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Leaving $$$ on the table

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by JackReacher, Dec 14, 2010.

  1. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    Albert Pujols left a lot on the table last contract. Doubt it will happen again.
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    People are going to praise Lee to the high heavens for being "unselfish" in taking this deal, because he left money on the table.

    I doubt his fellow players will see it as an unselfish move.

    Quite the contrary.
     
  3. I think most regular folk will have a tough time deifying anyone who will make more than $100 million in five years, even if he did "leave money on the table"
     
  4. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Who's deifying him? I just said it's kind of nice to see someone turn down the extra cash to play somewhere he WANTS to play. That's all. Even moreso that the Yankees were the team turned down.
     
  5. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    And the union may not be happy with him? Screw the union. Cliff Lee is well within his rights to sign wherever he wants - being happy where you live and work is pretty key in life, regardless of how many zeroes are in your contract.

    Years ago, I had a chance to move somewhere and make a decent bit more than I was making. One problem. I didn't want to live there. So I said no.

    Being comfortable where you are matters. I, too, applaud Cliff Lee. Though I think his ass could have been comfortable in D.C., too.


    We should start a pool, or a poll (where's our resident poll starter): Which of the Phillies' Big Three of Aging Men breaks down first and when? I say 2011 will be gold and then it will start to disintegrate.
     
  6. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    When Mark McGwire retired, he turned down a two-year, $30 million contract from the Cardinals. He would have gotten the money just for pinch-hitting or being on the DL.
     
  7. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Don't know when it will start but my guess is Oswalt will be the first to go.
     
  8. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Without that union and all it has done, Cliff Lee isn't signing anywhere close to the deal he received today. He's probably still in Cleveland, in fact, either signing his next one-year deal under the reserve clause or holding out.

    The foundation of a union is solidarity, and that unity is precarious when guys go off the grid like this.

    Does Cliff Lee have a "right" to sign where he wants? Sure. Does that make it the right thing to do? Not necessarily. If I were a member of the MLBPA, I would be quite unhappy with him today.

    Is Cliff Lee signing with Philadelphia going to bring down the union? No. But you always have to be cognizant of the possibility of death by a thousand paper cuts.

    I hope at least one columnist tomorrow sees it from the other point of view, instead of heaping universal praise on him. Too bad Indianapolis is not a baseball town. After his Sean Payton column in January, Bob Kravitz would seem like the most likely guy to write this one.
     
  9. waterytart

    waterytart Active Member

    The players fought for free agency. Consider that phrase.

    They didn't fight for the obligation to play for the highest bidder.
     
  10. Baseball players don't have a union - they have an association.

    It is this distinction that allows them to cross picket lines without twinges of conscious.
     
  11. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Yeah, nothing pisses me off more than seeing comatose players cross picket lines.
     
  12. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    The union hasn't -- nor will it -- say "boo" about the contract (as I mentioned in about the seventh post), so all of this talk is nonsense. However, the union actively encourages players to take the best deal possible, as it should, because taking an undervalued contract undermines your fellow members whose contracts are all affected by each other. Players understand this concept. Some dumbass reporters do not.

    This is just plain dumb. The MLBPA is a union in every sense of the word and the most effective one in North America. Ask the Labor Department, check the LM-2 reports, or read about the eight work stoppages if you have any doubts.
     
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