Sigh.

Is Jon Lester really $110 million or so better than Francisco Liriano?

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 9, 2014

Where to begin? This Tweet is only insightful if Lester is going to get $149 million for three seasons (annual average value: just under $50 million). If that’s the case, God bless him.

Let’s say, however, that Lester is getting $25 million per season, as widely reported. Then, the question would be:

Is Jon Lester really $12 million a year better than Francisco Liriano? – me

The answer is: Yes, yes he is.

It is a valid question, however, to ask if Jon Lester is worth three to four seasons more than Liriano. Again, however, the answer is “yes” and “perhaps.”

Update: A Twitterer helpfully looks at it another way:

@TOOTBLANTime @TheBlogfines I bought a 12-pack of RC Cola for $2. I bought 36 cans of coke for $14. Is Coke really 7x better than RC Cola?

— Theobot (@SeanMcAuliff) December 9, 2014

Exactly.