Howard gets $125 million

Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies signed a 5-year $125 million contract extension today.

I assume that Philly was thinking that in two years, when the extension goes into effect, salaries will have gone up and that this will be under what he could command in two years. He does have an MVP under his belt and wallops homeruns like few other; but he's a below average fielder at a position that's a dime a dozen and he's a strike out machine.

The Phils may have cornered themselves into this when they re-signed him a couple of years ago and agreed to pay him $19 million this; and maybe this is a fair value compared to other players of his status; but he's not a Mauer and he's not a Pujols and I think he'll be laughing to the bank for another 7 years.