IF THE AVERAGE worker in America makes $50,000 a year and spends 45 years on the job (from age 20 to age 65), he will gross about $2.5 million in his lifetime.

The Washington Nationals paid Stephen Strasburg, their No. 1 pick in the June draft, three times that amount ($7.5 million) just to sign his name on a contract.

Strasburg's total compensation package over a four-year period is a reported $15.1 million.

We're talking here about a 21-year-old right-hander who has never thrown a pitch in a professional game in his life--a guy, who in his final college start at San Diego State, was roughed up (5-1) by the University of Virginia.

In the real world, employers pay for performance. In professional sports--especially baseball--they pay for potential performance.

A lot can happen before Strasburg ever walks onto a major-league mound. There have been hundreds of highly touted pitchers in the past who have experienced arm trouble before getting out of the minors.

Even those bonus babies who make it to the big club don't always yield great dividends. Take, for example, Mark Prior, who signed for $10 million with the Chicago Cubs in 2001. His arm blew out several years into his professional career, and he was cut loose by San Diego this spring.

Washington is definitely taking a chance in paying Strasburg those big bucks. That $15 million equates to 15 good $1 million-a-year proven players or about 40 players at minimum salary.

One player--even a top-flight pitcher--doesn't make a championship franchise. Steve Carleton won 20 games year after year for the Philadelphia Phillies, and the team labored to stay out of the National League cellar.

The same was true for Ferguson Jenkins of the Cubs, Nolan Ryan for several clubs and, the greatest example of all, Walter Johnson with the hapless Washington Senators.

Strasburg's record contract is especially ironic in light of the present economy. With more than 10 percent of America's work force out of a job, somehow it seems ridiculous to give a kid $15 million based on his college performance.

If that is the standard, then all the men and women who graduate summa cum laude should be eligible for million-dollar signing bonuses when they get out of school.