Cheech Tremendous

Just wanted to point out this comment again, seeing as though Dice signed for $52 million a couple hours later.

Excellent deal for the Red Sox. I figured he'd get more money and less years. If they can recoup just half of the posting fee through international investments and advertising, the total commitment would be around $75 million for six years, or basically Roy Oswalt money. That sounds about right based on projections and translated performances. Now let's just hope he can live up to those lofty expectations being placed on him. In other news, the Sox also resigned Doug Mirabelli. I don't really care for Dougie, but his zips and pecota projections are very comparable to Toby Hall and Rod Barajas, the other catchers on the market. They'd both cost more money, and neither, as far as I know, have any knuckleball experience.

Whew. Matsuzaka is on a plane back to Boston with ownership to take a physical. A Red Sox official conceded that a deal is in place.

Scott Boras, from what I understand, basically has a stranglehold over talents from Japan. He's sort of the go to guy. If he blows the Matsuzaka deal, he could very well lost his stronghold abroad.

The Yankees reportedly offered Kei Igawa a four year contract worth $16 million, and they paid $26 million for the rights to talk to him. Are they being cheap? These players are not free agents, and they do not have the luxury of having market forces determine their pay. That's the downside of the posting system. If he wants to go back to Japan for the next two years for $3 million, he's more than welcome to do that.

That would bring their total financial commitment to $100 million over 6 years for a guy who has never thrown a pitch in Major League Baseball. What a bunch of cheapskates! Scott Boras' counter offer was supposedly $66 million over 6 years. Both sides need to swallow their pride and settle on something in the middle. How about $60 million over 6 years? Seems stupid to let it die over what would be $2-3 million a year. That's a drop in the bucket for this team.

I like Marcus Giles as a player, but take a look at his numbers the past four seasons. It's not a good trend at all. He's still young, which is a good sign, but it makes you wonder what's really going on here. 2003: .316 .390 .526 2004: .311 .378 .443 2005: .291 .365 .461 2006: .262 .341 .387 His BA, OBP and SLG have all dropped in each of the past four seasons.

Yeah, screw him for being so short and stuff. Who cares if he was the 11th best prospect in baseball last year, we don't need any short stacks clogging up our manly infield. Let's pay twenty times the salary for a guy who will probably put up a similar production. At least Giles carries himself like a man.

Boras is clearly not interested in letting Dice sign with Boston because he wants to disrupt the whole posting system so that he can put his Japanese client(s) on the free agent market with several teams bidding for him instead of 1 team exclusively bidding on him. Boras doesn't see a penny of the 51.1 Million that goes to Dice's team in Japan as it is this year. The Sox could offer $16 mil per year over 6 years and I bet he would still reject it despite what Dice wants. It's all about Scott Boras when it comes to Scott Boras. I believe the Yankees comment by Geniousmoment was only because it would be bad for their direct competition if they got this guy. Not because the Yankees are supposedly ruining baseball by spending insane money on their payroll. If anything the Yankees are helping since it's making those cheap ass "small market" teams' Owners spend some money for a change. That was an excellent post, as you've hit on Boras' motivations almost perfectly. The posting system, like the draft, puts downward pressure on contract expectations for players. It's never been about what Matsuzaka wants, as he has clearly stated he wants to be in America and is ready to accept any fair offer. Holding out is what's in the best interest for Boras. He can't accept that he lacks all leverage in these negotiations. Matsuzaka is not a free agent, and he can't be expected to be paid like one. Look at the contracts given to Santana, Carpenter, Oswalt, etc. These should set the baseline for his contract, not the open market forces that drove Gil Meche's deal. Boras is walking a fine line with these negotiations. Blowing this deal could have huge ramifications on his presence in Japan. If he gets blamed for blowing this deal, he can kiss his Japanese clients goodbye. Furthermore, he's going to seriously hamper his place in baseball if guns down a deal that was negotiated in "good faith" by the Red Sox.

Every single player above Bagwell on the HOF monitor who's eligible is in the Hall, and most of the hundred or so guys below him are as well. He's quite a bit ahead of those other fringe candidates that were mentioned (Dawson, Mattingly, McGriff, etc.). He's not really borderline at all.

You and al are two of the biggest b.s. stat-homers. There's only a 72% chance that's true.

Bags is a Hall of Famer...no doubt. DING DING DING DING DING. We have the winner for the biggest Homer on the boards. Sorry but Jeff Bagwell is not a Hall of Famer. There are a ton of better players who aren't even in the Hall. Jeff and his 450 career homeruns and 1500 rbi's are not going to be getting into the hall. Jeff Bagwell is as sure a Hall of Famer as you can get, and I could care less about the Astros. He was one of the elite hitters in the game for 14 consecutive seasons. He may not get in on the first ballot, but there is no way he doesn't get in. Check out his page at baseball-reference. Even I was astounded at how good he was.

