Roy Oswalt just shot up my list of favorite opposing players. Seriously, a bulldozer clause? That is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. If I were a big league star, I’d want a bulldozer as part of my contract.

I knew about the Beltran clause, and I’ve seen a lot of players with charity clauses, and a few veteran players have “don’t go out on the road when not pitching” clauses.

The Bonilla deal: I ran the caculations, and this annuity assumes an 8% discount rate (10 year up front delay, and 25 annual payments). That’s a nice guaranteed return :) Not absurd, though.

Lackey – This is interesting. Most teams have disability insurance for most players.

This article goes into detail and quotes the Braves GM as saying “Only once in my 24 years with the Braves can I remember a player signing a significant contract without a policy in place,” → http://www.riskandinsurance.com/story.jsp?storyId=13406472&query=baseball

So if Lackey has an injury, the Sox would recoup most of the salary for the time missed due to injury, PLUS get a year at the Major League mimum.