"they buy all their players"

It is nice to know that the Yankees are the only ones to do this.... (PS Manny SUCKS! I hate him more than Randy Johnson!)

Below are clips from an article on yahoo sports

"Two-year, $45 million offers apparently come wrapped different ways, and Ramirez wants the package that would pay him $25 million in 2009 and $20 million in 2010, with an opt-out clause after the first year.

The Dodgers have put forth vastly different versions of 2/45. Their first offer in November would have paid Ramirez $15 million in 2009, $22.5 million 2010, and included a $7.5 million buyout on a $22.5 million club option for 2011.

Their 2/45 offer this week was far different, according to a baseball source. First reported by the L.A. Times, $10 million would be paid in 2009, another $10 million in 2010, and the other $25 million would be deferred over the following three years – without interest.

The Dodgers have been deferring salary and backloading contracts lately, a curious financial strategy when so many of their top young players will be due huge raises in a few years. Maybe owner Frank McCourt believes he’ll gain additional revenue from adding restaurants, retail stores, condos and, oh, a football stadium on his property next to Dodger Stadium. But that’s a topic for another day.

Ramirez won’t be anywhere near L.A. in 2011 and beyond, so none of that concerns him. One reason he wants to be paid more than $20 million in 2009 and at least $20 million in 2010 because he already turned his back on those amounts when the Boston Red Sox traded him to the Dodgers in July. His contract that expired at the end of last season had club options at $20 million $20 million for each of the next two years, and as a stipulation to the trade he had them stricken."

ahh, makes me sick.