baseball

[mprayii]

I did notice the female in the pic.... whoopie doo!

[ND97]

Dont get me wrong, Id hit it too. But I wouldnt respect her. She's basically a blow up doll with a pulse (mostly plastic, no natural wonder).

Back on topic: what youre saying chucky is that everyone has something to gain. True. But Boras has no leverage. The Red Sox can simply low ball him (offer lets say 4 or 5 million a year) and Boras almost has to accept it.

He cant say "well, there is another team interested so you better up your offer" or "he really wants to go back to Japan so you better up your offer or he walks."

He has no leverage at all. Which makes me think that Boras is such an a****** that he will use another client, such as JD Drew, as leverage. He's a slick, ruthless businessman. He's find a way to get the leverage he needs.

[bchcky]

well, drew signed, so there goes your theory. and there goes $70 million down the tubes. boras doesn't have to accept anything, matsuzaka does, thats why i keep saying its not all boras, in the end, no matter how much you hear about boras, the choice belongs to the player. matsuzaka is a big boy, he can make is own decision.

[chrometj]

how does all the fun stuff NOT end up in the censored section?

[jeepgod]

isn't it football season? i thought that the red soxs sux and aren't playing anymore this year?



go local sports team!

[ND97]

bchcky said:

well, drew signed, so there goes your theory. and there goes $70 million down the tubes. boras doesn't have to accept anything, matsuzaka does, thats why i keep saying its not all boras, in the end, no matter how much you hear about boras, the choice belongs to the player. matsuzaka is a big boy, he can make is own decision.

Half of my theory was just proven! JD Drew actually got $14 million per year. He is not worth $14 in this market. Either Theo has lost his mind or Boras did use Drew as leverage.

That means the chances of the Red Sox signing Matsusaka are 100%.

And the agent makes the decision to accept or reject deals probably 90% of the time. Remember, Matsusaka has said that it is his dream to play Major League Baseball and he had a going away celebration and everything.

The Red Sox offered him $7 million a year already. If Matsusaka really was the person making the decisions, he would have signed already. He was only making $4 million in Japan.

Boras is making the decisions.

[bchcky]

how on earth do you figure that drew is not worth $14 million in this market? he absolutely is. i didn't want him for that much money, nor did i think he was worth it, but if you're going to start talking about "in this market" then he's worth it. the cubs are paying alfonso soriano $17 million a year for the next 8 years. you have got to be kidding me. he's 31. and he's not as good of a hitter as people think. he's got a quick bat, and hits a lot of dingers as a result. but look at his OPS. look at stats that really matter. look at his k's to bb's as a leadoff guy, lets see, about 160 k's and about 60 bb's as your leadoff hitter? and then you think he's a 5 tool player? he sure is, but he's 31 years old, if he steals 40+ bags more than once more during the life of that contract i'd be amazed.

and how about carlos lee? basically $17 million over 6 years instead for him. another reason jd drew is worth that IN THIS MARKET. lee is a good hitter too, don't get me wrong. but $17 million a year for him? wow. he's hit over 300 twice in his career. never hit 40 hr's in a season, never even his more than 32 until last year, and he's never topped 120 rbi's. he does have a few things in his favor though, his OPS and slugging are slightly above average, and his k's/bb's is pretty close to equal.

but come on, el caballo is 30, soriano is 31, and they're each getting $17 million for the next 6 and 8 years respectively. both of those contracts make manny look like an absolute bargain for the next 2 years at the $18-20 million he is due each season. drew is a better hitter than lee, and much better defensively, and he's a much more polished hitter than soriano, and def much better defensively.

so while i agree with you that i didn't want to see the red sox sign drew. if there's anything thats true about him, its that in this market, he was going to get $14 million a year. thats why he opted out of the final years of his contract in LA. he knew he could get the money.

[jps4jeep]

bchcky said:

how on earth do you figure that drew is not worth $14 million in this market?

trevor, injury prone...


you can sign trot nixon for 1/8 of that and get an equal amount of production, assuming you can keep either of them healthy.

I do like what I see in the line up with ortiz being protected mby manny and manny being protected by drew, on papre it looks amazing, but I want to see what kind of production we can get from him. If he plays more than 120 games this year, I will be suprised.

Also, WTF, not signing Damon for less $$ and getting a better player that was a fan favorite. I understand last years market was different than this year, but comon.. Theo is having his a** handed to him by Boras to secure a deal with D-mat, Boras must have f**** up something for drew and the sox are taking it on the chin.

