Monday night linkage…
- The World Umpires Association voted to ratify a new five-year contract with MLB that will extend to December 31st, 2014, according to Barry M. Bloom and Tom Singer of MLB.com. The new contract was agreed upon in principal last month, but was not officially ratified until late Monday night.
- Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe writes that neither Jonathan Papelbon nor the Red Sox seem interested in a long-term deal. Boston may be reluctant to lock Papelbon in for the long-haul as they have Daniel Bard waiting in the wings.
- Peter Gammons, in an appearance on NESN, said that the Red Sox and Jason Bay agreed to a four-year, $60MM pact in July, before an MRI raised concerns about both of his knees. As a result, Boston reduced their offer from four years to two years. Gammons suggested that this was an example of why an independent medical staff should be in place in the majors.
- Cards manager Tony La Russa said that if the club makes one more move this off-season, he would prefer another hitter to a pitcher, writes Matthew Leach of MLB.com. Ideally, La Russa says he would like a third baseman who could also play the outfield. Leach writes that Felipe Lopez comes to mind.
- Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel spoke to Brewers negotiator Teddy Werner, who said that Jody Gerut might be the only arbitration signing today. We'll be keeping you posted on all of the day's signings in this handy post.
If true, sucks to be the Mets.
Guess the mets didn’t do a MRI on his knees. Sucks.
Felipe Lopez as our 3rd baseman/Utility INF/OF sounds great to me. Sign him for 1 year/2-4M and use the rest of the money on a relief/Jimmy and I’ll be satisfied with our offseason.
So the Mets just signed a possibly injured Bay for 4 years? That can’t be good.
Edmonds-1MM
Calero-2MM
F.lopez-3.5MM
Sounds like a good offseason for the cards
Ryan Franklin was told by several people in the organization that the Cardinals would not sign a another reliever:
101espn.com/post/33778_franklin_says_hes_been_told…
So strike that idea. Perhaps they sign a flexible reliever or starter guy like Smoltz, but other than that. I like the Lopez and the Edmonds signings though, and I think Edmonds could be had for league minimum.
Now im not even close to being an expert on this, but shouldnt checking a guys knees be a fairly standard part of any medical/physical?
Sucks for the Mets.
so why did the red sox offer 4/64 in the offseason?
My thoughts exactly. I call bullshit, Gammons.
My thoughts exactly. I call bullshit, Gammons.
I just don’t believe anything Gammons has to say at this point.
everyone is saying the Mets signed Bay without looking at his knees. According to multiple sources on this site they said that “The physical not just part of the process”. The Mets definitely were concerned about his knees. They may gave just determined that they will be healthy enough for 4 years.
Hopefully people don’t actually believe that looking at his knees was not “part of the process”.
This sounds like some spin being transmitted through Boston Mouth Piece Peter Gammons.
It wouldn’t be the first time the BoSox PR machine, personified in Peter Gammons, spreads a rumour when they won’t sign a player and want to diminish his ‘value’ in the eyes of their credulous fanbase, now the bosox fans will be thinking: “WOW what a smart move by our FO!”.
There’s a long history of how their ‘PR machine’ works, vilified:
Clemens
Nomar
Pedro
Manny
Now they’re working on Lowell and maybe later, David Ortíz. Even Texeira was vilified when he was drafted by them, when they ran rumours of bad health from Tex and teams stayed away from him… so they to drafted him, Tex knew all about how they were spreading that rumour, didn’t sign, and later, he played them really beautifully, he gave them the impression he’d sign for the BoSox… but he already had agreed with the NYY and asked their front office to shut up so he could ‘play’ the red sox, LOL (that’s the real reason Henry was PO). There was a really nice and long article about that last year just after he signed with the yanks.
The problem with your argument, is you’re citing all the players that the Red Sox were right about.
How were the Red Sox wrong on Nomar? Pedro?
Clemens turned out to be a ‘roider for years after leaving Boston, thus inflating “his prime”.
Manny drove himself out, plus quit on his team.
Tex didn’t “play” the Red Sox last year, he simply signed with the highest bidder. You have to face it. There’s no “playing the Red Sox” here.
Mike Lowell isn’t being “driven out”, but rather the Red Sox are smartly phasing out a player that can’t man third base any longer. David Ortiz won’t be “driven out”, but phased out if he has another fall off.
You rip the Red Sox for being a smart front office. The Mets simply lack this, no one denies it.
“It should also be noted that Garciaparra declined a 4-year $60 million contract extension offer from the Red Sox during spring training of the 2003 season.”
“It should also be noted that Garciaparra declined a 4-year $60 million contract extension offer from the Red Sox during spring training of the 2003 season.”
It was 2004.
And that (partially) inaccurate quote you gave actually made Nomar look really bad. Because he turned down a great deal that he’d never get. The Red Sox were gutsy, bold and turned out to be on the money to trade him at the 2004 trade deadline. That is not easy to take the step to trade what was considered a “franchise guy” back in the day. That’s what poster Miguel Angel Barajas would actually label “driving him outta town!” Thank goodness emotions only run teams like the Mets or Redskins. Or Raiders.And let’s face it, winning doesn’t cover “the stench” of idiots in the Red Sox front office. The smartness of the Red Sox avoids having that much stench at all.
