The danger in giving out long-term contracts can be seen by using a few historical examples.

Verlander, for instance, got his big bucks because he's Detroit's ace, and arguably the best pitcher in the AL (Felix Hernandez or David Price fans may argue, but he's up there).

In 1968, Detroit's ace - and the best pitcher in the AL - was Denny McLain, who had just won 31 games. Imagine that he, like Verlander, got a seven-year deal. The first year would have worked out, as McLain repeated as the AL Cy Young winner (tied with Mike Cuellar) in 1969. After that, disaster - and as I doubt Bob Short would have traded for McLain with that huge contract prior to 1971, Detroit would have been stuck with him.

Then again, sometimes it works - had Philadelphia signed Steve Carlton to a seven-year deal after the 1972 season, it would have looked bad at first, as Lefty lost 20 games in 1973, but would have worked out thereafter and by the time the deal was over, after 1979, he would have won another couple of CYA's.

Other times, it works for a while - had the Cards signed Bob Gibson to a seven-year deal after 1968, we would have gotten seven years out of him - he retired after that seventh season - but he would have only been ace-like for the first 4 1/2 years of that deal, as he got hurt midway through the 1973 season, was a diminished pitcher in 1974, and bottomed out in 1975.

Bottom line, is we never know - and we just have to hope that Wainwright follows Carlton more than he does McLain.