Craptacular! posted:

Given the lack of FA activity and the trend among teams to lock up franchise players for many years, I'm kind of curious why some teams continue to do the ~5 year "earn your way up" routine with certain players who have incredible talent. I get that you can take advantage of how underpaid rookies are relative to veterans to get a great player on the cheap, and then have to cough up huge amounts of money to buy FA years out in an extension later. It seems like it would be beneficial to give these 'kids' a payday now in exchange for more years down the road.

Will/Can we see 10+ year contracts for people who haven't even played a game in the majors yet? Basically, I don't even know if it's against the rules or not. Because if a young A-Rod fell out of a time warp from 1993 and I got to draft him, I'd feel much more comfortable hamstringing my budget right now to keep him with my team for his effective career, rather than nickel and dime him for a shorter span of time.