Each week, the readers take over GarySheltonsports.com and play Ask Gary. They send in a question, or a couple, on Thursday night or Friday morning and we all talk about the world of sports. Think of it as a radio show where you don't have to be on hold. Join us and ask a question, make a comment or be funny. Send the questions to GarySheltonsports@gmail.com).
Saturday, 4 a.m.
Now that the hockey playoffs are finally over let’s play fantasy GM. It would seem as though the Lighting needs to tweak their roster as we talked before to add some bigger forwards and improve their defense. One of the biggest decisions Steve Yzerman must make is what to do with Tyler Johnson who has a no-trade clause that kicks in on 7/1. He doesn’t match up well with the bigger forwards on the better teams and also has a big contract. Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov are more valuable and will need to get paid either this off season or next so it would appear someone will have to go. When he signed Johnson to that big contract last year, Yzerman wanted to keep the core players together but can he really do that with all of them? And is that really the best strategy anyway after seeing the Lightning lose again to a bigger, stronger team in the conference finals? How do you see this playing out?
Larry Beller
I think you're onto the Johnson situation, Larry. One of the problems with sports is that good players get to a level where they're paid like their great ones. Tyler Johnson, sadly, has reached that level.
I like Johnson. He's got a nice perspective, and he seems like a good guy. But you can't go through life paying 21-goal scorers like they're 31-goal scorers.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!
Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
Close your eyes and see if you can remember the Lightning scoring a goal. It's been a while, right? Now, even with Kucherov and Stamkos slumping, who do you think the scorer would be? Brayden Point, maybe? Ondrej Palat? Alex Killorn?
Odds are, you didn't think it would be Johnson. Now, I know that Jon Cooper loves Tyler, and again, he's a good soldier. But he doesn't have the size to help you enough other ways on the ice.
One of the things about improving one's team is making hard choices. No one is saying Tyler Johnson isn't a good player. But is he good enough for a team that needs an extra push to win the Cup? Probably not.
All of that said, I'd be sorry to see Johnson go. He's had a lot of good moments.
But if this team is going to get better ones, it needs to tweak this roster. Johnson's contract, and his injury history, make him a candidate.
As the chart below shows, the 27 MLB starting pitchers who currently have contracts of $50 million or more are on track to have a composite average season of 9 wins/9 losses, 150 innings pitched, and an ERA of 3.98. MLB average ERA for starting pitchers is currently 4.16. The average 2018 salary to produce this mediocre performance is $21.3 million.
27 starting pitchers with $50 million or greater contracts | 2018 salary | TOTAL contract | contract years | 2018 wins | 2018 losses | games | innings pitched | ERA |
composite averages | $21,280,115 | $120,366,667 | 5.52 | 3.44 | 3.26 | 10.22 | 56.80 | 3.98 |
full season extrapolated | 9.16 | 8.67 | 27.19 | 151.09 | 3.98 | |||
MLB average for starters | 4.16 | |||||||
Blake Snell | $558,200 | 7 | 3 | 13 | 76.33 | 2.36 | ||
18.62 | 7.98 | 34.58 | 203.04 | 2.36 |
{ 0 comments… read it below or Subscriptions }