By HAL McCOY
FOX Sports Ohio
Jan. 26, 2011
The Cincinnati Reds are passing out cash as if it is Confederate States of America currency, worthless since 1865.
Or maybe it's Monopoly money, good only to purchase toy hotels for Boardwalk or Park Place.
This stuff, though, is real cold, hard cash, payable upon demand.
The past couple of weeks, the Reds have committed $116 million to three players, spread over three to six years. Amazingly, that's about the same amount of money ($116.5 million) that former general manager Jim Bowden gave to Ken Griffey Jr. in 2000.
That was a 10-year deal, but $57.4 million of it was deferred until after the end of the contract, at 4 percent interest. The Reds not only are still paying it, they'll be paying Griffey until 2025.
That, of course, was Bowden's Folly. The current spending spree is under GM Walt Jocketty and CEO/owner Bob Castellini.
Is it a good thing, or are they investing in fool's gold? Only time will tell, and time can be a harsh judge.
All long-term contracts are gambles, but it is the way major league baseball operates these days. If you don't do it, somebody else will.
When Griffey signed, his $116.5 million deal surpassed the previous high of $105 million over seven years, which the Los Angeles Dodgers gave to pitcher Kevin Brown.
For their money, the Dodgers got only five years from Brown and a 58-39 record. The last two years of his contract were spent with the New York Yankees. He was 14-13 and then gone from the game, later to appear in the Mitchell Report as a possible steroids user.
Long-term contracts to pitchers are major gambles. Pitching arms are as fragile as your grandma's knickknacks. An arm can blow out on any pitch, and visions of Tommy John surgery are never more than a thought away.
But teams continue to throw big-money, long-term contracts at pitchers because, as everybody knows, the key to winning baseball is pitching, pitching and pitching. Then more pitching.
That's why the Reds giving 24-year-old right-handed pitcher Johnny Cueto a four-year $27 million deal is a risk. Although Cueto owns top-shelf potential, he has yet to prove himself as a future producer. And he shows no signs of being a possible No. 1.
What the Reds did was buy out Cueto's arbitration years. They realized that if Cueto goes 18-7 in 2011 and went to arbitration, a three-person panel might award him $12 million for 2012.
It is strictly business, which is what the game, sadly, has become.
It is the same with young outfielder Jay Bruce, who agreed to a six-year, $51 million deal. That averages out to $8.5 million a season. Bruce's ability ceiling is about as high as the Sistine Chapel.
The Reds locked him in for five years, buying out his arbitration years and his first two years of free agency. With a big, big 2011, if he had been eligible for arbitration, his salary might have escalated to $12 million, too. And giving big money to position players is far less risky than passing it around like grocery coupons to fragile pitchers.
First baseman Joey Votto's contract is more curious
