Sheffield wants out? (split from 8/20 IGT)

[Frayed Knot]

If all you're getting is some low-level minor leaguer with little promise I'd pull him back too. Those guys are findable under every rock.
If you let him go you're looking at making this year's team even worse than it already is with little hope that you're doing anything for the future.

[Gwreck]

The way I understand it, when a team claims the player, you either have to work out a deal within a set time period (48? 72? hours), or if you can't they get the player for the waiver fee ($20,000, I think), or you have to pull him back.

Waiver claims can be risky because if the player is claimed, the team who waived him can refuse to work out a trade and just stick his contract on the claiming team (ie. Rios). But here the Giants have most of the leverage, given that Sheffield's contract costs nothing.

[dgwphotography]

It was reported last night that it was the Marlins who claimed him, and that Sheffield would have been happy to go back, but the Mets couldn't agree on a deal.

http://njmg.typepad.com/metsblog/2009/08/the-sheffield-saga.html

Now Tim smith chimes in on the Mets holding Sheffield "hostage" - WTF?

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/08/21/2009-08-21_gary_sheffields_.html

[Frayed Knot]

]Now Tim smith chimes in on the Mets holding Sheffield "hostage" - WTF?

Idiotic


Smith: Since the Mets blocked him from moving to another team, Sheffield logically deduced that he was a part of the team's future plans.

Logically?


To make sure, he went in and asked the Mets Thursday to extend his contract. They refused, a clear indication that he's not part of the picture for 2010.
And the hostage crisis began.

Right, refusing to extend a contract in mid-season to a 40 y/o still is akin to being held hostage.


I could parse this thing some more but it's not worth it. Suffice to say he uses the word "hostage" about six more times.

[Guest Kong76]

Jeffie tweeted the ransom note about 5am for those who don't follow.

[Frayed Knot]

Joel Sherman, on the other hand, seems to get it.


"The Mets rejected his bizarre request for a contract extension. So Sheffield, according to sources, initially became verbally abusive, then demanded he be released or traded to the Marlins, then threatened to return home to Florida, and finally just pulled himself from the starting lineup. He struck out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning and then ignored reporters' interview attempts after the game."


Not quite the innocent "victim" Smith portrays him to be.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

If the Mets had only signed LaWanda Page at the break, we'd all be sitting in butter.



Anyway, I know Smith had to file and all, but he should probably check out his colleague's blog:

]Let me weigh in with the obvious on Gary Sheffield: If you sign up to play for a team, and that team decides to keep you for the entire season, how exactly can you have any legitimate gripe?

[metirish]

Is it a sign of the bad times with the downturn in the economy(how I hate that term) that the likes of Smith is covering baseball . From what I know of him he is a boxing guy.

[duan]

if sheffield wants to have an extension at a modest raise to what the mets are paying him this year, I'd be all on for that. I wouldn't just double what we're paying him I'd treble it. And if he isn't happy with his 1.2 million well then maybe i'd go as high as 1.6. But I AIN'T paying him 10 million next year to be Moises Alou renewed contract part 2.

[Benjamin Grimm]

And I'd bring him back with a role matching the expectations that were had for him in 2009; a pinch-hitter, fourth/fifth outfielder. Not as a starting regular left fielder.

[nymr83]

]Is it a sign of the bad times with the downturn in the economy(how I hate that term) that the likes of Smith is covering baseball . From what I know of him he is a boxing guy.

Tim Smith is already figuring out how to look like a NYC baseball writer though, he already knows to blame the Mets for everything even when its somebody else (Sheffield) being the douchebag. All he needs to do now is add a paragraph about how "this would never happen with the Yankees"

[Frayed Knot]

Very little is worse than non-baseball writers (talking heads, "opinion makers", etc.) opining about baseball. They either seem to hate the sport and rail against whatever attention it gets (and takes away from football) or simply don't know it very well but feel obligated to sound off anyway.

I recently stumbled across some televised round-table chat-fest not long after Randy Johnson's 300th win. When the topic turned to whether there'd ever be another one of the heads started squawking about how it would never happen because there's too much money in the game now and so today's players all retire early because they're too rich to care.
That opinion is obviously so stupid and so wrong that it's not even worth debating, but boy whoever this guy was he was very loud and very sure about what he was saying.

[Valadius]

If he wants to go, let him freaking go. It's not like this team is actually going anywhere this year anyway.

[metsmarathon]

if we offer him arbitration, the lower limit on that is based on the contract he's signed with the mets, right, and not what he's still making from teh tiggers?

