Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys, but a pitcher, that's just fine

In my next life I am going to be a pitcher. I am not asking that I be returned to Earth as a superstar. I don't need to be Nolan Ryan I will settle for Gil Meche.
Who is Gil Meche? Well, he lives in Kansas City and makes $11 million a year. In 2008 he won 14 games, his career average is 12. $11 million a year.
I don't mean to pick on Gil Meche. He is a solid major league starting pitcher. My pitching career ended at age 9 when I gave up a three run homer to the 13th batter in the order, so Gil Meche clearly can do things that I cannot. But, $11 million a year?
This year however, baseball blew the doors off of pitchers' contracts. C.C. Sabathia signs in New York for over $160 million. To keep him company in the high rent district, the Yankees added A.J. Burnett to the tune of $80 million. That is almost a quarter of a billion on the first 2/5 of the rotation. And I thought Congress threw money around!
There are other reasons to be a pitcher. Jamie Moyer just re-signed with the Phillies for two years. O.K. that is not a long commitment, except that Moyer is 46! He has a contract to pitch in the major leagues past the age of 48. He is his own Social Security benefit.
If you are left handed and have gotten a major league batter out in the past 20 years, you will have no trouble finding work. The situational lefthanders (that means they come in to get one batter out, then head for the showers) pull down $3-5 million a year and keep doing it well into their 40s. I think, but I am not certain, that Jesse Orosco finally retired.
People often ask what Babe Ruth would be worth as a player: could he hit as many homers facing modern day pitching? I say the premise of the question is completely off base. Ruth came into baseball as a left-handed pitcher and he was a good one. Today, Babe Ruth would never have been moved off the mound. He would have had a long career as a left handed starter, followed by five or six years out of the bullpen. He would have made hundreds of millions of dollars. If he stayed in the modern American league he never would have swung the bat.
In my next life, give me the ball and let me take the mound.