Q.  What's the SSI take on the Yankees throwing themselves on the floor and foaming at the mouth over the Lee trade?

A.  You know what, I've never read the NY Post much, but this Joel Sherman guy was im-press-iff the last week or two.  If you read this article, this one, and this one, you have Yankees' sources (via Sherman) alleging the precise scenario that Dr. D assumed when the trade flipped from Montero to Smoak.

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Q.  So what if Capt Jack played Cashman.  All the better that we smoaked the Yankees.

A.  IFF (that's, "if") Zduriencik acted as the Yankees allege, the repercussions are many.

Big bidness is run on relationships, on trust, and on delicate negotiations.  If (if) the Mariners blew every code in the book to get Smoak, that's nothing for any Mariner fan to rejoice over in the long term.

There are only 29 kids in class, and you're there with them forever. 

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There are more like 9 kids in class, than 29, when you're talking about blockbuster trades.  Not being able to trade with the Yankees is a bigger problem than you might think.

Raising the bids is a lot tougher all the way around, level through layered level of the process, when the guy with the long green sits out all your auctions, every stage.  Zduriencik will only be able to do this once, leverage the Yankees into a Justin Smoak deal. 

(Stare in awe and wonder that he was able to do it 1.5 times, counting the Washburn deal.  You can't stop Jack Zduriencik; you can only hope to contain him.)

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And the corporate environment is important.  The Yankees can come at them on rules changes, on backdoor lobbying to the commish, with sponsor references, by messing up their waiver claims, by pressuring other clubs not to do X, Y, and Z, and lots of stuff.

I'm not saying the M's shot themselves in the foot.  But don't kid yourself that offending the Godfather is free.

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Q.  What's the essential issue?

A.  Deception.  Leading somebody to believe something that is not true, whether a specific lie is used to do so or not.

The Yankees accuse the Mariners of (strongly!) leading them to believe (or, actually telling them directly) that if they blinked and said Montero, that their reward for blinking would be Cliff Lee.

They further allege that the Mariners could never have gotten Justin Smoak without the Montero Gambit.

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Part 2