[Frayed Knot]

="metsmarathon":23bdu89e]if we offer him arbitration, the lower limit on that is based on the contract he's signed with the mets, right, and not what he's still making from teh tiggers?[/quote:23bdu89e] No, he'd have to be offered 80% of his current per/year amount, not just the NYM portion of it. There's no reason to offer Sheffield arbitration. If you want to keep him next year you simply need to negotiate a deal.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 21 2009 09:47 PM

="Frayed Knot"] ="metsmarathon"]if we offer him arbitration, the lower limit on that is based on the contract he's signed with the mets, right, and not what he's still making from teh tiggers? No, he'd have to be offered 80% of his current per/year amount, not just the NYM portion of it. There's no reason to offer Sheffield arbitration. If you want to keep him next year you simply need to negotiate a deal. He wouldn't have to be offered 80% of his current per annum, since he's a free agent. The salary floor only applies to those under team control. It's another reason the arb offer for Country Time makes sense.

Frayed Knot Aug 21 2009 09:52 PM

But offering him arb (and him accepting it) would prevent him from ever getting to the FA stage and that's what you want to avoid here! Once he declares for FA he's not under your control anymore so arb doesn't enter into it. I have no problem negotiating a separate deal w/Sheff if he's willing to be reasonable but it can't be at anywhere near what he was making in the final year of the Detroit contract.

PiggiesTomatoes Aug 21 2009 10:03 PM

Wouldn't touch him with a pole. Like Tatis last year, I appreciate his contribution during this mess of a season but I wouldn't bring him back.

metsmarathon Aug 22 2009 06:48 AM

="Frayed Knot":2g03z1lv] ="metsmarathon":2g03z1lv]if we offer him arbitration, the lower limit on that is based on the contract he's signed with the mets, right, and not what he's still making from teh tiggers?[/quote:2g03z1lv] No, he'd have to be offered 80% of his current per/year amount, not just the NYM portion of it. There's no reason to offer Sheffield arbitration. If you want to keep him next year you simply need to negotiate a deal.[/quote:2g03z1lv] well, if that's the case, then surely i wouldn't think of offering him arbitration. if the 80% rule was based off his current contract (what he signed with NYM after being released from DET), then i would consider offering him arbitration. i guess then there's the risk of what he could actually make if it ever reached arbitration, but i would figure he'd surely refuse it. really im just trying to make sense of why the mets would want to keep him around this season. if they don't bring him back next year or offer him arbitration, tehn they lose him for nothing. which is the same thing as if they lose him through waivers. so maybe they're planning on keeping him around for the Class B draft pick compensation LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 22 2009 03:35 PM Considering that he's in the group with the gaudiest stat pool (1B/OF/DH), I'm pretty sure that Sheff won't anywhere near Type B (20-40 percentile) on the Elias ratings. I think it's as simple as (A) their not loving the claimant's prospect offer/the claimant not really making a serious offer and ( their wanting to remain "respectable" for the remainder of the season. (Yeah, I don't really get it, either.) EDIT: Just checked the MLBTR-linked Elias projections[/url:114fboc1] (painstakingly calculated/assembled by a guy from Detroit Tigers Thoughts after he reverse-engineered last year's rankings), and they've got Sheffield as a borderline type-B among NL 1B/OF. My surprise... and my bad. Ashie62 Aug 22 2009 06:41 PM I don't see Sheff has any future with the Mets beyond this year. Wouldn't it be easiest to trade him or let him go?? might lose a draft pick, but Sheff did well..cut the old man a break, and loose Edgy DC Aug 22 2009 07:51 PM Do we know that the claiming team (reportedly the Giants) made any offer at all? If not, they may well have claimed him just to block another team from getting him. Ashie62 Aug 22 2009 08:25 PM ="Edgy DC":30mcayco]Do we know that the claiming team (reportedly the Giants) made any offer at all? If not, they may well have claimed him just to block another team from getting him.[/quote:30mcayco] Could very well be the case. It seems kind of petty to hold him up smg58 Aug 22 2009 10:29 PM Why didn't we just trade Sheffield at the deadline? If the commish OKed the Peavy deal, he'd have approved a deal involving somebody who was coming off the DL on August 1.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

="Frayed Knot"] ="metsmarathon"]if we offer him arbitration, the lower limit on that is based on the contract he's signed with the mets, right, and not what he's still making from teh tiggers? No, he'd have to be offered 80% of his current per/year amount, not just the NYM portion of it. There's no reason to offer Sheffield arbitration. If you want to keep him next year you simply need to negotiate a deal.

He wouldn't have to be offered 80% of his current per annum, since he's a free agent. The salary floor only applies to those under team control.

It's another reason the arb offer for Country Time makes sense.

[Frayed Knot]

But offering him arb (and him accepting it) would prevent him from ever getting to the FA stage and that's what you want to avoid here!
Once he declares for FA he's not under your control anymore so arb doesn't enter into it.

