Tim Beckham signed recently for $6.15 million. Less than Price received last year but…Tim will still survive, I think. The question is whether any player in baseball deserves such an large sum of cash.
In my day job I have worn many hats and performed many tasks including some work in the HR/Payroll field. I have a favorite saying; everyone is overpaid, everyone is underpaid. What I mean is that it depends upon your perspective. Go to a sweatshop in Asia and ask them if the average factory worker in the U.S. is overpaid. My guess is they will say yes. Ask a factory worker if the average business executive is overpaid and they will say yes.
Back to Beckham. He is overpaid with respect to the average major league baseball player. He hasn’t produced a thing yet. He is underpaid with respect to his potential. If he is what the Rays hope he is, 6 million will be cheap indeed. They expect him to be an impact player and, if I read correctly, will retain his services, should he make it to the show, for the major league minimum or just a little more for a few years.
You can’t get a 5 tool major league shortsop, if that is what he turns out to be, for the money the Rays will pay him when he hits the bigs. You just can’t. But the big if is the potential. He may be the next Brien Taylor. Who is Brien Taylor? Exactly. Long story short, high draft pick of Yankees, injured off the field, never made it to the show. Money, in effect, wasted.
Now why did David Price get $11 million last year? He is more of a finished product, having pitched at Vanderbilt. They have a better idea of what they were getting.
Are athletes overpaid in general? Again, it depends upon your perspective. In terms of worth to society, they are way overpaid. Teachers might have a greater impact upon society than, say, Edgar Renteria. However, people who make this claim don’t understand that, for better or worse, worth to society has nothing to do with how compensation is determined in baseball.
Workers in the private sector are paid for what they produce, their performance and contribution to the bottom line, what their job costs to the company, what their potential is and what it takes to keep someone working in that job.
Workers in the public sector are paid primarily according to what it takes to keep someone working in that job and then their achievement of a certain level of competency. Oh, there are some exceptions out there but they are just that…exceptions.
Teachers are not paid in accordance to their worth in society because society, at large, does not place a high enough value upon their work. Hey, I don’t know why, it just doesn’t. I have theories but that’s not what this blog is about. A few incompetent teachers should actually be happy about this situation. If teachers’ salaries were raised to, lets say, $200,000 there would be a huge influx of people into the teaching profession. Most of the incompetent ones would be weeded out, assuming there were no unions or tenure.
Beckham and Price work in the private sector. And that makes all the difference in the world. The market (people) has decided that it likes to be entertained by the highest level of baseball play possible. It is willing to pay lots of dollars in tickets or watch TV for this entertainment. Only about 800 people in a population of well over 400 million (the U.S. and other countries) can play at this high level. The demand for players is there, the supply is limited so the price goes up. Worth to society has nothing to do with it. Perceived worth to the market has everything to do with it.
Ever wonder why there are so many reality shows on TV? There is a demand and the vast majority of shows are cheap to make. When “Friends” went off the air each one of the main cast was making over a million a show.
Why were the “Friends” castmates making so much and some gameshows give away just a few thousand a show? In part because bankable actors are harder to find than John and Jane Doe from Toledo, Ohio who are just glad to be on Family Feud for a show and would appear for loose change given the chance. People willing to appear on TV are common. People like Lisa Kudrow or David Schwimmer are uncommon. Beckham and Price are uncommon.
It is all a matter of perspective. And supply and demand. And societal perceptions of worth. And…
Tags: baseball, Bay, Beckham, bonus, David, draft, Edgar, Price, Rays, Renteria, salaries, signing, Tampa, teachers, Tim