Except that they would lose the guy who is supposed to anchor their staff for the next 5-6 years and they'd severely damage the chances of making the playoffs next year with all the good starting pitchers off the market. But most importantly, they'd lose their chance at the guy who is supposed to be the centerpiece to their expansion into Asia, which would derail their plan before it ever got off the ground. It would probably set them back ten years in player development and visibility in the Pacific Rim. They cannot let Matsuzaka get away. It really has nothing to do with the Yankees at all.

-Eric Gagne signs with the Texas Rangers. I've heard $6 and $8 million thrown around. One's probably Canadian. I was for the Sox taking a look at him because they are so desperate for a closer, but that's a lot of money to throw at a guy who basically hasn't played in two years. I wonder what they plan on doing with Otsuka now. -Scott Boras is really becoming a pain with the Matsuzaka negotiations. He had a press conference last night to announce that his client deserves a five year, $100 million deal. The Red Sox flew to Los Angeles and plan to meet all day Tuesday as the 30 day window is nearly over. They offered a second contract, even though Boras never gave a counter to their first. I still think they get a deal done, but it's getting dicey (no pun intended).

Well, we like sports. Any other bright ideas on where to get our coverage?

Not that it I think it's the best deal out there, but I bet that Allen ends up with Kings for some sort of package built around Mike Bibby.

You're not even close to the biggest SC homer anymore. You've got to try harder. I thought someone would say "909 is the biggest Lakers homer", but alas, twas not to be. I would have said it had I been on the board this weekend.

I'm glad I made it through three pages of this thread unscathed. Hiding behind stats is a good way to cover up your homerism (right, Al?).

My perception is that regardless of whether or not Bonds had any offers today, someone eventually would have signed him. There is such a cloud over his head that no GM wants to break the line and speak to Barry. However, as the winter progresses and the free agent pool dries up, it's highly likely that somebody would have ended up giving Bonds a contract. Now, assuming this, the Giants couldn't really lowball Barry up front. He'd simply walk from negotiations and wait until the best offer came along. In that scenario, Sabean would face a shitstorm, as he'd not only lose out on Bonds and the chase to the HR record but he would have also failed to do anything with the Barry money that could have improved the team. It was a game of chicken, and the Giants lost.

Even at his age, he still OPSed a hair under 1000 last year. I'd give $16 million to Bonds before I'd give any of the new mediocre multimillionaires the money they've all gotten. Plus, he's still a big draw in Frisco, which is worth something. You would give 16 million per year to a guy who couldn't get a job anywhere else and had to go to the Winter Meetings on his hands and knees to beg for a job. I am glad you aren't a gm of a baseball team! Barry Bonds can go fuck himself! He may be an asshole, but he's still worth $16 million. Doesn't matter if he has no other offers, if that's what it takes to sign him, sometimes you have to bite the bullet.

Well, maybe the Red Sox aren't Yankees v. 2.0 .... they just got outbid by the Royals! And like clockwork, MLB is investigating the Red Sox for tampering with JD Drew. Is it really that hard for people to understand that he could easily trump his $33 million contract in this market? Boras is a great agent and he read the marketplace. Sounds like Colletti is crying over nothing here.

You give us your delicious cheeseburger and we'll give you shit on a bun! Deal? So who is the shit on the bun? They both are terrible, only thing positive about Sexson is that he played. In what world does Richie Sexson qualify as terrible? I don't think Sexson can be called terrible, but he appears to be on the fast train to mediocrity. He was about one win better than Kevin Youkilis last year, who was described as garbage on this board a couple of days back. His contract is a little steep seeing that you can find comparable players at a fraction of the cost. He still has some pop in his bat, but I'm not really sure that's a need for the Yankees.

I agree with that, but come on, Brian Anderson was hitting .192. Let's say you theoretically started a CF with a -11.3 VORP. We'll call him B. Anderson. Then you theoretically started a LF with a -9.9 VORP. We'll call him Scott P. Now let's say you compounded the problem by theoretically batting one of them first. That would theoretically cost you 4-5 wins. Now lets say, theoretically, that your team finished five games out of the playoffs. That'd probably make me think about upgrading. Theoretically. I'm just sayin'.

Why are the Yankees flirting with Richie Sexson? He's a decent enough player, but I don't think he adds a whole lot to that team, especially with his across the board declining numbers (some of which was probably Safeco). I guess it would all depend on the price they got him at, but I would think they'd be better served trying to upgrade the rotation.

I was misinformed with my earlier Gil Meche post. He's actually getting 5 years/$55 million! Yes, folks, the luster has officially worn off of Dayton Moore. Whatever he learned from Schuerholz was lost during the transport to KC.