Saturday, September 10, 2011

Dodgers Incentive Triggers Down The Stretch

Ken Gurnick of MLB.com had an interesting article documenting Dodgers players in reach of contract bonuses:

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Dodgers have roughly $50 million in payroll potentially coming off the books from 2011, but there still are a few players who can earn additional incentives this year.

Starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, for example, has thrown 178 1/3 innings so far. He's in line to receive another $125,000 when he reaches 180 innings, $175,000 more at 190 innings and $200,000 more if he hits 200 innings.

With 463 plate appearances, Jamey Carroll has already reached $275,000 in incentives, but there's another $125,000 if he gets to 500. That might be tough to reach now that his playing time has diminished with Dee Gordon and Justin Sellers playing almost daily in the middle infield.

Aaron Miles, with 433 plate appearances, has earned $75,000 in bonuses but has another $25,000 coming if he reaches 450.

Near the end of a lost season, this list gives some indications about individual achievements which could bring meaningful bonuses. What was interesting, however, was all of the Dodgers' organization incentives that Gurnick chose not to mention:

  • Eugenio Velez will get $3.27 if he gets his firs hit before the end of the season (no, that game-winning run scored as a PR Friday night agains the Giants doesn't trigger the bonus, even if Velez' shock at being located on any base was widely evident).
  • Andre Ethier will get $5,000 for every additional opinion he needs to get about arthroscopic surgery on his knee.
  • Rod Barajas can earn $100 for using four pounds of chewing tobacco in a single game.
  • Miles and Carroll are in a head-to-head, winner-take-all competition to be the first to grow an inch in height.
  • Juan Uribe will get no bonus, no matter what he does even over the next two years in his contract. However, he is still in the running to have the AYCE right field pavilion renamed after him.
  • Ned Colletti believes he can pocket 10% of every former Giant he can sign, but that in fact is not a contractual stipulation. Irrespective, his behavior has remained consistent.
  • Rick Monday, who has told the score of the game 27 times all season, will get a bonus of $3,000 if he reaches 50 total times.
  • Charley Steiner is three correct HR calls away from $10,000.
  • Dylan Hernandez can earn $7,000 if he can get a canary to build a nest in his beard.
  • SoSG Sax will pay the Dodgers $20 to get rid of Don't Stop Believing AND God Bless America as daily game traditions.

11 comments:

Kyle Baker said...

I'll triple that offer to get rid of GBA.

What if Dylan breaks a news story? Surely he's in the money if that improbable situation were to ever occur.

Kyle Baker said...

"Rick Monday, who has told the score of the game 27 times all season, will get a bonus of $3,000 if he reaches 50 total times."

That is just rich, Sax. Well played. I'll toast you in person later today.

Kyle Baker said...

What if Loney hits double digit HRs?

Kyle Baker said...

When can we start drinking? Dylan Hernandez is Tweeting more lame Hank Schulman jokes and I just can't fuckin take it any more.

Josh S. said...

Matt Kemp and Dee Gordon will receive $10,000 if they can manage to post a 100% grammatically correct, properly formatted tweet.

Kyle Baker said...

Didn't Kemp use "Doe's" yesterday instead of "Does"?

Steve Sax said...

T-minus 5.5 hours Dusty

Josh S. said...

Looking at the slate of games on Fox today and I can't for the life of me figure out why they chose not to show Dodgers/Giants. What a list of duds!

Kyle Baker said...

@Sax

(tries to put cap back on bottle of beer)

Kyle Baker said...

@Josh

The network probably looked at possibilities, saw LA and SF's season stats, and said, "What a list of duds."

(cries)

Steve Sax said...

@Josh S: one would think Eveland/Vogelsong s the matchup America wants to see.

Especially those playing the German/English version of Scrabble with leftover tiles.