well i dont see how u let a player like guerrero just slip out of your hands after he WANTED 2 come here. hes arguably the best player in baseball. it would have done ALOT for fan support, and if you dont have the money, MAKE the money. find a way 2 sign him. you just dont let him slip away. come on 1 year deal?! why in the world would he sign that its a slap in the face what the marlins did to VLAD thats y he didnt sign

well i dont see how u let a player like guerrero just slip out of your hands after he WANTED 2 come here. hes arguably the best player in baseball. it would have done ALOT for fan support, and if you dont have the money, MAKE the money. find a way 2 sign him. you just dont let him slip away. come on 1 year deal?! why in the world would he sign that its a slap in the face what the marlins did to VLAD thats y he didnt sign

"Make" the money? Isn't that illegal? Because that's the only way I see it happening. I believe if we HAD the money, we'd have put it up to get Vlad. You don't get the chance to acquire the best player in baseball often.

well i dont see how u let a player like guerrero just slip out of your hands after he WANTED 2 come here.

That's probably a little out of context. He may have wanted to come here for the right price and right number of years. We probably couldn't deliver the price, years, or both. I would be surprised if we could have offered the security he wanted.

You don't get the chance to acquire the best player in baseball often.

exactly why you find a way 2 make it happen............. the Angels did......

well i dont see how u let a player like guerrero just slip out of your hands after he WANTED 2 come here.

That's probably a little out of context. He may have wanted to come here for the right price and right number of years. We probably couldn't deliver the price, years, or both. I would be surprised if we could have offered the security he wanted. well apparently he WANTED 2 play here out of all the teams who were interested making the statement correct.

also, ownership DOES have the money, its wether they are willing 2 spend it or not. so like i said, it would have been nice if loria really wanted 2 make a statement to fans by opening his wallet and showing everyone hes willing to do it for the fans and the team

Well this 10-13 Mil could be used Next season on Nomar, Pedro, Wood, or Sosa (i think this is his contract year).

They are all our of our price range. We will have to lock up our young starting pitching sooner or later. Burnett will cost a fortune if he comes back strong. Willis and Beckett will also once they test the market. We also need to lock up Cabrera long term. We have no room for Wood or Pedro on our pitching staff and we don't want corky.

I normally trust Ed's reports, but I don't buy this. MLBPA had little to gain from Vlad signing so late. What other free agents are out there that can benefit from the marquee FA setting the tone for this offseason market? If pressing him to accept a $14M wage for the next five years does not help the next five years worth of FAs. He's not making ARod cash. Not even Manny cash. Didn't expect him to. But the MLBPA doesn't benefit that much from locking one of the best players in the game for below their ideal market range until he is past his prime. At best the MLBPA was fighting a small fight, the only fight the could. I'm not saying it's not possible, this fits well into the recent history of the players union but I think the players have more pressing issues than this.

But you wouldnt be disproving the MLBPA's role here. You may not believe it, but then go on to suggest it is plausible, but the fact is - it happened and the MLBPA is responsible for it. You can disagree, but you would be overlooking what is wrong with baseball - the union does not have the interests of the players at heart, like I said and like you pointed out. Their greed is what they are consumed by. They couldnt let their top FA go with a one year deal. That would actually be good for baseball!

also, ownership DOES have the money, its wether they are willing 2 spend it or not. so like i said, it would have been nice if loria really wanted 2 make a statement to fans by opening his wallet and showing everyone hes willing to do it for the fans and the team

No. It is about necessity. You dont pass up a chance to sign one of the top 3 players in baseball - who is only 27. This deal, if made, would have been deferred. And the windfall from such a move would have been worth it.

I normally trust Ed's reports, but I don't buy this. MLBPA had little to gain from Vlad signing so late. What other free agents are out there that can benefit from the marquee FA setting the tone for this offseason market? If pressing him to accept a $14M wage for the next five years does not help the next five years worth of FAs. He's not making ARod cash. Not even Manny cash. Didn't expect him to. But the MLBPA doesn't benefit that much from locking one of the best players in the game for below their ideal market range until he is past his prime. At best the MLBPA was fighting a small fight, the only fight the could. I'm not saying it's not possible, this fits well into the recent history of the players union but I think the players have more pressing issues than this.

But you wouldnt be disproving the MLBPA's role here. You may not believe it, but then go on to suggest it is plausible, but the fact is - it happened and the MLBPA is responsible for it. You can disagree, but you would be overlooking what is wrong with baseball - the union does not have the interests of the players at heart, like I said and like you pointed out. Their greed is what they are consumed by. They couldnt let their top FA go with a one year deal. That would actually be good for baseball! It does make some sense that the MLBPA would have influence here, but this late, it serves no purpose. If the marquee player takes a one year deal in November, then that changes the market place, but come January I think all bets are off; examples: Pudge last year and this year, Urbina this year, Maddux this year, etc. It's a bad market unless you fill a position need for the Yankees or Red Sox...

also, ownership DOES have the money, its wether they are willing 2 spend it or not. so like i said, it would have been nice if loria really wanted 2 make a statement to fans by opening his wallet and showing everyone hes willing to do it for the fans and the team

