Daily Archives: May 11, 2012

Josh Hamilton hitting one of his four homers against the Baltimore Orioles on May 8. (Bleacher Report)

For the season, Josh Hamilton is hitting .395 with 15 homers and 38 RBIs in 29 games. I have two words to explain Josh Hamilton’s success, “contract year,” this success is not a coincidence.

In this past week Josh Hamilton has broke the single game AL record for total bases in a game, hit four homers in a game, and has six total homers. Those six homers this past week for Hamilton are more homers than Albert Pujols, Alfonso Soriano, Adrian Gonzalez, Joey Votto, and Joe Mauer combined for the season.

What’s the difference between Josh Hamilton and those five players? All of those players, with the exception of Soriano, are in the first or second year of long-term contracts worth over 100 million apiece (Soriano is the 5th year of a 8 year/$136 million deal) while Josh Hamilton is the last year of his contract.

After listening to some talk shows and feverishly looking over stats, I’ve come to realize that the ultimate motivating factor for most athletes in money. So, when a player is nearing the end of their contract they feel more motivated to do well. And by doing well in your “contract year,” players can then sign contacts which will earn them more money in the future.

Obviously this wont happen again, but a way to keep all players motivated financially is to only allow one-year contracts.