When will they learn?

Too many teams are being buried by bad contracts. Heading into the end of the season when teams will begin looking to sign and re-sign players and agents will be screaming about individual worth, here is the list of some of the contracts in circulation.

- Vernon Wells - $26M. Currently hitting .218 with 21 HR; previous years in this contract he hit .240 and .260, only topping 22 HR once (so why are they paying him?). By the way, he's no longer on the team that gave him that contract.

- Joe Mauer - $23M. Signed him to be the best-hitting catcher in baseball, but now it's uncertain if he'll even be the team catcher in a couple years. The Twins also built a new stadium and now he's hitting .287 with 3 home runs. And oh yeah, Twins are in last place.

- Jason Bay - $18M. Declining batting average three years in a row, only 18 home runs combined in the first two years of the contract. And oh yeah, Mets are terrible.

- Carl Crawford - $15M. Average salary during the contract is $20M. Currently hitting .249 with 11 HR.

- Jayson Werth - $10M. Average salary during contract is $18M. Currently hitting .232 with 19 HR.

- Alex Rios - $12M. Hitting .224, a couple years ago hit .247, hasn't hit more than 21 home runs in any of the four previous contract years. By the way, he's no longer with the team that gave the contract. Two more years.

- A.J. Burnett - $16M. Brian Cashman rewarded him for one good season, and now he's practically pitched himself out of the rotation. But the Yankees are paying him so much and are stuck for 2 more years there is nothing they can do about him.

- Alex Rodriguez - $32M. His body is falling apart and now it is doubtful that he'll reach Barry Bonds' home run mark. He has missed 58 games this year. And the Yankees are paying him for 6 more years.

- Todd Helton - $20M. Hitting over .300 but in Colorado who isn't?

Meanwhile, the Arizona Diamondbacks have nobody on their roster making over $6 million and they are runaway winners in the NL West.

Tampa Bay Rays are also not paying anyone $6 million and they are making a run at the wild card.

The New York Mets released Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez before the season, even though they still had to pay them $18M.

White Sox (5th), Cubs (6th), Mets (7th), Twins (9th) are in the top 10 highest payroll and none have been competitive. Giants are 8th, but 7 games behind the Dbacks.

ATTENTION: paying a player superstar money doesn't guarantee superstar results! And more often than not, it cripples the team for years to come!

What players actually performed to the level of their monster contracts? Alex Rodriguez's previous contract did include 2 MVPs, but he also didn't finish the contract with the team that signed him. Other than that, you tell me the player.

Attention, owners interested in Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Jose Reyes, and re-signing any of your big-name players to huge contracts: BUYER BEWARE!!