MLB: 2013 Pre-Season Thread

Waitsian

boccy23 wrote: »

The Angels signing him in the first place was a really bad piece of business.

Oh I don't know, one team was happy!

Coeus

rockonollie wrote: »

Which is one of the reasons why the Reds would be a likely team.....they have one of the youngest rotations and overall roster in baseball and would be able to afford to give up that pick......

Looks like the Brewers have taken the draft pick hit and signed Lohse for a 3 year $33M contract.

boccy23

Coeus wrote: »

Looks like the Brewers have taken the draft pick hit and signed Lohse for a 3 year $33M contract.

Scott Boras is indeed a god. He waits and waits and eventually someone stumps up. $33M not bad for a couple of extra months waiting.

MoyVilla9

smackbunnybaby wrote: »

From Yahoo:

"A person familiar with the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks were ongoing, said the sides were bargaining over the money that would be included in a trade. Wells is owed $42 million over the next two seasons, and the Yankees anticipated they would end up being responsible for about $12 million to $13 million of that total."

Yes, but Mark Teixeira's wage is being paid by the WBC while he is on the DL. That allows the Yankees to spend slightly more on Wells, plus there is some nifty accounting going on so that his contract may even give the Yankees a credit towards the $189 million luxury tax coming up next year.

jack presley

boccy23 wrote: »

Scott Boras is indeed a god. He waits and waits and eventually someone stumps up. $33M not bad for a couple of extra months waiting.

I'm looking to get a pay rise in work. Any chance I could get Boras to represent me in negotiations? I'm probably past my best too

Coeus

jack presley wrote: »

I'm looking to get a pay rise in work. Any chance I could get Boras to represent me in negotiations? I'm probably past my best too

I actually think Boras hasn't had a great offseason. None of the top FA guys (Bourn, Lohse, Soriano) he was representing got the years or dollars they were looking for. Now I know the MLB rules on free agents didn't help him but this is the man who in 2007 got ARod to opt out of his original ridiculous $250M 10-year contract only to negoitiate the even more ridiculous $275M 10-year deal the Yankees are now saddled with.

rockonollie

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9109596/alex-rodriguez-make-more-houston-astros-combined-salary

Disgusting ESPN report from yesterday......A-rod, who may not even play this season, and if he does will only play for half the season......will still earn more in 2013 than the entire Houston Astros' roster combined.

jack presley

rockonollie wrote: »

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9109596/alex-rodriguez-make-more-houston-astros-combined-salary

Disgusting ESPN report from yesterday......A-rod, who may not even play this season, and if he does will only play for half the season......will still earn more in 2013 than the entire Houston Astros' roster combined.

And to make it even worse, the Astros biggest payroll obligation this season is the $5m they'll be paying to Wandy Rodriguez who will be pitching for the Pirates.

And it's not just A-Rod who won't be playing that'll earn more than them. Johan Santana who is probably done for good is the same and there are 9 other players who will be playing that will out earn the Astros roster

MoyVilla9

Sad to see what has happened to Johan Santana. Was the No-Hitter worth it?

jack presley

MoyVilla9 wrote: »

Sad to see what has happened to Johan Santana. Was the No-Hitter worth it?

While the no-hitter didn't help, I don't think it's the main cause of his problems. He's had shoulder problems for years now and I'd say his injury history is more to blame than throwing 20 more pitches than usual on one occasion.

Very sad to see though, a great player to watch and he comes across as a nice guy but I doubt we'll ever see him pitch again. And from a Mets fan's point of view, devastated that there's another $31m (uninsured) gone on a player who won't contribute this season. So bringing this back to the Astros discussion earlier, if you add that to the $15m or so they're paying Jason Bay and the annual $1m payment they have to make to Bobby Bonilla, they're paying nearly double to players who won't play for them this season than the Astros payroll!

boccy23

How long is the Bobby Bonila contract for?

jack presley

boccy23 wrote: »

How long is the Bobby Bonila contract for?

$1.2m every year from 2011 to 2035

jack presley

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9111981/justin-verlander-detroit-tigers-agrees-deal-which-worth-202-million-sources

Nice payday for Justin Verlander.

MoyVilla9

Talking about huge contracts, Justin Verlander just signed a huge extension to his contract. $180 million over 7 years.

MoyVilla9

jack presley wrote: »

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9111981/justin-verlander-detroit-tigers-agrees-deal-which-worth-202-million-sources

Nice payday for Justin Verlander.

Beat me to it...

jack presley

And now Buster Posey signs a big one. Plenty of money being spent today!

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2013/03/29/giants-buster-posey-agree-to-nine-year-deal/

Coeus

jack presley wrote: »

And now Buster Posey signs a big one. Plenty of money being spent today!

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2013/03/29/giants-buster-posey-agree-to-nine-year-deal/

If a someone deserves a big payday its Buster. The full 2 seasons he has played, the Giants have won the World Series. Been in his mid 20s, the Giants have him locked in for his prime years. They can always play him at 1B towards the end of his contract...

Waitsian

jack presley wrote: »

$1.2m every year from 2011 to 2035

2035?! :eek:

What? How? Why? That's shocking. You mean he's guaranteed 1.2 million every year til then, and he's retired (and has been for a while now)?

Bloody hell, this'll be good...

jack presley

mod9maple wrote: »

2035?! :eek:

What? How? Why? That's shocking. You mean he's guaranteed 1.2 million every year til then, and he's retired (and has been for a while now)?

Bloody hell, this'll be good...

Like a lot of things, in theory it sounded like a great idea and as in most cases, things that appear too good to be true usually are.

In 2000, he was owed $5m or so in his last year of his deal. But he had been rubbish year in '99 so the Mets wanted rid of him. The plan was to offer BB a deferral of the $5m he was owed in lieu if getting $1.2m a year for 25 years starting 10 years later. Sounds mad, why would they pay him $25m when he's only owed $5m?

Well it all comes down to the Mets getting involved with Bernie Madoff. He convinced Mets ownership into taking the $5m that was to be paid to Bonilla (and hundreds of more millions worth of Mets money) and invest it into his fund. The plan was that the $5m they invested in Madoff's scheme after 10 years would be worth a lot more than the $1.2m they'd have to pay Bonilla every year so they'd actually make a profit on it.

But as we now all know, Madoff was a crook operating a Ponzi scheme and not only did the Mets lose the $5m owed to Bonilla, they lost the hundreds of millions of dollars and basically bankrupted the Mets. And they still owe Bonilla his $1.2m a year until 2035.

You couldn't make it up!

Raif Severance

Excellent Start from us, even better since we Defeated the Yanks.

Hopefully, it bodes well for the Season.