Here's the latest from around the league on a historic day, as Ryan Braun became the first player to successfully appeal a banned substance-related supension…
- "It’s strictly a money thing," said Lance Berkman to reporters (including Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and B.J. Rains of FOXSportsMidwest.com) when asked about Roy Oswalt (Twitter links). "The Cardinals [offer] … wasn’t enough to lure him out of Mississippi … I think he feels like that he can get the same money in half a season as he could in a full season and he’s probably right."
- "He's under control this year and next year, and we're in the monitoring stage for obvious reasons," said Giants GM Brian Sabean to Hank Schulman of The San Francisco Chronicle when asked about the future of Brian Wilson. "We're still in the wait-and-see period." Wilson can become a free agent after 2013.
Octavio Dotel will become the first player in MLB history to play for 13 teams when he appears in his first game with the Tigers, as Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press writes. Matt Stairs, Mike Morgan and Ron Villone currently share the record with Dotel, who hopes to retire a Tiger. - Commissioner Bud Selig spoke about an international draft in this piece by Josh Leventhal of Baseball America. "We'll watch the situation carefully and make the right decision," said Selig. "I can't say [when a draft would be put in place]. We want to see how [the process] works out."
- ESPN's Keith Law published his first list of the top 50 prospects in this year's draft (Insider req'd). High school outfielder Byron Buxton topped list, following by high school righty Lucas Giolito and Stanford righty Mark Appel.
It wouldn’t take much money to lure me out of Mississippi….
Funny… I thought that ballplayers played for the love of the game. How could I have been so blind?
It’s kind of their job.
I’d bet you’d be pretty un-happy if you’re boss wanted to give you a pay cut because he expects you to work for the love of your job.
He has more than enough money to sit back and relax for the rest of his life. Besides that point, you’d think that Oswalt would want to add more wins to his resume.
I hate when people use that line: “How would you feel if your boss wanted you to take a pay cut, change positions, etc.”
Here’s the difference…. They get paid millions and they are playing baseball. They’re rich. They are immensely talented and play a game as a living. Two entirely different worlds.
It is not the same in any way. If I’m getting paid 5 million, and my boss wants to cut it to 4 million…. I don’t care. Especially if I’ve already made over $60 million at age 32-37.
theoretically, your statement makes sense. But you must remember that most of these guys are living on relying on most of their paycheck. If you expect 5M to pay for cars, houses, etc, and your boss wants to only give you 4M… you’d be quite annoyed. Yes they make more money than most people, but they also live a lifestyle much more expensive. They are still a person, with a job, and getting paid for it. Are the scales much larger? Yes. But is it still the same idea as you and me? Yes
Here’s the difference. For nine months out of the year they don’t see their families on a consistant basis.
For 9 months of the year, they’re in the media spotlight where any bad idea you and I could ever put into fruition ends up on the evening news (Josh Hamilton).
For the other 3 months of the season, they’re training vigorously.
It’s more than simply playing a game. Not to mention the fact that they play it better than anybody in the world.
Why would you want to play in a place in which you don’t want to play really? Taking the spring off to wait for an offer that he wants makes sense.
And what makes Berkman any kind of authority on this?
I’m pretty sure he’ll play anywhere for the right price. It just comes down to a false sense of a ‘respectable wage’. Berkman probably heard it straight from Oswalt when he was recruiting him to St. Louis.
Because the players are involved in the GMs’ dealings with agents? Sure, Verlander called Roy to convince him to come to Detroit, that makes sense. But Berkman?
And what makes you “pretty sure”? Okay, yeah, maybe if he’s offered $20 mil. or something. Detroit offered him $10, which is above his supposed asking price of $8.
Berkman and Oswalt played together for years in Houston
Ahhh, gotcha–thanks.
That’s probably the same thing the poor slobs say at Parchman farms also…
The Tigers offered him a good amount of money, to play a great team, but he refused to play there.
The man is gonna get his world series, so he should just retire.
Kenny Lofton sure isn’t far behind those 4 names on the all-time most teams list
Kenny Lofton’s career path is amusing. He played with the Indians for 10 years in two different stints, but somehow he ended up on the Braves in the middle of his first tenure. He played for eight other teams in his career besides those two, but could never stick somewhere longer than one year.
Ironically, you couldn’t pay me 5 million dollars to live *in* Mississippi.
Sure, but your family’s not located there.
You could pay me 5 million and tell me to live in a trash can for all I care. 5 million is still 5 million.
Your screename fits your post lol
Made me lol
Been watching a lot of Sesame Street have you?
