PRETENTIOUS SPORTS DEBATE: Who is More Overpaid in NY? Part 1

transcript from today's episode of PS.com CROSSFIRE

This week, as usual, Pretentious is having a no holds barred debate about a serious issue. We begin…

This week’s issue:

Which NY Baseball Star is more overpaid: Alex Rodriguez or Carlos Beltran?

DAN DELLICARPINI, PretentiousSports staff writer /associate editor: Based on time played for their respective teams and current stats, Carlos Beltran gets my vote.

JOHN RAIMONDO, PretentiousSports contributor and admitted Mets fan: A-rod. It’s not even about New York. How about he makes a $100 million more than anybody else? No one should be paid that much. I have no problem with Beltran.

A-rod should agree to give back some money every time he is up at bat in a clutch situation and he does not come through. I love A-rod, please keep that in mind, it’s just he is the one who is overpaid.

KHALID WASHINGTON, PretentiousSports Senior Writer, and part of the anti-Arod bandwagon: Hmmmm, that's a tough choice. But, you know who I'm voting for; and they don't call him Pay-Rod for nothing.

MARCO TAVARES, PretentiousSports contributor and Philadelphia supporter: Gotta be Arod. No one deserves 25 million a year. The only person who you could make an argument for deserving that much (and he doesn’t) is Barry Bonds if he continued to play a little bit better then he has the last three years.We all know those stats where Arod gets paid more than everyone, so there’s no need to even bring that up

DELLICARPINI: Well, are we basing this entirely on salary, or performance vs. salary? Because if it's just about the check, then Arod all the way.

WASHINGTON: I would say it is performance compared to salary. A-Rod didn't break any single season records that I know of. Maybe he has actually, but it wasn't a “big important” record, like HR’s or batting average.

He's a career .305 hitter (including this year. The end of '04, he was a career .295 hitter), and his average goes up to about .325 during the post season. The down side is that his other numbers go down during the post season. Starting from his first full season (146 games in '96) he has hit an average of 41 hr each season. That's an average of 1 HR in approximately every 3 AB. But in the postseason he has 6 HR in 24 plate appearances which of course is one every 4 AB. Those postseason numbers would be significantly better if he didn't fall apart at the conclusion of the '04 ALCS. His OBP goes down slightly as well when you compare career plate appearances to post season plate appearances.

And I'm sorry, the bottom line in my opinion is you get the big bucks for the big victory. Michael Jordan was one of, if not the most dominant player in the history of basketball. Perhaps in the history of sports. And he didn't start making his record $36 million a year until he started cranking out championships. A-Rod does not deserve the money he gets. He hasn't won anything, but some band wagon fans and a few women's panties getting wet when they see him in person on the field. I would take him down to about 16-18 million which is about average for a star caliber player in MLB today. Damn straight he's one of the best in the game. But I agree with Marco, nobody in sports is worth that much money.

BUDDY LUNG, PretentiousSports contributing editor, and Khalid’s constant argument opponent: I could make a better argument for paying Jason Giambi the money he is getting paid to walk a few times and strikeout at least once a game than I can agree that Beltran is paid what he's worth. If you think A-Rod makes more money that someone "should" (whatever that means), fine but to say he is more overpaid than Beltran is ridiculous.

Beltran is a solid fielder but not the best in the game (actually it's arguable that Mike Cameron be moved from CF on the Mets, because you'd be crazy to say Beltran is a step up from a multiple gold glover like Cameron). As for Beltran’s offensive numbers... he's a big strike out victim, as is Arod, which is fine for a power hitter... except for the fact Beltran hasn't really proven to be a power hitter. Whereas Arod, as Khalid says averages 41 homeruns a season, Beltran has only hit 30 homeruns once (last year) and hit over 25 three times. Giambi, despite his epic downfall, hit over 30 five times. Beltran has a career high of 108 RBI on the year, meanwhile Arod hit 106 last year and everyone is complaining how terrible of a season Arod had.

So that leaves Beltran with what? His hits and on base play? We already said he is a strike out guy, but he's not much of a walk guy either. His OBP career is .350 and his BA career is .285 which is decent but not worth one of the biggest contracts in baseball history. If you're going to compare the two, Arod was and probably still is the best all around player in the game and therefore has the biggest contract in the game. Even Giambi who is ridiculously overpaid had numbers offensively that shamed Beltran. The truth is Beltran got this contract because Omar Minaya wanted to make a statement and because Beltran had one of the more stellar postseason performances of all time... too bad he fell short and didn't win anything, eh Khalid?

Beltran is more overpaid than Arod not a question.

MATT LUNGARIELLO, PretentiousSports Senior Writer: He is worth that much money, because as soon as he became a Yankee, their ticket sales, jersey sales, and all sorts of Arod memorabilia, including ten foot tall bobbleheads – I have one - began selling like crack and illegal gambling does at the Lungariello house. He makes the team more money than he makes. He still wins the battle between Beltran and Arod in my opinion.

And Khalid: not a fair comparison with Jordan.... One player cannot win a championship in baseball. In basketball, you can.

DELLICARPINI: I'm agreeing with Mark.

MATT LUNGARIELLO: Me too.

WASHINGTON: I agree too. Wait… should I be agreeing with Mark?

DELLICARPINI: I'd like to see the breakdown of merchandise sales by player.

BEN FORTNEY, PretentiousSports friend and “Moneyball” proponent: We already know the Yankees are the #1 seller, but how much does Arod pull in alone? If that's the basis for paying Arod as much as they do, wouldn't an even more loved player, for illustration purposes let's call him #2, be worth that much more? What if #2 is a "winner" as well? and he's a draw at the ballpark? I would think 2nd ballplayer would be worth more.

MATT LUNGARIELLO: I call Kris Benson to the stand.

DELLICARPINI: The combined merchandise sales of Arod and Jeter probably rival theirsalaries, but I'd like to see numbers on this.

MATT LUNGARIELLO: I’ve got all the numbers....

18, 24, 109, 991, 76, 222, 19379...

There’s the proof. You want numbers, there they are. What they mean I don't know, but there they are.

I do know that the day after the yanks traded for Arod, they sold 300,000 tickets... one day!

If you say the average ticket is $25 -which it isn’t it’s a lot more- that’s 7,500,000.00.

BUDDY LUNG: I like the number 42 the best.

BEN FORTNEY: I was a Mo Vaughn fan too.

BUDDY LUNG: I was actually thinking about #42 as from Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy which by the way is now a movie in theatres with Mos Def, two things I like but never thought would end up in the same sentence.

But anyway, you're right about Vaughn, didn't they retire #42 league wide a few years ago in Mo's honor?

MATT LUNGARIELLO: it wasn’t Mo, actually it was Wonderful Monds of the Atlanta Braves. Real player by the way.

WASHINGTON: As the only Black guy in this room, I feel I have to stop the jokes and give the respect to Jackie Robinson for #42 retiring.

BUDDY LUNG: Party pooper.

There's more arguing on it's way!

PART 2 of this weeks Pretentious Sports debate appears tomorrow only right here on PretentiousSports.com!