Mike Hampton to get more free money from Houston!

Mike Hampton, the oft injured pitcher for the Braves, you know the same Mike Hampton that stuck his hand in Atlanta's cookie jar for 4 years has decided he wants to take someone else's money. This time he suckered his original team, the Astros, into giving him a one year $2 Million contract. So I'm sure in the next month or two once we get out of football season and into spring training, we'll see the headline 'Hampton pulls quad muscle' or Hampton tears hamstring' or Hampton out indefinitely with tendinitis. Its really all just a matter of time.

He is basically a professional thief and how he got away with it for 3 years is beyond me. He was traded to the Braves in 2002 played with Atlanta from 2003 to 2008. But from 2005 through 2008 season he pitched in a grand total of 25 games going a Cy Young like 8-7.

While with the Braves for the last 5 years he made a mind blowing $84.5 Million, $35.5 of which was paid by the Braves the remainder by the Rockies and Marlins. Pulling out your calculator are ya? Well if you don't have one handy, here's a quick breakdown of his total time spent in Atlanta. He started a total of 85 games, so that's roughly $1 Million a start. But it gets better. His record in Atlanta was 35 - 24 so that's $2.4 Million per win.

So I guess you could say Houston is getting a bargain if he miraculously stays healthy for more than 5 games. If he goes 3-2 before blowing out his elbow Houston will only have paid $666k per win.

I still say Hampton should be forced to pay Atlanta to play baseball. Everyone says they'd pay just to play, well none truer than Hampton. He basically stuck his hand in the cookie jar for 5 years and he'll do the same, just it'll be someone else's jar.