contract Thursday and invited him to spring training. It seems general manager Jim Bowden thinks Sanders could be one of the greatest leadoff men of all time, right up there with Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines, because of his great speed. In 1997, he stole 56 bases in just 115 games.

Is the man known as "Prime Time" fast? Certainly. However, he's never going to be a great, or even good, leadoff man because he never drew enough walks when he was playing. Throw in that he's now 32 and hasn't played baseball since 1997, and you're looking at a marginal outfielder on a team already stocked with Mike Cameron, Dante Bichette, Dmitri Young and even Michael Tucker, none of which are world beaters but all of whom are better than Sanders.

about the author

The staff of Strikethree.com recently voted to enhance Jason Michael Barker's powers, and his first act will be to distribute some of Michael Cox' extra possessives to Dave Paisley. Suggest revenue sharing with ESPN.com at jmb@strikethree.com.