Jon Heyman: Teixeira the rare young player a team can't retain

The Yankees don't always get their man: see Maddux, Greg.

 

Yes, but you know what? If the Yankees keep "fucking up" (a.k.a. signing bad players to bad deals, and eating the contracts) ... they won't win. Just like they haven't the last five years, just like they didn't in the 1980s. Just like the late 1990s Dodgers and Orioles and any other big-market team that pursues that strategy.

It's an advantage, sure. But it's a fool's advantage.

That's the dirty secret. You still gotta play the game, you still gotta stay healthy, you still gotta have the right role players, you still gotta have enough pitching (which you can never have) ... and you still gotta get lucky, especially in the postseason.

That's never changed.

And to his credit, Bud Selig and Co. have leveled the playing field a lot more than it used to be. Does he need to go all the way and create an NFL-like system, where the Green Bays can compete with the New Yorks every year? I don't see why he should. Let the NFL do what they do (their system can't be replicated anyway.)

Baseball's doing just fine. If an owner wants his team to compete, he's not handcuffed from spending to make it happen. Whether his name is Steinbrenner or Pohlad.

 

Blame Boras all you want. He plays by the same rules as every other agent in the game. Boras has no power to change the negotiating rules. Owners made the draft rules, not Boras. Owners collectively agreed to the free agent rules. Boras did not make them. Boras has just maximized his players' ability to reap the rewards based on those rules.

Every contract is a two sided negotiation. Somehow some think that the agent dictates what the market is. Free agency is the purest form of capitalism. Contracts reflect that.

As for owners, I do not believe its accurate to say that the decisions are the same for the Pirates with respect to the Yankees. The revenue streams enjoyed by the Yankees far exceed the Pirates, even with the revenue sharing in place. What the revenue sharing does is allow mediocre teams to make $$ while being fodder for the other teams. Even though I feel passionately about the Giants, I do not think its realistic to think that the owners will just spend $$ to win without considering the deficit spending that accumulates.

 

Boras is a snake.

Having said that, the owners are the rats that feed the snakes.

 

I never said baseball wasn't doing fine. I think it could be better.

However you put it, the advantage is there. It does not guarantee anything, nor does a lack of revenue guarantee losing. But it is still a very significant factor.

 

If Tex gets back into a bandbox, his numbers will be great.

I think he is exceptionally overrated.

 

I thought the same thing, too, until he absolutely mashed in Atlanta over the final two months of last year.

 

There are so many holes in that column I don't even know where to begin.
Although I could start with BYH referring to Heyman as "well-respected." By whom? Dumbass fans who don't know any better? Or people in the business who generally believe he's full of shit most of the time.

He makes a comparison betwen Texiera, who is 28 and making $9 million on the end of a 4-year deal, to David Wright who is 25 and making $3 million on the front of a 5-6 year (depending on options) deal.

Is Mark Texiera gets a $200 million deal, as Heyman implies Boras wants, then some owner is the dumbest fuck whoever walked the face of the earth.
He is a good player, not now and never will approach superstar status.

 

All well and good, and no one will deny Heyman is a Boras mouthpiece (hence, why he and Curt Schilling hate each other's guts) but are you arguing that most teams these days are signing their young studs long-term and keeping them away from free agency?

 

Yes, they're signing them at 24 or 25 or younger. Not at 28.

Teixiera is not in the same realm as Wright. He was that four years ago with the Rangers, not now with the Braves.
The Braves traded for him in the middle of a multi-year contract. They did not bring him through their system and buy out his arbitration/free agency years with a long-term deal when he was 24.
The Rangers, in fact, did that. Then decided they couldn't afford his NEXT contract.

The basic premise of this column is flat out wrong.

 

I think the premise is that most teams ARE signing their young players long-term and locking them up thru most or all of their 20s and that Teixiera reaching free agency is the exception.

Contrary to what some idiots think, of course.