[bchcky]

yeah, when you talk about damon, you're talking apple's and orange's. different markets, different knowledge of the players etc etc... damon is older, and he's had a nagging shoulder injury for the last 2 seasons. i think by the end of damon's contract, sox fans will realize how lucky we were that we didn't sign damon for the money he wanted.

and as far as drew being injury prone, you're talking about different things there too. damon's had a nagging shoulder injury. nixon has had nagging hammy, back, oblique etc injuries. drew has never had nagging injuries like that. his injuries are freak injuries. things that are unpredictable. when you talk about injury prone, you talk about pedro, with a torn rotator cuff, something that will continually get worse if not completely fixed. you talk about hitters with leg injuries, or any player with shoulder injuries. we're talking nagging stuff that keeps occurring. drew missed half of 2005 with a broken wrist, he took a ball off the wrist, he played over 140 games the following year (2006), hardly a recurring injury. he also had petellar tendenitis in one of his knees while with the cards, so for almost a 3 year stretch, if you look at his games played, he was not a model of health. following one of those seasons, he had surgury, which fixed it, and has not gone on the DL again as a result of that injury. done and fixed.

so injury prone is not the right word when you talk about him. listen, you're preaching to the chior about christopher trotman nixon. he was my favorite player since the day he stepped on the field. i love the fact that he played with that football mentality. but the fact of the matter is, he's injury prone. no two ways about it. so drew had one nagging injury, 3+ years ago, that has not bothered him since. since then, he had one freak injury, a ball off the wrist, something that could (god forbid) happen to papi, or any other player in baseball.

i wasn't an advocate of signing drew at all. but it had nothing to do with him being injury prone. its the simple fact that he doesn't care about anything. but he is a phenomenal player. look at his OPS numbers. look at anything you want. and on top of that he's rated as an above average outfielder. if you bring damon up, you put drew in last year's market, he's not worth $14 million a year. but like i already said, in this market, he's absolutely worth that. with people like soriano and lee getting 17, i'd rather have drew at 14. he's a better all around player than both of them. its all about the market. think about the season manny came here, $20 million plus a year, same offseason, same thing for arod, also the same offseason that mussina got his huge contract with the yankees. its all about market value, and as much as i might not agree with what the sox have done, thats his market value. he would have gotten that somewhere else too, there's a reason he opted out of his contract in LA.

if you're mad about anything, be mad about the $9 million a year they're giving to lugo. the sox need to figure out something at short, they keep going back and forth. he's not nearly the defensive wiz that gonzo is, and for someone recruited for his offense, lets compare 2006 stats: we all remember the OC right? brought in for his defense to win the world series? for some reason we didn't bring him back, what did he do last year along with his stellar defense?
the OC: 9hrs, 72rbi, .282ave, .739ops.

renteria? brought in for offensive production, since they decided to get rid of the OC
rent: 14hrs, 70rbi, .293ave, .797ops.

granted, he didn't have nearly the season we had hoped when he came to the sox, but the fact remains, they flip-flopped on what they were looking for out of a SS. so they brought in gonzo, deciding again to go with defense over offense, what did he do? he was simply a marvel in the field. quite possibly the best defensive shortstop to play for the sox ever. offensively?
gonzo: 9hr, 50rbi, .255ave, .696ops.

nothing great, but when you get that kind of defense, how much can you really complain about 50 rbi from your #8 or 9 hitter? so the fix this year? go with offense instead. theo has had a hard on for lugo for a while now, he's been desired for his offensive production. and he's not exactly known for his range or throwing ability defensively. so what are we to expect from lugo?
lugo: 12hr, 37rbi, .278ave, .762ops.

we didn't even throw nomar into the mix. back and forth, back and forth. now we've got lugo, and for what?! brought in for offense, with 37 rbi last year? interesting goings on at the short stop position. i love how everyone is in uproar about drew, and nobody has noticed that lugo is getting $9 million a year.

[jeepgod]

bchcky: you should write for a sports "show" or forum. you know everything. your overwhelming knowledge of sports, espically baseballlis amazing. i am so impressed by it.

[ND97]

No s*** I feel like Im debating Peter Gammons here.

[bchcky]

jeepgod said:

bchcky: you should write for a sports "show" or forum. you know everything. your overwhelming knowledge of sports, espically baseballlis amazing. i am so impressed by it.

i figured you might be impressed.

[mprayii]

I hate f*** reading long posts.

[mprayii]

And I move to have a new section called "Book Reports" added to the forum.

[bchcky]

haha, i rarely read long posts either, thats why i try to break it up into little paragraphs, makes it much easier.