So at 2am I see the news that the Sox are out of the running for Teixeria. That leaves the Angles, Nationals, O's, and possibly the Yankees as serious contenders for this guy, assuming the Sox are serious about being out of the race. Granted, this happened not to long ago with someone else: when the Yankees told A-rod essentially if he opts out, there will be no negotiations, the bridge will have been burned. Funny how baseball, hell sports negotiations work. It's rumored many of the offers on the table range fro 160 to close to 190 million over 8 or so years. This brings up something that has bugged me for far too long.
Assume he gets 185 million over 9 years. He is looking for a 9-10 year offer, or so I've heard, so we'll say 9. That's roughly 20.55 million dollars a year, for just under a decade. Now, anything longer than 6-7 years for someone like, oh say Manny, is a bit ridiculous. Aging in sports is like smoking; sure smoking doesn't automatically make you get cancer, but it jacks up the chances you will, pretty high for stuff like lung and heart cancer. As someone in the MLB, NFL, MLS, NHL, NBA, etc age, that risk of different forms of dead money start to rise. Injuries, career declines, etc. People will argue and say "Matt, c'mon, the dude's 29" True, which is why he's able to get away with asking for that kind of year quantity. But forget aging for now, lets think about it this way: 9 years of playing for the SAME organization. Jeter's done it, Smoltz and Chipper Jones have been at Atlanta for 20 and 15 years respectively, but in my mind I feel it's a rare occurrence to stay for that long if you're really good. After so long, teams will go through dry spells, years and years of just doing awful. Those good players they signed who are in the fifth or sixth year of their contract, may all of a sudden decide to take their amazing talent and go to a team just about on the brink of a World Series run. They create a mess in the clubhouse, whining and complaining until they get traded, or refuse to play until they get a trade. In the age of 'super' agents, they tend to get what they want, and in some way the club eats some money. Think about it, would you, right now, lock in what company you wish to work for for the next 10 years? You're not allowed out for 10 years or else you face serious consequences. I wouldn't, what if that company went through tough times and limited my career advancement? Or got a few bad apples that made working awful? That's how clubs feel, just instead they're locking in on an employee for almost a decade without much of a way out if things get sour (that doesn't lose them money). The clubs are in a catch 22: If the club doesn't offer 7-8+ years, the players walk, and if they do, many times trouble occurs after 5-6 years. Think of someone like T.O, who's only a good sport when the team is winning, or Marbury, who's just a pain in the ass all around. Now imagine you're lock in with them for 8+ years, and the only way out is to lose a lot of cash, and possibly a lot of clubhouse morale.
Now, I'm not saying Teixeria is like that, he seems like a stand up guy. Yet, I've said that about people before. Believe it or not, TO wasn't the way he was when he was young and playing for the 49ers. When did you start hearing about his antics? I remember them about 2 years, maybe, before his departure to the Eagles. I was still young then, and my memory isn't great, but this TO drama was a past few years thing, not a career occurrence. Look at Manny, the man went from humble and playful, to wanting a trade, then to "I don't care, I'm just trying to have fun" until he hit that 500th HR mark, at which point he was in "get me the hell out of here" mode. Even if you get the player to stay, the morale damage is huge and doesn't just last the season.
Finally, John Henry of the BoSox have reiterated what a lot of GMs have said all over sports: The economy is awful and it might get worse. I assure you, if the auto industry collapses, the markets will get worse. If more mortgage troubles get out, the market will get much worse. If the auto industries get bailed out, and the bailout doesn't work, the markets will get wrecked. The Maddoff Ponzi scheme hurt the Mets, who lost quite a bit of money because of this con artist. If you lock in now, when you think or even know you can afford it, in 2-3 years you could be singing QUITE a different tune. But Agents like Boras, and the players they either convince to care only about green, or the players who only love money and not the sport itself, don't realize that. Apparently, it stopped being about the game, stopped being about the fans who support them, and it started being about whether they can afford to host a crazy party every night of the week, drive a nice car for no reason other than bragging, or how awesome they can make their house(s). Many teams out there like the O's are struggling because, on top of the economy, their fan base has dwindled. They are stuck in a cycle of defeat: Losing seasons lead to lower fans support, which leads to lower revenue, keeping them from seeking these big named players to be a corner stone of their team. This can easily lead to more losing seasons, and you see how the rest turns out. I'll admit, the Sox pay a lot now, but I feel teams like them, the Mets, White Sox, etc feel like the only way to compete is spend over 100 million on a roster. If we want to see competitiveness, higher fan counts, and much more for baseball, we need to see either a mandatory spending cap, or GMs to get together and make a gentleman's agreement. Stop hijacking this game to make the most money, stop buying teams just to win. I've had a halo game where I get 63 kills and 15 deaths, and a halo game where I had 16 kills and 9 deaths. Yet I was more proud of the second game. Why? Because the first game was a social match, against terrible players who haven't played as much as I have. The second game was against very tough competition, and win or lose I feel good about not taking a cheap win.
I hope Boston isn't out of the running, but I also hope we don't get him because we throw 200 million at him. The Matsusaka signing was a bit weird to me, teams bidding up to 50 million just to talk, and in hindsight it was too much. I don't know why anyone had to bid just to get exclusive negotiating rights, it's just insane. This off-season has shown three things: Baseball GM's are starting to feel the pinch of the economy, there are plenty of players who don't quite realize the economy's impact (or don't care), and sports agents are just as shifty and sometimes just evil (see Furcal and the encyclopedia dedicated to the Scott Boras phenomenon). This is coming from someone who almost had his spirit killed by baseball strikes, and never got into Hockey because of their strike. And for far too long us fans haven't done enough to blame the right people. Us.
We demand our teams throw out cash to get a good team, instead of being true fans and wait patiently for sane trades and sigings, and the farm system to start kicking in. We demand immediate results, and hence clubs feel the pinch to dish out cash. Where is the next Teixeria coming from? Or the next Randy Johnson, or Mike Mussina? From the farm system, somewhere, and by ignoring that, baseball teams are hopelessly sabotaging themselves the chance at 1, 2 or even a decade of years where they are consistently a competitive team. We can and should blame the players and the player association for raising hell every time talk of a salary cap comes around, or the owners for not banding together and putting in an unofficial cap, but ultimately they make money and can throw 150+ million at players because we give them the funds, and many times the angry indirect support, to do so.
Just a rant, something to ponder when you get upset that your team didn't outbid someone for player X, and declare your team is screwed for a long time.
_-Matt
*Side note* ESPN's player search for MLB is awful. I tried teixeria, Teixeria, "Teixeria, Mark", and only "Mark Teixeria" worked, while the box clearly says "Last Name". Apparently you need more than the last name..
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