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2/10: Getting Market Value Can Sometimes Seem Odd

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kkktookmybabyaway

Entry posted by kkktookmybabyaway ·

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• Oh how the mighty have fallen. At one time the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders were the envy of the league. Now Al Davis can't even find a head coach to take the helm of his built-for-offense team. It looks like former coach Art Shell is now the front-runner, after Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino both pulled out of consideration.

 

• After giving their starting quarterback a contract extension, it looks like the Houston Texans will stick with David Carr rather than go with Vince Young or Matt Leinhart in the upcoming NFL Draft. Now the stage is set for the Texans to take running back Reggie Bush with the first overall pick, but I’m not sold on Houston making Bush their top choice. Of course Bush has all the tools to be a NFL star, but Houston already has a solid halfback in Dominack Davis. There might not be any offensive linemen in this year’s draft with superstar potential (I don’t pay much attention to college football or draft prospects), but if there were I’d trade this top pick and draft down a few spots to get a top offensive lineman or three, which would help Carr out much more than another running back. Look at what having a good offensive line did for Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has progressed from wide-eyed rookie to Super Bowl champion in just two years. Hines Ward may catch Ben’s passes, but Alan Faneca and his fellow line mates are the ones who allow Ben to toss the ball to his receivers.

 

• Even if the Texans pull off a draft-day trade, the most interesting swap this year in the NFL has just taken place. Oddly enough, it didn’t involve any active players. NBC sent “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” to ABC for broadcaster Al Michaels, so he can announce next season's Sunday Night Football games. For those that weren’t around at the time, Oswald was created in the 1920s by Walt Disney in the days before Mickey Mouse. So an award-winning 30-year broadcasting career is worth a few dozen silent cartoons? Think about that the next time you feel undervalued at your job. Actually, there were some other transactions in this deal. From the article: “As part of the deal, NBC sold ESPN cable rights to Friday coverage of the next four Ryder Cups through 2014. NBC also granted ESPN increased usage of Olympic highlights through 2012 and other NBC properties through 2011. NBC, in turn, gets expanded highlight rights to ABC and ESPN events.”

 

So who got the better of this deal? I'd say ABC, unless Michaels stays in the booth through 2014. And even then Oswald will still outlast Al if properly preserved.

 

• Speaking of being undervalued, how would it feel to lose your request for a pay increase but still get a raise worth more than $2 million? Alfonso Soriano knows. I still don’t get baseball arbitration. You signed a contract for $7.5 million/year – that’s the amount of money you get. Case closed. It’s not like you’re going to get cut by a baseball team and lose all that money. Just wait until your contract expires and seek your value on the open market.

 

• I don’t know much of this case, but I’m not going to cast judgment on Busta Rhymes for missing the wake of his slain bodyguard. While some might think he’s being inconsiderate, it’s possible Mr. Rhymes just doesn’t want to attract media attention to the bodyguard's family in this time of mourning. If he would have been in attendance during this somber occasion, the place would have been overrun by photographers and reporters. However, if Mr. Rhymes isn’t cooperating with police regarding this shooting, then he truly is a busta.

 

Blog Plugs

 

Since we’re all a happy community here, I figure why not plug my fellow bloggers?

 

• Bored fells like an old-timer when it comes to observing sports, and he opens up the vault to reminisce about his first baseball game. But like I said there, what depresses me is when I see players I remember watching retire and become managers, or, worse yet, advance up the corporate ladder from coach to general manager to president of a sports franchise.

 

• Alfdogg was pretty much spot-on in his guessing of the 2006 NBA All-Stars. While I can’t comment much on the NBA during the regular season, I don’t like having an All-Star game take place during the regular season. Say what you want about the Pro Bowl, but at least when that game is played, the athletes there put in a full season to deserve being called an All-Star, not half of a season.

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Bored

Soriano actually wasn't under contract for the upcoming season as he's signed a series of one-year contracts since being in the Majors. Since he's not eligible for free agency yet but he has accrued enough service time to be arbitration eligible and really cash in, not that he wasn't at $7.5 million last year. I wish they'd televise arbitration hearings as it's basically teams talking about how shitty their own player is for a of couple of hours and then they'll have to pretend like it never happened afterwards.

 

Thanks for the plug, as I noted in my entry now current manager Dusty Baker made the final out of that game.

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kkktookmybabyaway

OK, I had always thought arbitration was for players under contract that felt they deserved more. Clear this up for me.

 

Source for arbitration rules.

 

I looked at Soriano's stats and he's played at least 145 games for a team since 2001 (he's played for two seasons before that but one was for 9 games and the other 22, so I'm guessing those don't count). This means he's got one more year before being allowed to become an unrestricted free agent. So basically a team can keep a player for six years and either pay them what they both agree to, or if one side disagrees (or is it the players only who decided this?) with the contract amount they go to an arbitrator. After six years they become an unrestricted free agent and can go anywhere and do anything.

 

Because he hasn't been in the league for 6 years, he can't become an unrestricted free agent and has had to stay on the same team, or wherever he got traded to (Yanks-Texans-Nats). So he was without a contract, couldn't go anywhere and had to deal with the Nationals, didn't like what they were offereing and went to arbitration. Is this correct?

 

I figure why not try to create some sort of community where someone who might not know you sees the kinds of things you write about at another place and gives your blog a shot -- it could be interesting, and might encourage other people to start blogging, too. I'd be willing to do this with anyone here, although I don't read much of the wrestling-related material, which seems to be what is most talked about here (makes sense though, considering this place was created due to pro wrestling).

 

And it must have been a warm night out for Racist Dusty to be able to make the final out of a game.

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Bored

Essentially you're on the right track. Only thing is a player has to have a certain amount of service time to become arbitration eligible, I think four years but I've always been a little fuzzy on arbitration eligible status. The first few years a player is in the Majors he's pretty much at the mercy of his team when it comes to his contract. Although that's not to say a young player can't make big bucks as most teams won't completely lowball their young superstar realizing that they'd pretty much kill their chances of signing him to a long term deal and him leaving the second he becomes a free agent.

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kkktookmybabyaway

Interesting. So Alfonso Soriano couldn't pimp his wares on the open market. Is the reason MLB does this hippie arbitration so a team has the chance to keep a good player for several years before they head off to the Yankees or Red Sox?

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