Rebel Without an Excuse

Derek Zumsteg

Gary Sheffield is an overpaid lying moron. Now, you're not going to hear me say that about many players, because even Joe Carter has the good sense to shut up and collect his undeserved paycheck, but Sheffield is a blight on baseball and deserves to be chased from Florida by fans with pitchforks and torches.

See if you follow me here: Sheffield is one of the highest paid players in baseball at $10M this year. Pedro Martinez makes scant more than Sheffield. Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey, Jr. don't make as much money as the Shef. Sheffield says it's hard to find a reason to get up and play every day after the team's been broken up. Sheffield makes so much money the Marlins can't trade him, but they really, really want to.

Seems like it's Konundrum Korner for everyone, doesn't it? If it wasn't for that contract, everyone would be happy. Here's the rub: Gary could renegotiate that contract if he wanted. He's got enough money already. So if he's really unsatisfied, if he's really unhappy, he could go to the Marlins and ask for a below-market contract, which they'd be happy to give him, which would allow them to pack him off immediately to a contending team that needs a veteran outfielder.

So why doesn't he? Because when Sheffield says it's about the game, he's lying. For all Gary's public pissing and moaning about what a poor boy he is, playing for the Marlins, sad because they're not winning, how much he'd like to play for LA, or wherever, all Gary wants is to pick up that deposit with all those meaningless numbers on it. Because if that wasn't the case, he'd do something about it, and all he does and piss and moan to whoever will listen.

What's Gary Sheffield worth, anyway? Gary was great in 1996, a legitimate MVP canidate. He got on base an incredible 47% of the time, he slugged .624, and unless I read my Total Baseball incorrectly, park-adjusted he was worth two league-average outfielders at the plate. That's awesome, and almost enough to make me stop talking trash about him. But here:

	Griffey	Bonds	Sheffield
Age	29	34	30
95 Worth	121%	169%	176%
96 Worth	153%	189%	192%
97 Worth	166%	172%	133%
3-yr Average	147%	177%	167%

*Worth calculated as percentage of an average outfielder's offense

So over the last couple of years, Gary Sheffield's park-adjusted offensive output has been greater than Ken Griffey's. Frankly, I was a little surprised. Being as good as Griffey and Bonds makes him worth $8M, plus he was a free agent, which neither of those two are.. if I was a GM, I wouldn't tender him a contract (I'd be pursuing prospects recommended by my assistant GM John Sickels), but $10M isn't an unreasonable sum to pay for a man like that.

Why won't teams trade for him? It's hard to come up with $10M. Most teams run payrolls just high enough to turn a profit and win as many games as they can. Some spend enough to ensure the money-making playoff run, but $10M is still a huge hunk of payroll to come up with. So there are two economic forces at work: first, superstars make the vast majority of the money, but because it becomes harder and harder to come up with that money, there are only a limited number of teams that can pay that much, which produces a weird market. After his great 1996 season, Sheffield could have signed with Florida for $10M/year, maybe gotten about that from one or two other clubs, and then easily have gotten longer $5-6M deals from another six to eight clubs.

Further, Sheffield's a media dog. He's attached to terms like "pressing to justify his contract," "erratic," and so on. Because he didn't match his career year, he's kicked for signing that contract, and picked apart. But really, even in the last season, Sheffield got on base a leadoff-esque 42% of the time, and hit for decent power. But because he doesn't hit for Media Stats - batting average and home runs - he's not regarded as the marquee player that Griffey and Bonds are.

Here's why Sheffield can't get traded: he smells funny. Seriously. For eight seasons, Sheffield showed 20-HR power, struck out about as much as he walked, and got on base a respectable 35% of the time. But in 1996, he changed. He started taking walks like crazy. His strikeouts went up slightly, but check this out: after never walking more than 55 times in a season, he took a free pass to first 142 times in '96. I can't tell you what happened, exactly (if you know, tell me), because usually in the year before free agency players swing for media statistics, but Sheffield started taking pitches for walks and driving them for extra bases. In 1997, however, his walks were down while his strikeouts continued to rise. Right now, Sheffield's on pace to walk about as often (120 times), and strike out as often. I'll predict his continuing retreat from control of the strike zone (Joe Carter Disease, please give generously), while still drawing that salary, the rate of his fall probably accelerating as he turns into another declining outfielder still picking up paychecks.

Gary Sheffield has always been slagged for his attitude, his lack of enthusiasm, for not being a team player. I don't know Gary, I've never talked to him, so it's entirely possible he's picked up that rep for making fun of Peter Gammons' hair one day. I want to see Gary continue his offensive production in the shadow of that career year someplace where he's happy. But that's not going to happen, because Sheffield's proven that for all his talent all he really, truly cares about is the money, and then he lies about it, which on a purely emotional level puts him down with Albert Belle in my book, and makes this the last time I'll ever speak up for his talent in public.

Derek Zumsteg plans to streak in every major-league ballpark to draw attention to the affliction which befalls so many young men nowadays: the groin pull. Offer to distract the cops when he's in your home town by writing him at dmz@strikethree.com.