I'll be doing an article on my baseball blog, The Real Deal, on the final year of a players contract and whether it is a good or bad thing. So I am interested on some input from the people on this board. I might just use some material (with your permission of course) on the site if I think it presents a good arguement.

So anyways, what does everyone think? It may just seem like a clear-cut case for GOOD but I think we need to look at the effect on the organization as a whole and not just the players prospective.

Thanks for your input.

(And yes, I would give you complete credit for your ideas, ....)

A player's contract year is one of his most crucial years.. A player is marketing himself basically.. The better he does, the more money he could make. Nomar, for example, will have one of his top 3 years of his career... batting .330+, 28HRs+, 120RBIs+, and a sh**load of doubles.

That would be WONDERFUL for the team. But when it comes down to negotiating, Nomar would have the Sox by the... you know...

BoSoxGuru:
You should take a look at this link. Also keep in mind that some players may respond differently than others to the pressure of a contract year. I believe Boggs and Alomar are two players who have done worse in their contract years.

Also Tejada last year.

It all depends on how they handle the pressure of knowing that their next paycheck depends a lot on their performance. A player will either dominate, or put too much pressure on themselves to succeed and thereby fail.

Tejada heated up the last half of the year though...

In a utopian sense it shouldn't matter, but sadly in the day of $$$ it does. The results vary, some may try so hard that the results suffer and some that don't try as hard as they should at the contract's onset, suddenly do in the career year and they put up monster numbers.