Jayson Werth has doomed the Brewers

Well, so much for us re-negotiating with Prince.  On Sunday it was reported that Jayson Werth, formerly of the Phillies, had signed a 7 year/$126 million dollar contract with the Washington Nationals.  Wait, what?  The Nationals!!  Normally, this information would not phase me at all,  because alot of players get way over paid in this sport.  If it was not official before, it is now: The Brew Crew is screwed.  Here are a couple of things that sort of ice the crap cake:

1)  Jayson Werth has Scott Boras (a.k.a Lord Voldermort) as his agent.

This is bad for the Brew Crew all across the board.  If Boras was able to get a guy like Werth this kind of money, imagine the contract Prince dough boy is going to get.  I can not even imagine the numbers we are going to see.  Jayson Werth has never had 100 RBI’s in a season, Prince has done it 3 times.  Werth has only hit 30 or more homerun’s once in his career, the Prince has already done it 4 times.  Jayson Werth is 32 years old, our special Prince is only 26.  In fact Prince Fielder has better career stats in every category accept for triples.  No surprise there.  This deal signifies the beginning of the end for the Brewers hopes to re-sign Prince.

2)  How can the Nationals have that kind of money?

If I am not mistaken, the Brewers averaged 34,000 + fans per night at Miller Park this past season.  Meanwhile the Nationals averaged about 22,000+ fans per night at………hmm Nationals Park?  What?  It’s actually called Nationals Park?  Oh, lucky guess.  Anyway, if those attendance numbers are correct then how come the Brewers are not able to afford a salary like that.  Is the GM in Washington really that much wealthier than our own Mark Attanasio?  Doubt it.  So, why can they afford to pay Werth that kind of salary while we continue to bring back Craig Counsell (nothing personal Craig, but you are just not a good option anymore).  Now we hear rumors that the Nationals are also in the Cliff Lee race!?!?!  I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!!!!

3)  This hurts Prince’s Trade Value……Big Time

Now every GM in baseball knows what they are looking at the old “lease a player” type deal.  There are only a handful of teams that can afford what Prince is going to be asking for after next season.  This Werth signing has signified that any trade for Fielder would be for a year (or half) and then he would walk away.  So, his trade value at the All-Star break will be much better than it is now.  But now, any team that isn’t run by an idiot knows that the odds of trading for and keeping Fielder are about 0.1%.  The odds are better that Christina Aguillera will win the Oscar for ‘Burlesque’.

This deal is ridiculous.  The only good thing to take out of this, maybe small market teams can still attract big name players.  Good for Jayson Werth though.  He had to work hard to be where he is today.  Do not be surprised if we see a major drop off in production from him over the next 7 seasons though.  It’s alot easier to bat behind Utley, Howard, and Rollins than it will be batting behind Nyjer Morgan, Ian Desmond, and Ryan Zimmerman.

Side Note:  Rumors still surrounding Prince going to the Dodgers for James Loney and John Broxton.  As of this morning it sounded like those rumors have been shot down.  This is not my first rodeo, so I would not be surprised if this deal happened.  After reading my own article above, this sounds like a pretty decent deal.  Not great, but it could end up adding some more bullpen depth and put a guy at first base to fill that enormous void. 

Until next time, remember that today is a date which will live in infamy.