There’s no denying that Boston has a very capable front office. they’re competitive in the the best division in baseball every year, and that doesn’thappen on accident. However, and I may be wrong, I fear you may suffer from what I call a Theo is God complex. Symptoms of TIG include cherry picking the really succesful decisions made in Boston and ignoring the less than stellar ones, then going on and on about it. They also screw up like everybody else and pointing that out isn’t saying they suck, it’s just in the interest of accuracy.
how about the time they placed Manny on irrevocable wavers in 2003 ( 3 years into a 8 year contract ) …exactly how and why did he last 5 more years with them???
the red sox have their share of idiots and knuckleheads on the field and the front office
winning covers the stench…this is what the mets dont have right now…
By the way, there’s a good book on the Red Sox called “Feeding the Green Monster” by a man that I believe wrote for Esquire Magazine.In the book, he has a quote in which Manny screamed “you (expletive) White devils” at team ownership. How many employees do you know of that can utter racist terms like that at the boss and not be fired? Manny is a controversial and bizarre guy. He even pushed a 60 something Red Sox employee to the ground. Let’s just say Manny eventually drove himself away with his behavior…
“There was a really nice and long article about that last year just after he signed with the yanks.”
Actually, there wasn’t.
So true but unfortunately for Lowell he signed a club friendly deal.
It’s not team friendly when he makes 12-13 million at 35 years old and can’t play the position anymore that he’s paid to.
“There’s a long history of how their ‘PR machine’ works, vilified:
Clemens
Nomar
Pedro
Manny”
Except, as pointed out, they were correct about all four of them.
Clemens and Manny have both been linked to steroids since then and Nomar and Pedroa both essentially fell off the face of the earth. Given, Pedro had one great season with the Mets, but he has only pitched one full season since the Sox let him walk.
For all the talk of the recent Sox front office “villifying” players and unjustly painting them as not worth a contract going forward, Johnny Damon’s the only one they weren’t proven 100% right to let go.
“Red Sox and Jason Bay agreed to a four-year, $60MM pact in July, before an MRI raised concerns about both of his knees. As a result, Boston reduced their offer from four years to two years”.
why did the red sox offer him the same amount again in the offseason? this doesn’t make any sense. gammons is an idiot.
Sure, and a guy named “antor” from a message board is the man. Got it.
Yes, Cards sign felipe. This move I would like. Would mean no Ben Sheets though.
Not true. We could sign Felipe for around 2 million and then sign sheets for 5M. Which is highly unlikely. I’d love to have them both, But sheets right now sounds better to me. Let the youngster freese play.
Felipe will get more than 2 million. His value last year is unparalleled compared to the rest of the market, and he will clear 4 million easy.
Who else has said they have real interest in Felipe?
If anyone, I don’t think it’s a contending team such as the cardinals.
Isn’t Gammons the same person who said Bay would rather play in Beirut than Queens? Yeah, I’ll take whatever he says about the Red Sox with a block of salt
Well, it’s not Gammons fault that a player actually chose Queens over Beirut. Omar Minaya’s team isn’t actually appealing…
But to say something like that which may causes a lot of problems in the future is not just down right unprofessional but also vilifies Bay’s persona. If Bay himself didn’t say that, what right does Gammon have to say he’ll prefer Beirut over Queens? Classless act by a classless person. Regardless of whether he was trying to help the Red Sox.
Wow, I think calling Gammons “classless” is allowing one’s personal feelings to get in the way of reality. I don’t care much for Jon Heyman, because of his frequent mouthpieces penned in favor of Boras. But I wouldn’t call him classless simply because I don’t like his work. I don’t think Heyman is classless, nor do I find Gammons to be.You take some people’s words in a literal sense, Gammons didn’t say that Bay mentioned Beirut. He simply is using a metaphor about how undesirable playing for the Mets is. Carlos Beltran didn’t really want to sign with the Mets, he had to settle for them. It’s just reality…And I don’t happen to get all the hate for a Boston hack anyway, there are plenty of hacks in the media with a Nu Yawk bias, an L.A. bias etc., etc., etc.
Beltran could’ve also re-signed with Houston…and if he really wanted to sign with the Yankees, along with the 20 mil discount ( which came out to less than 3 mil a year ) he could’ve back-loaded his contract to negate the lux tax for that year…( 2005 )
im sure he now wishes he did this…as the world now sees the farce that the wilpons are running…
Truthfully, I don’t care for Gammon nor any other writer. I’m a Yankees fan but when it comes to writers, regardless of their affiliation, I could care less about what they said/report (other than trades and signings) so my personal feelings aren’t really involved here. I admit I didn’t read the article when he said that comment about Bay. I keep seeing people mention it so I used that reference. Regardless, if Bay himself didn’t say he did not like playing for the Mets, Gammons shouldn’t be saying things like that. Putting strong words in someone’s mouth is never a way of doing a job. There are better ways to help your own team than by causing someone’s problem with their new employer and millinos of fans.
I don’t hate Gammons or any other writer but as it’s been pointed out here, what he said doesn’t makes sense. Sounds more of a fabrication that only serves the purpose of attacking Bay (maybe for signing with the Mets and not the Red Sox?). To me that’s a classless act.
but they don’t claim the objectivity that Gammons does(or did before he left espn anyway)
This is just another smeat job by the Boston lap dog. Bay didn’t sign with them so now he will get bashed. Typical.
Thank goodness we don’t have Jon Heyman to spin things for the Yankees.
Oh wait! Nevermind.
Heyman spins things for the Yankees? Where have I been?
“Peter Gammons, in an appearance on NESN, said that the Red Sox and Jason Bay agreed to a four-year, $60MM pact in July, before an MRI raised concerns about both of his knees. As a result, Boston reduced their offer from four years to two years. Gammons suggested that this was an example of why an independent medical staff should be in place in the majors.”
This can’t be true, I refuse to believe even the Mets are this clueless. Although it is Minaya & co, so I wouldn’t be even slightly surprised if it’s true.
The Mets have been a revolving door to the DL for a few years now. It’s not what I’d call a huge stretch.