International celebrity Matt Hurst continues his upwardly mobile BBWAA career

Matt Hurst would be a little known person, but he's world famous for 1 thing. He's a good bet to vote against Mariano Rivera in any BBWAA award and in between those times will do what he can to dump on Mo. Matt keeps getting assigned the plum AL votes. As the leadership of MLB has shown, selecting the right voters is where it's at. Here in December, Hurst comes up with a porridge of salary figures for late inning relievers having no rhyme or reason except to make the team including Mariano look gross, hideous, and hateful. What Hurst doesn't mention, and many will be too busy to check on themselves:

• BJ Ryan was given the largest contract ever given a reliever ($47million).

• Mr. Gagne was paid $18 million over 2 years for almost no pitching ($10m in 2006 and $8m in 2005)

• Billy Wagner was paid $10,500,000 in 2006, the same as Rivera, for his first year with the Mets.

• Keith Foulke's salary as closer for the Red Sox in 2006 was $7,750,000.

• As an Angel, (Matt Hurst's team) Troy Percival was paid $7,833,333 each year in 2003 and 2004 to close.

• Trevor Hoffman (another Hurst guy) was paid $9.6 million to close in 2003, although he missed most of the year with surgery.

• In 1998, Rivera pitched in his 4th consecutive post season, but his salary that year was only $750,000.

Matt Hurst missed all these facts, but as is often the case with upwardly mobile BBWAA members, doesn't miss information that obscures the persona of individual Yankees. AS VOTER JOE CHRISTENSEN SAID ON SEPT. 19th, 2006 ON XM WITH CHARLEY STEINER, HE WOULD NOT VOTE FOR DEREK JETER because he's "on a team of rich guys getting it done." THIS BIAS WORKS LIKE A CHARM, AND THE YANKEES DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. Hurst says: " Compared to some of baseball's other top relief pairs, (Frankie)Rodriguez and (Scot)Shields were a bargain. For example, Detroit veteran Todd Jones made $5.8 million last year, and rookie Joel Zumaya made the minimum of $327,000. The Mets paid Billy Wagner and Aaron Heilman a combined $10.8 million."

• WHY DON'T YOU SAY BILLY WAGNER WAS PAID $10.5 MILLION OF THAT? Your line of reasoning has what purpose?

"That seems frugal compared to the $15.5 million the Yankees spent on Mariano Rivera and Kyle Farnsworth."

• SO THE YANKEES MUST BE BAD, RIGHT? JUST A BUNCH OF RICH GUYS.

Then Hurst mentions in a small voice that his guys "have a big payday coming...." I see. "So, to say that (Frankie)Rodriguez and (Scot)Shields have a big payday coming once they become free agents is an understatement, which means any sort of offer from the Angels would need to be comparable.""

• (Oh, so the Angels will be paying more? As the Yankees paid less when their players were less experienced.)
• ""It'd have to be a pretty good one," Rodriguez's agent, Paul Kinzer, said about signing away a free agency year. "With the numbers he's got now, he's been remarkable his first few years, it'd have to be good."" (Ah, so what will the new figures be?) from the Inland Southern Calif. Press-Enterprise, 12/2/06

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