Atlanta Braves Burn Money, Sign B.J. Upton

Give a General Manager a blank check, and he'll most likely waste it on a player with hype. The Atlanta Braves and B.J. Upton agreed to a five year $75.25 million contract (pending a physical), skewing the market and all but assuring that Michael Bourn will probably now get the $100 million contract that he is seeking. At the same exact moment, Tinker Bell died. Well played Mr. Wren, well played.

(AP) Paid, homey.

It's not Upton's fault. He wasn't going to go into the negotiation and say "I don't know Frank, $75.25 million? you realize that I hit .246 last year right?" B.J. is getting paid and most bloggers will be ecstatic because now we can break out the "overpriced fellatio" jokes that we have been dying to use. So maybe a small amount of thanks is in order on our part. That feeling quickly disappears when the idea of signing an outfielder at some point in the future crosses our minds and we think, "Damnit, Upton got $75.25 mil. What the hell is it going to take next year to sign Carlos Gomez?" 

Adrian Beltre Would Like A Ton Of Cash Please

Adrian Beltre is coming off his second best season since, get this, his first contract year in 2004. The slick fielding third baseman erupted in '04 for 48 home runs and a .334/.388/.629 line which earned him a 5-year/$64 million deal with the Mariners. Beltre returned to human form in Seattle but still hit 103 home runs and averaged a .266/.317/.442 line over the five years. Those numbers were actually hampered by his second contract year in 2009 when he only played in 111 games. But according to FanGraphs, he was worth $68 million over that contract even with the shortened last season.

The Red Sox gave Beltre a one year deal for $9 million in 2009 which ended up being a steal just a few notches below whatever it was Bernie Madoff was doing. Beltre thrived once again in 2010 smacking 28 home runs, hitting .321/.365/.553 and finishing only behing Josh Hamilton (8.0) with a 7.1 WAR. Now he's gots to get paid.

The 31-year old is looking for that proverbial fat cash and Mega-Super-Agent Scott Boras is just the man to get it for him. For the rest of this post, I'll be referring to the inside information that I received straight from Sports Illustrated's own Jon Heyman (via his Twitter).

Tweet 1:

it appears the comp being used by adrian beltre is torii hunter ($90 mil, 5 yrs). gulp.

That $18 million due when Beltre is 36 is going to suck if some team actually gives it to him. Unless, if in 2015 we're officially New China and they've straightened out our economy.

Tweet 2:

sounds like a's are willing to pay adrian beltre $60-plus mil, but that's apparently not in ballpark of asking price.

Perhaps Boras is right and every Major League team is in on Beltre as well as six NFL teams, three NBA teams and the New York Rangers.

I don't think Beltre is going to get close to 5-years/$90M. But if he does, I'm hiring Boras to renegotiate my Yardbarker contract.