12 years is 5 years longer than 7 years. My philosophy is that there is a lot that can go wrong, and the more time is involved, the more opportunity for those things to go wrong.
The other thing is that pitchers and position players are not apples to apples.
Price's contract was a sizable overpay, no question. But at the time, we had a potential window for success, and pitching was our big need.