I call your bluff
Doesn’t his long term career plans mean anything? Will teams be more willing to give him a long term deal at the dollars he wants after he’s pitched in two short seasons in a row? I could be wrong but with the market that is likely to emerge this offseason he likely will be left out again.
I think his long-term career plan is to retire. If he cared about more than one year deals he wouldn’t have started the offseason off with “okay, so I’ll sign with these two teams…”
It seems like he’s at the point where he can walk away happy and not regret it and he’s only considering playing if it’s an attractive offer, with one of his preferred, contending teams.
Good point jb226. That’s why I thought he would’ve pitched for the Astros again this season on short money to play closer to home, knowing he would likely get traded at the deadline. I guess this way he can join team X (likely still Cards or Rangers) when they lose someone to injury.
One thing that will be real interesting to watch is whether Wilson can rebound from a some-what disappointing 2011 by posting a higher strikeouts-to-walk ratio in 2012. The fact that both his strikeout rates were down while his walk rates went up is not a good sign. That, and whether or not he can get his fastball velocity up. In the past, he’s been able to throw his fastball consistently from 95-98 mph. However, last year he only threw it at 91-93 mph, another bad sign. But, you also have to take into account that he had various injuries throughout the season. Because he was recovering from an oblique injury he got at the end of spring training, he struggled early on. And later on in the season, he had inflammation in his right elbow, causing him to not pitch much towards the end of the season.
This season will depend on whether or not he can stay healthy, and if so it will be interesting whether or not he can regain his 2010 form that made him one of the best closers in all of baseball. If he can regain that form, then expect him to get a serious contract in the range of what Papelbon got. However, after all the injuries he endured in 2011, it will be a question whether or not he will be 100 percent come spring training and whether or not he can regain velocity on his fastball. It will be interesting to see what the Giants offer him and how their payroll will look once Cain and/or Lincecum will resign for. The good thing is that the bad contracts of Rowand and Zito will both be done for after 2013 (with Rowands being done at the end of the season, as well as Zitos not being completely done until after 2014, since his buyout will be for 7m). Overall, the next couple of season will determine what Wilson will get on the free agent market.
Wow, sorry for the incredibly long post haha.
It’s alright go GIANTS : )
Bud Selig saying he’ll make the right decision. Ha.
Dotel wants to retire a Tiger…? That’s odd, but I always appreciate when players say that. (Verlander did a few weeks ago too.)
I think most players say that because it just means long-term security for them. It’s more money than love of the city usually. Sometimes not though, and if it’s genuine then it’s always nice to hear.
Nice to see MLB, a part of the 1%, practice the basis of capitalism: pay workers in less-advanced countries more money than their relatively poor country could offer them, draining all the resources for a cheap price.
Jokes aside, I still think international draft is stupid, and imperialist. Take whatever you want from the “colonies” and give them back as little as possible. Nope, doesn’t ring a bell to me.
Now seriously jokes aside, pretty sure KBL and NPB won’t be too happy having all their talents lured away for nothing, so what will MLB do about those regions with a baseball league already?
With Fielder signing the Dotel acquisition has slid under the radar a bit. Really glad DD was able to sign him, we desperately needed another reliable late inning arm besides Benoit and Valverde in the playoffs last season.
Couldn’t help myself. Dotel.
Yes, it’s true. I think Alex K is right.
It’s the place where you can meet millionaires, who are searching for their special someone. (@^_^@)
I’m going to be the odd man out and say Oswalt isn’t doing this for the money, but because he has finally come to grips with his long talked about retirement. He mentioned it time and time again, and it seems like right now he has no motivation to go out and prove anything. If he sits out til midseason, he might feel the urge to come back, but his deal will probably be heavily backed with incentives when he could have signed that now. I think this is his way of calling it quits just like Pedro did.
Yeah, he’s pretty much determined he’s no longer in it for the money. He needs to give it up. It’s hard for me to imagine any ballplayer at this point in his career passing on a 10 million dollar offer. He has too many unrealistic desires/demands. He wants his cake and eat it too. He has an “it’s my way or the highway” mentally. Personally I hope he does retire. Put it to rest already.
Sad part is, from why he’s shown when healthy, e can still pitch effectively. Small power pitchers like Oswalt break down terrible in their early 30s it seems.
Technically, Matt Stairs played with 13 teams, because he played with the Montreal Expos and then the Washington Nats. Same franchise, but technically, 13 teams. Matt Stairs, the patron-saint of beer-leaguers everywhere
Today, it was reported that Roy Oswalt got up, had a cup of coffee and a piece of raisin toast. His agent commented that Roy could have had wheat toast, but was just in a “raisiny” mood.
Funny … If he signs now chances are he’d only play half a season’s worth of starts. I don’t want him back in a Phils jersey