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Over the last few weeks we’ve heard that Jayson Werth should or will get a contract that compares well to recent contracts signed by Matt Holliday and Jason Bay. All three of those guys are about the same age — Werth and Bay will be entering their 32-year-old season while Holliday will be entering his 31-year-old season. Here’s how some of their offensive numbers for the past three seasons compare:

The first thing is that it’s almost impossible to deny that, as good as Werth is, Holliday is a better offensive player. By OPS+, Holliday was better than Werth in 2008 (138 to 121), 2009 (139 to 129) and 2010 (149 to 145).

2008, 2009 and 2010 and the only years that Werth has been a full time player. Prior to 2008, Werth had never gotten 400 plate appearances in a season. Here’s how the numbers for the trio’s careers prior to 2008 compare:

Werth isn’t close to either Bay or Holliday when you compare what the three players did offensively before 2008.

Finally, there’s no question that Werth was a whole lot better than Jason Bay in 2010. That wasn’t the case in 2008 and 2009, though. Here’s some of the numbers for those two for ’08 and ’09 combined:

Again, Werth was way better than Bay in 2010. But there’s no case he was better than Bay prior to 2008 and no case he was better than Bay 2008-2009.

The other thing you need to consider is simply that the fact that Holliday and Bay got the contracts they did doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good contracts. Just about nobody, for example, can feeling real good about the four year, $66 million deal that Bay got before his miserable 2010 season. St Louis is probably feeling a little better about the seven years, $120 million for Holliday, but there’s a chance they might be feeling differently by the time 2015 rolls around.

Roy Halladay won the NL Cy Young award.

The Marlins traded Dan Uggla to the Braves for Omar Infante and Mike Dunn. Really they did.

It looks like the Fish will sign catcher John Buck.

Charlie Manuel fifth for Manager of the Year.