NFL Picks/Continued MLB INSANITY!!!

It was a good Thanksgiving, both in terms of the holiday and my picks, as I went 3-0 and hit the under for the KC-Denver game. In the world of MLB, the insane contract bonanza rolled on, with Carlos Lee receiving $100 million over six years from the Houston Astros. Remember, the Astros could of spent that same amount roughly two years ago and would've been able to keep Carlos Beltran around, someone who would actually be worth that money. Last year, Carlos Lee and Raul Ibanez were basically equally valuable players, by about every advanced metric available; Lee was worth about ten more runs by VORP, Ibanez was worth about 8 more runs by Runs Created, Lee had a .293 EQA, Ibanez .288. Neither player is good on defense and both are borderline defensive liabilities. I guess you could give a very slight advantage to Lee. Now, would you want to pay Raul Ibanez $17 million dollars for the next six years? No way in hell. I just don't see how MLB GM's don't see how crippling it is to give massive, long-term contracts to players who aren't that good. Your roster flexibility is sacrificed, you block young players, who are the most valuable players in baseball due to the inequitable financial situation for players before they reach free agency. And does Carlos Lee seem like the type of player who will age particularly well? There's been a lot of success in the market for aging fat guys. Anyone remember Mo Vaughn? he aged like a fine wine. This offseason is going to be infamous within a year or two.

With this off my chest, at least until the next terrible contract comes along, on to the NFL picks. Once again, I'm going with the abridged versions. Anyone who wants clarification on any picks can ask in the comments. Here we go, home teams in CAPS: Jacksonville (-3) over BUFFALO, Houston (+5.5) over NY JETS, BALTIMORE (-3) over Pittsburgh, Cincinnati (-3) over CLEVELAND, MINNESOTA (-6) over Arizona, San Francisco (+5.5) over ST. LOUIS, New Orleans (+3) over ATLANTA, WASHINGTON (+4) over Carolina, Chicago (+3) over NEW ENGLAND, INDIANAPOLIS (-9) over Philadelphia, New York Giants (-3) over TENNESEE, SAN DIEGO (-13) over Oakland, and SEATTLE (-9.5) over Green Bay. I really like Chicago over NE, and Jacksonville over Buffalo. As far as the over/unders, I like the over (36) on Carolina-Washington, the over (42.5) on Cincinnati-Cleveland, and the under (43) for San Diego-Oakland. I've been killing on the over/under lately, hopefully I can keep it up. Happy football weekend, and watch the Husky basketball game tonight if you get a chance. Rodney Stuckey for Eastern Washington is a pretty remarkable talent, and the Dawgs are awesome.