I thought it would be entertaining to take a look at baseball’s top 25 paid players for the 2008 season and link their salaries to one stat of theirs to illustrate how much each of these guys got paid to do just one thing over the course of the whole year…
The results are pretty funny, and a little disturbing too!!!
| Rank | Player | Salary | Team | Fun Facts |
| 1 | Alex Rodriguez | $28,000,000.00 | NY Yankees | $800,000 per home run |
| 2 | Jason Giambi | $23,428,571.00 | NY Yankees | $207,332 per hit |
| 3 | Derek Jeter | $21,600,000.00 | NY Yankees | $245,454 per run scored |
| 4 | Manny Ramirez | $18,929,923.00 | Boston Red Sox | $156,445 per RBI |
| 5 | Carlos Beltran | $18,622,809.00 | NY Mets | $749,912 per stolen base |
| 6 | Ichiro Suzuki | $17,102,149.00 | Seattle Mariners | $2,443,164 per triple |
| 7 | Johan Santana | $16,984,216.00 | NY Mets | $1,061,513 per win |
| 8 | Todd Helton | $16,600,000.00 | Colorado Rockies | $200,000 per game played |
| 9 | Torii Hunter | $16,500,000.00 | LA Angels | $445,945 per double |
| 10 | Bobby Abreau | $16,000,000.00 | NY Yankees | $219,178 for every walk drawn |
| 11 | Carlos Delgado | $16,000,000.00 | NY Mets | $2,000,000 for every sacrifice |
| 12 | Andy Pettitte | $16,000,000.00 | NY Yankees | $484,848 for every game started |
| 13 | Carlos Zambrano | $16,000,000.00 | Chicago Cubs | $123,076 per strikeout |
| 14 | Mike Hampton | $15,975,184.00 | Atlanta Braves | $355,004 for every run allowed |
| 15 | Magglio Ordonez | $15,768,174.00 | Detroit Tigers | $315,363 each time he was caught stealing |
| 16 | Rafael Furcal | $15,730,195.00 | LA Angels | $191,831 for each base he reached |
| 17 | Jim Thome | $15,666,666.00 | Chicago White Sox | $31,146 per at bat |
| 18 | Vlad Guerrero | $15,500,000.00 | Los Angeles Angels | $193,750 per outfield assist |
| 19 | Tim Hudson | $15,500,000.00 | Atlanta Braves | $5,166,666 per wild pitch |
| 20 | Richie Sexson | $15,500,000.00 | Seattle Mariners | $267,241 per double play turned |
| 21 | Jason Schmidt | $15,217,401.00 | LA Dodgers | $15,217,401 for doing nothing |
| 22 | Randy Johnson | $15,100,546.00 | Arizona Diamondbacks | $7,550,273 per complete game |
| 23 | Aramis Ramirez | $15,000,000.00 | Chicago Cubs | $1,363,636 each time hit by a pitch |
| 24 | Mariano Rivera | $15,000,000.00 | NY Yankees | $211,267 per inning pitched |
| 25 | Miguel Tejada | $14,811,414.00 | Houston Astros | $1,346,492 per error committed |
Make no mistake about it, nobody deserves to be paid what these guys get paid. Especially in a time when the country is in a recession and more and more Americans are unemployed. But, none of us would turn these contracts down either so you cannot really fault the players…
Needless to say, these guys are really making a ton of cash for playing a kid’s game and I applaud them for the hard work(most of the time) and their dedication to their sport!! Now back up that Wells Fargo truck!!!!
30-Year Old Cardboard 