Nothing better to find out on a Friday morning than this:
We're looking at a 6-year, ~$30M contract here that goes through the first year of free agency. The only thing holding up the completion of the deal, so it appears, is the team's concern with its arbitration-eligible players. I find very little not to like here. When you have a reliable and steady player like Tulo, who took over the team as a rookie, you have someone special. Getting this deal done now further demonstrates a commitment to keeping the core group together. Francis. Cook. Tulo. And as usual, we must wait on Holliday.
On the arbitration front, there has been no progress. I wouldn't have expected the Rockies to negotiate up to the deadline with Boras over his two clients while talks with Atkins "halted."
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Yesterday, the Players Association released figures detailing average salaries by position and teams for the 2007 season. The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Mets took the top three spots for average salary on the team, none of which are surprising. Colorado came in 24th, with a $1.83M average. The salary numbers also included average salary by position. Not surprisingly, Todd Helton's salary ($16.6M/$17M+ with the prorated buyout) dwarfed the average for a first baseman ($5.68M) and all other positions. Rodrigo Lopez, Brian Fuentes, and LaTroy Hawkins were the other Rockies to receive a salary greater than the average for their position (though Byung-Hyun Kim would have qualified had he not been traded). With several key players from the 2007 team now going through their arbitration years, the Rockies will do their part in not only increasing the team payroll, but also bringing the average player salary to over $3M in 2008.
And the man who has overseen the increases in revenues and salaries will stay in his position as commissioner until 2012 after agreeing to a three-year extension that comes into effect after the 2009 season.
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Gerry Fraley at the Sporting News ranked the NL rotations a little over a week ago. For the NL West, the D'Backs, the Padres, and the Dodgers take the first three spots, followed by the Giants and Rockies at five and six. Rox Girl went over her rotation rankings the other day. Then there's Grant over at McCovey Chronicles who is always good for a laugh. That laugh? The Rockies are a bunch of bastards:
Even though there can be a wide range of opinion on the state of the rotations in the NL West, it's clear that when deciding the "worst" rotation, whichever one that may be, there still isn't that much of a separation between all five (though the gap between the Giants at the bottom of the NL West standings in 2008 and the rest of the teams in the division should be fairly significant). Sure, at the moment Francis might not have a partner to match up with the other rotations, but if U-Ball emerges to take that spot and the offense clicks (and why shouldn't it?), the Rockies really are a bunch of bastards.
Update [2008-1-18 14:20:2 by Russ]: Holliday signs two-year, $23M deal; Taveras also agrees to terms.