Comments on: Vernon Wells agrees: he’s not worth his contract

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:00:29 +0000

One thing that is under reported is that a significant portion of that contract goes to a charitable foundation.

By: Lukehart80

Lukehart80 — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:19:05 +0000

Vernon’s bonafide, Vernon’s got prospects.

By: fquaye149

fquaye149 — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:18:24 +0000

Well, not really. It is awesome that Wells is treating his contract as a responsibility to involve himself in the community, but teams pay money to players in order that the players–as individuals–can help the franchise make money. If a team feels they can’t make money without the player representing a certain image, then that will be part of the contract (e.g. the Yankees requiring neatly shaved facial hair for their players). A MLB salary is like any salary in any other work arena in America (with the possible exception of government jobs) wherein organizations pay money to their employees so they can spend the least possible money on that employee and still incentivize him or her to do the job well and retain them as employees

By: alamosweet

alamosweet — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:47:39 +0000

Wells is acknowledging what I’ve thought about these big contracts for a while: baseball players are not really individuals so much as they are business entities/brands/commodities. A team is not paying simply for player performance, but for the suite of value that they represent, from performance to image to jerseys, etc.

Wells is talking about one aspect of this here, the community service part, but in a broader sense he is explaining the fact that he is a brand that the Jays invested in, not that he is a laborer whose output on the field is worth exactly what he’s being paid.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:22:40 +0000

The crazy part is that even if he were doing exactly what he was doing before he signed the contract, he STILL wouldn’t be worth the contract.

By: Utley's Hair

Utley's Hair — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:21:12 +0000

So he is saying that he’s getting paid for community service? That’s rich…well, actually HE’s rich. Here I am thinking he’s paid to play baseball—with the service to the community as icing (on Heyward’s pie). Respect level…diminishing….

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:57:11 +0000

It’s always good to see humility in a player.

By: missthemexpos

missthemexpos — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:54:07 +0000

I wonder who was the GM that overpaid Vernon? Could it be the the same GM that backed up the Brinks truck to overpay Frank Thomas, B. J. Ryan, Alex Rios, among others.