Well, it’s certainly been a long time since I’ve written on here. Hey, how are you? I’m good too. Anyways, I went undefeated in picks against the spread over the past few weeks and you can’t disprove me because I didn’t publish my picks. In reality, I hovered a few games over .500 which is about twice as good as I had previously done.

Giancarlo Stanton just signed the largest contract in the history of professional sports, a thirteen year, 325 million dollar pact with the Marlins, shattering Miguel Cabrera’s 292 million dollar extension with the Tigers earlier this year. The sheer numbers of this deal are jaw-dropping. 325 million dollars is more than the annual GDP of some Pacific By the time this contract ends babies born today will be looking at prospective high schools. Just… wow.

Still, this deal is more surprising because of who it comes from. Miami’s thrifty owner, Jeffrey Loria, is finally spending some real cash, as well as relinquishing some of the organizational policies that he had held to for years (we’ll get there later).

This deal is a huge win for Marlins fans. They get the best up-and-coming star not named Mike Trout for the foreseeable future. Loria will need to continue to spend to make this deal worthwhile because Stanton by himself isn’t enough to make the playoffs. Also, for the first time, the Marlins are finally paying the Miami-Dade County back for the 2.4 billion dollar debt over forty years that they incurred by paying for the team’s stadium.

Stanton’s contract makes a ton of sense for Loria and the Marlins. They lock down one of the league’s most recognizable stars for the foreseeable future. Why is this so valuable (other than the obvious baseball standpoint that Loria has shown time and time again not to care about)? Well, the Miami’s TV deal currently pays them in the range of 16 to 18 million bucks. For comparisons sake, the Dodgers currently make 280 million dollars a year from their TV deal. Now, the Marlins’ (comparatively) oppressive deal ends at 2020. You know what’ll help ‘em wrangle every last money out of their TV deal? A twenty-something star player.

This contract is best of all for the man himself. Stanton gets the largest guaranteed deal ever, ensuring that he’ll never have to work a day in his life. Over the next thirteen years, Stanton makes just over 68 thousand dollars… a day. Financial security? That’s an understatement.

Why would Stanton sign now? Wouldn’t he have been able to get a lot more on the open market in two years? Yes, but take a trip down memory lane with me, to September of last season. An errant pitch from Mike Fiers mashed Stanton’s face, criss-crossed bruises marring his features. Signing now removes the risk of a career-ending injury.

Additionally, Stanton has forced Loria to shed one of his main tenets of the organization: Stanton has a full no-trade clause. He’s not going to be another Jose Reyes or Mark Buerhle, signed by Loria for big money but traded away soon after. Even better for Stanton is that his deal has an out by 2020, meaning that if he’s not happy with the direction the team is taking, then he can leave, and hit free agency at 29, still in the prime of his career, and earn another big-money deal. If he does that, however, he’ll be walking away from over 200 million guaranteed dollars, but Loria will be forced to spend more to keep him.

Once you look past the absurdity of the numbers and delve into the underlying reasons behind them, as well as all the mitigating factors, Giancarlo Stanton’s massive contract makes a hell of a lot of sense.