Pretty boring Tuesday
DMZ · December 12, 2006 at 10:41 am · Filed Under General baseball
The Red Sox and Boras/Matsuzaka are sparring
Jeff Bagwell might retire today
Rangers get Gagne for a year
Today’s when the M’s will offer arb to arb-eligible players. So we’ll see if Pineiro gets an offer and heck, Broussard for that matter.
[Updated to clip my bafflement at weird ways people use RSS feeds, which ends up looking a lot like plagiarism, which we know too well).]
If you butter Pineiro on his chest and drop him off the kitchen counter, he will land on his upside nine times of ten.
#98– oh, this time of day it’s usually that I still haven’t switched away from tuning in for the vent line, the one bright spot of the afternoon.
and speaking of Quality Sports Radio, the Mariner hot stove league is on tonight 🙂
Assuming any of those teams return his agent’s calls
Assuming he has an agent.
#100– you must have missed Matthew Pouliot, who thinks “the Red Sox might look outside the box for a closer, with Joel Pineiro and Tony Armas Jr. two of the possibilities.”
You should definitely write a post on this Derek.
If the BoSox sign Pineiro to be their closer prepare for the “Curse of the Bambino” part deux.
Here’s a question, do we sign Marcus Giles if we trade Beltre?
from Rotoworld: “The Red Sox wanted to make sure they’re desire to land Matsuzaka is being communicated to the right-hander. However, Boras is insisting that everything be funneled through him, and what’s getting through to the player remains a mystery to the team.”
sounds familiar.
I hate Boras. I wonder how many contracts he has ruined due to him holding out for bigger and bigger money?
Zero.
People keep on looking at Boras from the team’s perspective.
People have GOT to remember that Boras works for the PLAYER. And there are damn few, if any, players who didn’t get close to the maximum they could have gotten.
And, we should point out, that does happen: Alex Rodriguez signed two deals with the M’s though Boras thought he could get more, all the way to Andruw Jones’ last deal with Atlanta.
#64: Look at this from the point of view of the MLBPA: is it in the best interest of its members to have every ballplayer in NPB an unrestricted MLB free agent?
#112: It seems that when the rubber finally hits the road, though, some players forget exactly who is working for whom. From ESPN Insider today: Link
A few months after Alex Rodriguez signed his $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers, a deal negotiated by Boras, A-Rod was quoted in a New York newspaper as saying that he had really hoped to sign with the Mets. That seemed utterly bizarre, and a little silly: A-Rod had more negotiating leverage than any player in the history of baseball and yet he wound up playing someplace other than where he wanted to play. He could’ve played for the Mets – maybe not for $252 million, but maybe for $200 million. The difference between his playing for the Mets or not playing for the Mets was a whole lot of numbers on bank statements. (Excerpt short enough for fair use, I hope.)
Boras is basically saying the player shouldn’t be penalized because the team is paying a posting fee – the player doesn’t see a dime of the posting fee. The one comment I read from Epstein was saying in effect, well we do think he’s a 100m$ pitcher, which is reflected in the amount we pay in the posting fee (or something like that). If I’m the player’s agent, that’s not what I want to hear. The Sox should have realized they couldn’t offer Matsuzaka a discounted contract just because of the posting fee. It’s hilarious that Boras is mentioning Gil Meche’s contract today to illustrate his point.
#11: Boras can say whatever he wants. It’s his job to pump up the contract.
Of course, Matsuzaka has to accept a discount, because he is not a free agent. If Matsuzaka’s salary couldn’t be discounted, then the only appropriate bid to post for him would be $0. (Conversion to yen is an exercise for the reader.)
Jered Weaver doesn’t make “Meche money” because he’s not a free agent.
Johan Santana doesn’t make “Meche money” because he’s not a free agent.
Felix Hernandez doesn’t make “Meche money” because he’s not a free agent.
Like all of these pitchers, Matsuzaka is under club control. Unlike all of these pitchers, Matsuzaka has never thrown a pitch in major leage baseball.
Or, to say it another way, both Matsuzaka AND the Red Sox are paying Seibu the posting fee to allow Matsuzaka out of his 10 year obligation before free agency, so the Red Sox are correct in including the cost of the posting fee in the total negotiated amount.
What other way could Matsuzaka get Seibu to let him loose before the 10 years are up? Retiring is out; Nomo’s end-around closed that loophole.
If Boras’ next ploy is to have posted Japanese players return to Japan and demand the equivalent of their posted fee in a re-worked contract for the remainder of their 10 year obligation….well, good luck, Scotty.