I have no problem negotiating a separate deal w/Sheff if he's willing to be reasonable but it can't be at anywhere near what he was making in the final year of the Detroit contract.

[Piggiestomatoes]

Wouldn't touch him with a pole. Like Tatis last year, I appreciate his contribution during this mess of a season but I wouldn't bring him back.

[metsmarathon]

="Frayed Knot":2g03z1lv] ="metsmarathon":2g03z1lv]if we offer him arbitration, the lower limit on that is based on the contract he's signed with the mets, right, and not what he's still making from teh tiggers?[/quote:2g03z1lv] No, he'd have to be offered 80% of his current per/year amount, not just the NYM portion of it. There's no reason to offer Sheffield arbitration. If you want to keep him next year you simply need to negotiate a deal.[/quote:2g03z1lv] well, if that's the case, then surely i wouldn't think of offering him arbitration. if the 80% rule was based off his current contract (what he signed with NYM after being released from DET), then i would consider offering him arbitration. i guess then there's the risk of what he could actually make if it ever reached arbitration, but i would figure he'd surely refuse it. really im just trying to make sense of why the mets would want to keep him around this season. if they don't bring him back next year or offer him arbitration, tehn they lose him for nothing. which is the same thing as if they lose him through waivers. so maybe they're planning on keeping him around for the Class B draft pick compensation LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 22 2009 03:35 PM Considering that he's in the group with the gaudiest stat pool (1B/OF/DH), I'm pretty sure that Sheff won't anywhere near Type B (20-40 percentile) on the Elias ratings. I think it's as simple as (A) their not loving the claimant's prospect offer/the claimant not really making a serious offer and ( their wanting to remain "respectable" for the remainder of the season. (Yeah, I don't really get it, either.) EDIT: Just checked the MLBTR-linked Elias projections[/url:114fboc1] (painstakingly calculated/assembled by a guy from Detroit Tigers Thoughts after he reverse-engineered last year's rankings), and they've got Sheffield as a borderline type-B among NL 1B/OF. My surprise... and my bad. Ashie62 Aug 22 2009 06:41 PM I don't see Sheff has any future with the Mets beyond this year. Wouldn't it be easiest to trade him or let him go?? might lose a draft pick, but Sheff did well..cut the old man a break, and loose Edgy DC Aug 22 2009 07:51 PM Do we know that the claiming team (reportedly the Giants) made any offer at all? If not, they may well have claimed him just to block another team from getting him. Ashie62 Aug 22 2009 08:25 PM ="Edgy DC":30mcayco]Do we know that the claiming team (reportedly the Giants) made any offer at all? If not, they may well have claimed him just to block another team from getting him.[/quote:30mcayco] Could very well be the case. It seems kind of petty to hold him up smg58 Aug 22 2009 10:29 PM Why didn't we just trade Sheffield at the deadline? If the commish OKed the Peavy deal, he'd have approved a deal involving somebody who was coming off the DL on August 1.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Considering that he's in the group with the gaudiest stat pool (1B/OF/DH), I'm pretty sure that Sheff won't anywhere near Type B (20-40 percentile) on the Elias ratings.

I think it's as simple as (A) their not loving the claimant's prospect offer/the claimant not really making a serious offer and ( their wanting to remain "respectable" for the remainder of the season.

(Yeah, I don't really get it, either.)


EDIT: Just checked the MLBTR-linked Elias projections[/url:114fboc1] (painstakingly calculated/assembled by a guy from Detroit Tigers Thoughts after he reverse-engineered last year's rankings), and they've got Sheffield as a borderline type-B among NL 1B/OF. My surprise... and my bad.

[ashie62]

I don't see Sheff has any future with the Mets beyond this year. Wouldn't it be easiest to trade him or let him go??

might lose a draft pick, but Sheff did well..cut the old man a break, and loose

[Guest Edgy DC]

Do we know that the claiming team (reportedly the Giants) made any offer at all?

If not, they may well have claimed him just to block another team from getting him.

[ashie62]

="Edgy DC":30mcayco]Do we know that the claiming team (reportedly the Giants) made any offer at all? If not, they may well have claimed him just to block another team from getting him.[/quote:30mcayco] Could very well be the case. It seems kind of petty to hold him up

smg58 Aug 22 2009 10:29 PM

Why didn't we just trade Sheffield at the deadline? If the commish OKed the Peavy deal, he'd have approved a deal involving somebody who was coming off the DL on August 1.

[smg58]

Why didn't we just trade Sheffield at the deadline? If the commish OKed the Peavy deal, he'd have approved a deal involving somebody who was coming off the DL on August 1.