Mike Hampton is going to get paid.
If you’re like me, you might have heard the news that Braves’ SP Mike Hampton was going to miss all of this season with an elbow injury after missing all last season with an elbow injury, and thought, he might just want to call it a career.
But Hampton is no quitter. He plans to keep on playing. Or, failing that, to keep on getting paid millions of dollars to rehabilitate his arm. From the AJC:
Lest there be any question of his comeback intentions, veteran Mike Hampton has let it be known through Braves medical staff that he intends to pitch in 2008.
“Oh, [heck] yeah,” Cox said. “He wants to pitch winter ball. He’s planning on it.”
The left-hander will be out all season after surgery Tuesday to repair a torn flexor tendon in his pitching elbow. Ligament-transplant elbow surgery kept him out for the entire 2006 season.
There’ s really no mystery behind why Hampton doesn’t want to retire. He’s due to make $15 million in 2008, the last year of the eight-year, $121 million contract he signed with Colorado. Fortunately for the Braves Rockies, insurance will pay some of Hampton’s $14.5 million 2007 salary, though we don’t know how much.
I mean, let’s be honest: if there’s $15 million sitting on the table, and all you have to do is try to pitch, you’re going to try to pitch.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Coley Ward just looooves writing about the Red Sox. He just looooves writing about their hefty payroll. And he just looooves writing about how Jason Varitek is either a) on steroids b) overpaid or c) getting old.
And then the Captain ends up going 3 for 4 with two RBI. Lots of hitters have slow starts, dude. The Sox *just* got back to the confines. Save your Varitek-is-old-and-lame-and-washed-up post if his bat is still cold in, say, May.
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April 11th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
This is a fair commentary on Tek’s hitting and/or lack there of. Call me old school, but I don’t think the catcher needs to hit for a team to be successful. Sure, it helps, but it’s a defensive and leadership position. I’d rather have Tek back there batting 240 and anchoring the staff and the general direction of the team than somebody hitting 300. Not everybody needs to hit. (This is basically my exact same theory on Manny – not everyone needs to field.)
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April 11th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Pony: agreed. At this point, ‘Tek isn’t there to hit (or at least not as much as he used to, seventh position in the batting order not withstanding), he’s there to call the game. Kottaras is his own special problem, because if he is hitting so well, calling him up as the third option would just cool his bat off. I just looked at his stats for this year; I wouldn’t say 3 hits in seventeen ABs is exactly tearing the cover off the bal…
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April 11th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
After tonight’s travesty, perhaps it’s time to let Kottaras take over, keep Mirabelli to catch Wake and send Varitek to the glue factory.
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April 13th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Dude? I think the Rockies are done paying Hampton. Actually, I heard the Rox have to pay a portion of his buyout in 2009. But the Braves and the insurance company are on the hook for this year and next. He’s really no longer the Rockies’ problem. He belongs to the Braves.
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