Every sports fan is familiar with the distancing, disorienting feeling that comes from discussing athletes’ salaries. You find yourself saying something like, “I guess $12 million a year would be fair for an erratic third starter, if the guy could stay healthy,” and then a brief moment later you hear yourself saying it and realize that it’s nonsense, that the numbers are ridiculous.  All of which is to say that the five-year, $125 million contract extension that Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard signed on Monday would’ve been a reality-bender by dint of sheer size even if it hadn’t been issued to Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard. But by day’s end, the deal had become something of a lightning rod in the ongoing debate between old-school baseball people and new-school Sabermetric analysts. To say that the old-schoolers liked it more is to minimize a passionate argument that led one analyst to tab Howard’s deal “baseball’s newest worst contract.” Yes, it got pretty heated, and kind of weird.  By the reckoning of wins above replacement (WAR), a standard Sabermetric stat, Howard was the 28th-best player in baseball last season, which would make handing him the 14th-largest contract in the history of Major League Baseball somewhat suspect on its face. On the other hand, Howard has led the National League in RBIs in three of the past four years, and drove in a whopping 572 runs between 2006 and 2009. If the debate surrounding Howard’s contract is any indication, the question of which of those stats  the algorithmic WAR or the familiar, back-of-the-baseball-card RBI  means more to you probably dictates how you feel about Howard’s big new deal.  “It’s hard to criticize the Phillies for re-upping on a guy who is one of the core members of a team that has won a World Series and a pennant in the past two years,” FanHouse’s Jeff Fletcher writes. “However, some in the baseball world look at the Howard deal and shake their heads. The issue is not so much what Howard will make up front, but at the end.” If you’re wondering, that would be $25 million per annum in the contract’s last three years.  While it’s easy enough to argue that Howard’s past production measures up to his lofty future salary, skeptical Sabermetricians note that Howard will have to buck history in a big way to earn those big bucks at the back end of his deal. “Howard will need six seasons that were better than his 2009 season, except over his 32-37 years,” Matthew Carruth writes at FanGraphs. “Im not sure I would lay even money on him achieving even half of that. This contract is both incredibly risky and unnecessary since Howard was already signed through 2011. Say hello to baseballs newest worst contract.”  While the track record for sluggers with Howard’s burly body type isn’t good as they enter their mid-30s, predicting the future is no easier in baseball than it is in anything else. But it seems safe to say that for those to whom RBIs are a quantification of clutch production, the deal looks okay. Of course, the answer to the RBI question comes with its own suite of assumptions and prejudices.  “Ryan Howard’s new contract is a testament the enduring power of the Are-Bee-Eye,” ESPN’s Rob Neyer writes. “It’s also a testament to old-school ignorance: ignorance of aging patterns, ignorance of position scarcity, ignorance of opportunity costs … hey, take your pick. The Phillies have done a lot of things right over the last few years. But this is a big bowl of wrong.”  Want one person who was presumably pleased as can be with Howard’s contract? That would be Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, the defending National League MVP (and top-rated player in baseball according to WAR, incidentally) and a free agent after the 2010 season. In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Derrick Goold writes that Howard’s new contract will likely make Pujols’s payday that much sweeter.  Upsets are brewing. Paradigms are shifting. The Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder are not only participating, but playing very well. All in all, the first round of the NBA playoffs has been notably more interesting than anyone had any reason to suspect. Even the end of the first round’s only sweep, which came Monday when the Orlando Magic finished off the Charlotte Bobcats, had an element of drama. That said drama came from reports that ultra-wanderlusty Bobcats coach Larry Brown was already sizing up a new gig might have been the only bit of predictability the playoffs have offered thus far.  “There’s a waft of uncertainty in the air these days, and even if it blows away between now and the end of the first round, it will be back,” Ray Ratto writes at CBS Sports. “The league is transitioning again, and at some point David Stern and the Happy 30 will have to either get used to it or start shipping the best players to L.A. and Boston and New York and Chicago. You know, in the traditional NBA way.”  The Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins finished off series victories in the NHL playoffs on Monday night, but hockey fans of all stripes have to be happy that one of hockey’s more intriguing first-round matchups will have a seventh and deciding game. Montreal Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak saw to that by saving an amazing 53 shots in a 4-1 victory over the Washington Capitals Monday night, in a game that saw the Habs took 32 fewer shots than the Caps.  “It’s a frightening window into this suddenly-even Eastern Conference quarterfinal series,” the Washington Post’s Mike Wise writes. “The goaltender of the most proud and decorated pro franchise in Canada, sprawling, diving, doing the splits as if he were doing his compulsories on the balance beam than minding the net. The greatest Canadiens goalies ever, Jacques Plante and Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy, had to see shades of themselves in Halak.”  Given the sprawling nature of the Penn Relays, it’s perhaps understandable that it took a while for video to surface from Usain Bolt’s record-setting anchor leg of the 4×100 relay during Jamaica’s first-place finish there. Bolt didn’t set a personal best with his 8.79-second sprint, but he did break a Penn Relays record and also provided an example of superior speed so eye-poppingly awesome as to be almost laugh-out-loud funny. Watch this.  Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.
The Phillies slugger's deal draws new focus on the value of the RBI. Plus: Montreal goalie does his forebears proud; Usain Bolt tears up Philly; and more.