No. It is about necessity. You dont pass up a chance to sign one of the top 3 players in baseball - who is only 27. This deal, if made, would have been deferred. And the windfall from such a move would have been worth it. Well, Loria did step up last year and win a World Series so I don't think the onus is on him to bring in the names at this point. Remember, he did keep Lowell and Castillo which is a big deal to me because all to often (Floyd, Sheffield, Alou, Renteria) talent that was loved by fans were let go, and then replaced. Pudge and Urbina were loaners anyway so their departure might stink, but if Lowell and Castillo left, it would sting. Loria did a lot this offseason from a small market standpoint.

the MLPA is like a cartel. why people dont realize this is beyond me.

 

 

they go crying like babies who got their bottle taken from them when the market sucks due to various factors, like now....but yet when a player wants to be consumed by things other than money they dont like that neither.

 

 

the only goal as stated earlier is the continual rise of the avg salary. that is the only goal of the union, nothing else.

 

 

period.

 

 

again the MLPA is the most powerful union in all of america by far. the day its busted up, like the owners should of done last time out during that huge strike in what 94 now, will be a glorious day for baseball fans.

 

 

ps the players would of come back after a couple months using replacement players.

now this is sad...... and is very not FAIR MAN!!!!!!

 

i dunno.....i didnt know that was a reason...... i just thought he didnt pick us cuz $$$$$$

well i dont see how u let a player like guerrero just slip out of your hands after he WANTED 2 come here. hes arguably the best player in baseball. it would have done ALOT for fan support, and if you dont have the money, MAKE the money. find a way 2 sign him. you just dont let him slip away. come on 1 year deal?! why in the world would he sign that its a slap in the face what the marlins did to VLAD thats y he didnt sign

 

At an average $20 per ticket, the Marlins would have had to sell approximately 9,300 tickets PER GAME MORE just because of Vlad to pay him the $15 million he'll earn this year in Anaheim (that's $10 for the year plus the $5 mil signing bonus).

 

Get over it, he's not coming, he was never coming here and management did the right thing not getting into a bidding war for the guy.

Marlin2003 - :thumbup

 

I was just doing the math - you are exactly right - Vlad wouldn't have drawn an extra 5K per game after the sheen wore off.

 

:hat

also, ownership DOES have the money, its wether they are willing 2 spend it or not. so like i said, it would have been nice if loria really wanted 2 make a statement to fans by opening his wallet and showing everyone hes willing to do it for the fans and the team

 

We have one of the least wealthy owners in the game. Most estimates of Loria's net worth are in the $120-$150 million range. By contrast, the Angles owner, Moreno, was listed in Forbes with a net worth of $1 billion, and is the wealthiest owner is baseball.

 

A $20 million loss sounds reasonable for the Marlins for last year, and loses are virtually guaranteed under the current lease. At this rate, if there is no new stadium, Loria will be bankrupt in a couple years. Signing Vlad to a long-term contract would have committed most of Loria's wealth. It would have also shortened the the amount of time he could afford to wait for a new stadium. Frankly, I think he'll have trouble holding out until 2007.

 

It doesn't matter at all where a player wants to play if the franchise can't afford him. Quite simply, we couldn't commit for more than a year. If we had, that would have guaranteed an even bigger loss this year and given us that much less time to get a stadium. As much as Vlad may have wanted to play here, a one year commitment wasn't enough.

Well this 10-13 Mil could be used Next season on Nomar, Pedro, Wood, or Sosa

Nomar and wood- pretty unlikely.

 

Out of the unlikely category, and into the probably not category, pedro said the fish were his no. 2 choice behind boston a while back (no, i don't have a link), and sammy would certainly like the dominican style of miami.

It does make some sense that the MLBPA would have influence here, but this late, it serves no purpose. If the marquee player takes a one year deal in November, then that changes the market place, but come January I think all bets are off; examples: Pudge last year and this year, Urbina this year, Maddux this year, etc. It's a bad market unless you fill a position need for the Yankees or Red Sox...

It might be too late to influence heavily this year's market, but all of the big names on next year's market.....This would have rippled pretty big into next year's market.

 

Well, in the MLBPA's worst case scenario thinking, of which they think of everything. Instead it might have led to money being less of an issue than it is now, maybe keeping Beltran in Kansas City, Magglio in Chicago, or free agents in the future from leaving their respective small market teams because they felt loyal to them. It might not right away have become the norm, it might not never have become the norm, but it would be a new thought in the back of the heads of all free agents. That, timed with the demise of the super agent (SEE: Everyone's favorite guy named Scott), would have led to a dramatic shift in the free agent market back to the owners. Which in turn helps the fans (well, not Yankee, Red Sox, and Angel fans), because they would have a set core to associate with rather than the random players that stick with teams, and money would eventually drop. It would be our answer to the salary cap.

 

Of course, that would require a domino effect. And maybe it would have never been a major shift. But its impact would have been felt. This is why the MLBPA did not want it to happen. a**holes.