Tilting at Kings
Rosenthal tells us that the M's have made Felix an offer: 4/$45m.
IF true, where did we get this information? Almost certainly, Felix' agent, or his operative, leaked it.
And why would he do that? It's to his advantage to call foul on the M's. He wants to rally support for his side. He wants the fans and media pressuring the M's.
It's the same thing, on a smaller scale, that unions do when they feel that management is lowballing them. They can't go to court -- they take it public. Power to the People, dude.
................
Jemanji is not speaking as a fan when he rolls his eyes at 4/$45m (if accurate).
1. Fangraphs has Felix' value the last two years at $31 and $26 million per season, respectively. Jack wants to buy two of those FA years at $11m per season?
Ummmmmmyah, if I'm Felix, I'm telling the press we're far apart, too.
2. Olney quoted major league GM's as pegging 6 / $100-110m as fair. The M's offer takes that and lops off 2 years, $60m.
.................
I understand that it's an opening offer. But if it were true, it would be an insulting opening offer. Sell us TWO years of your $30m arm for $11m per? C'mon. In my experience, it doesn't help anything, to talk like that to your business partners.
We tolja that Zduriencik dude was a tough sonofagun. :- ) Of course, it's going to be to our advantage a lot of the time.
Not on this rumor.
.
=== It Ain't All Bad, Dept. ===
Just noodling here: I'd almost be inclined to suspect that the M's are a leeeetle too ready to deal Felix this winter. If Rosenthal's anywhere in the ballpark, that opening offer could signal an attitude of, "If we get a steal, fine; if not, we'll take the Herschel Walker deal."
Remember, Jack Wilson praised the Mariners for, in their opening offer, giving him "very close to what we thought we'd get in free agency." With Chone Figgins also, the M's very early in the offseason came blasting into the lane with a 5th-year vest.
Could be wrong of course, but my immediate reaction is to wonder whether there are things we don't know about the magnitude of the trade value here.
.............
Needless to say, I want Felix back. Like James says, the fabric of baseball history is written on the jerseys of Hall of Fame starting pitchers. If you're Stars & Scrubs, you gotta have an ace.
.............
Let's see, as an opening salvo, the Yankees protected four youngsters, and then said, any other five you want. So that's their #3, #5, #6, #7 and #8 prospects as one offer out there, just for starters.
The M's gave two blue-chippers for Bedard, plus a good low-minors arm, plus a setup reliever, plus a throwin. The Yankees' offer rather implies five blue chippers.
Get a serious bidding war going -- with that as the baseline -- and Zduriencik might be very intrigued at what he knows to be the likely return. And remember, aside from the young talent back, there's Felix 6/ $110 back.
Just saying,
Dr D
image: lookoutlanding.com