I Love This Stuff

I'm always fascinated by some of the finer contract details; for instance Troy Percival receiving a vintage car. As you can imagine the contracts given to recent draftees have a ton of minor addendums, including Yonder Alonso's deal with the Reds.

He receives a $2 million signing bonus - $1.5 million now, $500,000 on June 15 of next year.

For the rest of this season, he gets $50,000 in salary. His salary then escalates to $400,000 next year, $500,000 in 2010, $600,000 in 2011 and $1 million in 2012. If he is arbitration eligible in 2012, that supersedes the $1 million.

In addition, for his last three college semesters, the Reds will contribute $78,000 - that’s $60,000 in tuition and $18,000 in books and board.

In addition, a trip for his immediate family will be paid for by the Reds for his first major-league game.

In addition, he gets $25,000 if he is Rookie of the Year, $100 if he is MVP and $100,000 if he is MVP of the World Series (for what team?).

Excellent stuff. I always love seeing teams contribute to college expenses, although I'm a bit disappointed they didn't do a split contract, similar to David Price's deal last August.