Vernon Wells: Understanding Ricciardi

Recently Joe Posnanski, one of the best sportswriters in America, ranked the worst contracts in baseball (the piece is a must read). Not surprisingly, Posnanski ranks Vernon Wells's 7 year/$126 million dollar contract as the worst in baseball today. It's hard to argue with that logic considering that Wells has been one of the least valuable players in the American League this season and is still owed more than $80 million bucks. Yikes.Here's what Posnanski writes about the Wells contract: And it never made sense. Ever. Wells had a very good year in 2003 (and he was a very good fielder then), a couple of OK years, a good year in 2006 at age 27. But he never got on base much, and he was inconsistent, and…then the Blue Jays gave him this hysterical contract. I completely agree with Posnanski here. When the deal was signed in 2006, it looked like the Blue Jays were dramatically overpaying for a player who was not the franchise player they believed he was. Essentially,...