On April 26th 2010, Ryan Howard, 1st baseman of the Philidelphia Phillies, signed a 5-year, $125 million extension to the contract he inked before the 2009 season.

Really! The man is thirty years old, not to mention a big power hitting 1st baseman that plays average to below average defense. Why do baseball teams continue to waste money on players that are past their prime. Anyone that follows baseball closely knows that an offensive baseball players career years are generally when they are twenty seven and twenty eight years old, after that they have peaked and their offensive numbers start to decline.

What were the Phillies thinking? He still had another year on his current contract and the new contract is for guaranteed money. Over the last few years we have seen more and more power hitters decline since the steroid era pretty much is dead.

I hope Ryan Howard can stay very productive for the next seven years so he can actually earn his money but I highly doubt it. As a fan of baseball the General Managers and Owners for most of these clubs infurriate me because of the way the throw money around or won’t spend it at all, Pittsburgh Pirates!