MLB's Payroll Stupidity is Ruining the Game
Guest Author: Ed Bagley

Richie Sexson of the woeful Seattle Mariners is simply the latest example of the silliness of Major League Baseball's love affair with high-priced superstars whose production is pathetic.

Pity the Seattle Mariners, whose 37-58 record through Sunday (7-13-08) in the American League West Division was tied for the second worst in the majors, a whopping 20 games BEHIND the league-leading Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim, who are 57-38.

Only the Washington Nationals in the National League East have a worse record at 36-60; they are 16 games behind the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies at 52-44.

The San Diego Padres in the National League West Division match the Mariners 37-58 mark, but the Padres are ONLY 10 games behind the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks, who sport a 47-48 mark (.495 win percentage). The Diamondbacks have nothing to write home to mom about, but the Mariners are even more horrific.

Interim General Manager Lee Pelekoudas had seen enough Sunday when he gave over-priced and under-achieved Richie "The Rich Man" Sexson his walking papers. Seattle released Sexson and will pay the remaining $6,793,000+ due on his contract just to get him out of the clubhouse.

"Richie wasn't going to play regularly," said Manager Jim Riggleman, "and I saw his body language on the bench . . . that was reason enough to do this. We can't have negativity on the club. I think the players would agree-Richie needed a change of scenery."

Over the past 3.5 years, Sexson had hit 105 home runs and driven in 321 runs. This season Sexson hit the halfway mark batting .218 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs in 74 games. His departure was prolonged by three weeks when the Mariners canned General Manager Bill Bavasi and Manager John "Johnny Mac" McLaren.

So the Mariners get nothing for Sexson because they could not even give him away to another team with his $15.5 million contract this season. Sexson has already received $8,706,000+ in pay for doing much of nothing, and will now get another $6,793,000+ for doing absolutely nothing. This is what you call a bad hiring decision. Such is the state of big-time contracts in MLB.

Sexson's lousy 30 RBIs this season have cost the Mariners $290,226 for each and every paltry one.

Will Major League Baseball, team owners and general managers ever learn how stupid this policy is that gives free agents horrendous salaries on the dare that they will produce rather than occupy space and demonstrate a bad attitude?

Whatever happened to the idea of developing the team's farm system, paying players a whole lot less and giving them more time to prove themselves at the major league level, and then bumping up their salary to keep them on board.

Raul Ibanez is the perfect example. He was picked up by the Mariners in the 36th round of the 1992 amateur draft. The Mariners would bring Ibanez up to the majors, give him a couple of weeks to prove himself and then, unhappy that he did not tear it up, send him back to the minors.

Ibanez spent 8 years in the minor league system and made all of $275,000 his last year before Seattle lost him to the Kansas City Royals, who were willing to pay him $800,000 his first year.

During his second year playing full time in Kansas City, Ibanez hit 24 home runs, drove in 103 runs and batted .294, so Seattle brought him back at a first-year cost of $3.9+ million. In his last 3 full seasons in Seattle, Ibanez hit 74 homers and drove in 317 runs.

Raul Ibanez' salary for his last 3 years COMBINED was nearly $3 million less ($2,916,666 less) than Richie Sexson's $15,500,000 salary for THIS YEAR alone. Sexson has been one overpaid, underachieved multi-millionaire with the Mariners.

We can only hope the Mariners' owners and front office staff have learned something from this experience. Paying players a lot of money does not correlate to winning world championships. If it did, the New York Yankees would win the World Series EVERY year.

All Star Notes:

This time, there would be no ties. In a game that featured endless great displays of pitching, hitting and fielding, the American and National League all-stars battled it out for 15 innings on Tuesday night (and Wednesday morning, in some areas of the country).

Cliff Lee and Ben Sheets set the tone early with some superb pitching, as things were scoreless until a Matt Holliday homer in the fifth inning opened the scoring. After more back-and-forth action, the teams found themselves tied at three heading into extra innings. The AL threatened more than once, first in a 10th inning that saw them load the bases with none out, only to watch Rockies' hurler Aaron Cook force three consecutive grounders. Playing in CF, Nate McLouth then kept the dramatic game alive with his arm in the bottom of the 11th, throwing a strike to catcher Russell Martin, after a Michael Young single, to retire Dioner Navarro at the plate.

Finally, in the bottom of the 15th inning it was Young again at the plate, hitting a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, barely scoring the slow footed Justin Morneau for first base. The American League will now have home field advantage in the World Series, and they earned it in a game for the record books.

Who's Hot:

San Francisco's Brian Wilson leads the National League and heads to the All-Star game with 25 saves
Royals closer Joakim Soria is also heading to New York as an All-Star. He heads to New York on Tuesday with a sparkling 1.47 ERA in 40 appearances. He also has converted 25 of 27 save chances, which is pretty spectacular working for the lowly Royals.

Team Notes:

Marlins
Sergio Mitre underwent Tommy John surgery on Tuesday, ending his season before he got a chance to throw a single inning. After he was expected to be the Marlins' number two starter in 2008 (according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel), he's sat out since spring training with a forearm strain.

Rangers
Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton may not have won Monday's All-Star Home Run Derby, but his outstanding performance stole the show regardless. The 27-year-old clubbed a record 28 long balls in the first round of the competition, breaking Bobby Abreu's record of 24 set in 2005.

Yankees
Injured Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon was scheduled to hit off a tee on Monday, but his sore shoulder forced him to push the session back a couple of days, reports the Associated Press. The veteran is on the DL for the first time in his career.

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Information provided in MLB Roundup has been gathered from A.P. reports, ESPN.com, Sportsline.com, MLB.com and numerous other e-sources. Opinions expressed are obviously solely the opinions of the authors and do not reflect those of source material.

About this week's guest author:  You can find Ed's Blog at: http://www.edbagleyblog.com http://www.edbagleyblog.com/Sports.html