Bang on C.  This is also consistently overlooked in the annual bleating about the pounding the owners take every year in negotiations with arb eligible players.  How long till Lincecum gets the long term deal?

I’m sorry, but no one is underpaid when their minimum guaranteed salary is 400,000.

They might be able to claim they are worth more, but they are NOT underpaid. In any sense of the word.

What about in the sense that he is being PAID an amount that is UNDER the amount of value he generates to the franchise? Or that he is being PAID an amount that is UNDER the amount that someone else would offer him if his rights weren’t controlled by the Giants?

Tom

I don’t disagree with you. Maybe its just a matter of wording.

Jim,

Thats the point I was trying to make, just didn’t get there.

There is a time limit to resigning, if I remember right, the Giants could always sign him to extension without the time pressure later.  They have already signed Lowry then Cain to such deals, so they are not new to this, and it takes two to tango and get a deal done, you don’t know what Lincecum’s side is asking for.

There are great reasons why young players get much less than they are “worth” in their early years.  One is that they might have had a lucky year, so you don’t want to pay a lot and get his true lower talent performance level afterward.  Another is that the team invests in dozens of other prospects before getting this one player who finally pays off, and the lower pay reflects payback on that.  You pay for an awful lot of bonuses and minor league salaries for players who never make it, a huge cost when totalled for all the crap you pay for before you get the good player, the pre-free agent years help repay all that.

I think of how Babe Ruth once replied when it was noted that he was paid more than the President of the U.S.:  “I had a better year.”  Presidents are underpaid, so it is not useful to compare their salary with others, plus they gain a lot afterward with their stature, writing deals, financial deals they get brought into, that don’t show up in their salary.  And the perks, Air Force One, Secret Service for life (or ten years now if you are not in danger; I think that’s a mistake, someone will target one of our ex-Presidents for a symbolic hit because of this, shameful penny-wise pound-foolish).

The fact is that he is going to be worth a lot more than $650,000 this next season.  The Giants are getting one of the biggest young stars in baseball for a bargain of a price.  I agree with Craig, the Giants should have tried to buy out his arbitration option.  Lincecum will see success this next season, and see a lot more money next year. 

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Corey M.
Los Angeles bankruptcy lawyer