I was watching Sportscenter this morning while I was still waking up, and I saw that Phillies have given a Friday deadline to either have him signed or extended.Personally for me, I think it seems a tad bit ’silly’ for such young players to be signing long term contracts so early in their career. Let’s take a look at Carlos Zambrano for instance. He’s never signed a long term deal since coming up with the Cubs. He played his first few seasons making slightly over league minimum, then in his third year he got a bigger boost up to $3 million. The following it doubled, and now in his fifth full year in the league, he’ll be eligible for free agency at the end of the year assuming he and the Cubs don’t make a long term deal. He’s really going to take it to the bank in this one. He will be making $12.4 million this season, assuming that doesn’t get re-written much like Derrek Lee’s salary last year.

You can look at this in two different ways. This includes the view of the team/owners/managers and in the eyes of the player. Last season David Wright and Jose Reyes signed big contracts for the New York Mets. Looking at the owner’s point of view, this could be really good for the team because they have their two best, youngest players locked up for the next 5 years. Both players had numbers last season that got them recognized in the MVP category. Their salary will increase every season for the next 5 years. The team gets the player(s) for a fairly decent price for their next 2-3 seasons, and then will be paying them superstar type money. Also, in the next 4-5 years, their superstar type money may actually be considered being underpaid for what they’re doing. This in return allows the teams to spend money elsewhere. If their players are making enough to make them happy, and they’re able to spend other places, it’s a win-win for the team.

On the flipside to this, they could end up with a Kerry Wood on their hands, where the Cubs paid some $12 million dollars, because that’s what he was due according to his contract, and he started I think in 4 games last season. Of course Wood has been in the league longer and the two others mentioned earlier, but he had a very similar promising start. He was NL Rookie of the year, and had a 20 strikeout performance all in his rookie year. In a sense the possibly of “wasted” money is very possible. Sure they have 1-2 full seasons under their belt, but that’s nothing to say they’ll wear down 2-3 years in to this new contract and the team will be playing the player to rehabilitate.

For a player, it can be nice to make a little bit better money the other players with similar service, but they won’t ever to go arbitration hearings (probably a positive for both sides), and they won’t be able to test the market for better money after their fifth season. But in the same sense, they are locked in for their next 5 seasons.

Yes, it’s a business and they need to feed their families and buy their big extravagant houses, and their sports cars, but if they have the talent, why not hold out, with in reason. It really does hurt athletes when they hold out. This especially holds true for NFL players. These young players need to get on the field and show the teams he’s worth more than what his initial contract/bonus was. Nobody has ever said that playing in professional sports is easy. The star athletes work year round, always are training, and making them better.

In conclusion, if the player is that dedicated to playing their prospective sport, know they’ll continue to get better, it might be better off for them to wait for a long term deal till they are ready to test the open market. If the teams see this as well it’s better off for them, but there is a huge risk doing it so early in their careers.