nymr83

Edgy DC wrote: I'd love there to be an easier way to bring back a fading yet still productive player --- Piazza of Floyd, for instance --- that could still have a value to the team but clearly deserves more than a 20% pay cut. ]One of the more notable changes involved free agency, with the elimination of various signing deadlines, including the one that prohibited teams from talking to former-players-turned-free-agents until May 1. this is a positive change for sure, the deadline, and the the rule that you cant talk to a guy who you didnt offer arbitration, were both probably designed to protect salaries (you'd better offer arbtration or you wont be able to sign him at all!) but in recent years they seem to have had the effect of seperating fading veterans from their adoring fans. you can't blame the owners- they dont want to risk paying 80% of a huge salary to someone who is clearly no longer worth it, and you can't blame the players- they want to give the market one more (perhaps last) shot. that the Mets couldnt negotiate with Piazza last offseason benefits neither the players, the owners, or the fans, so why would anyone want to keep the rule? also why do they want to move the draft to July? that would (potentially) spell the death of short-season leagues like the NY-Penn league that are mostly stocked with recent draftees. Are the Cyclone not profittable enough?

metirish wrote: My main problem with this guy is that with the huge posting fee and then contract the pressure on him will be freaking huge..Zito has won 102 games in the bigs...I'd rather the Mets give him the big contract. the posting fee is reason number 1 to avoid the guy, yes. if it didnt exist i'd probably still give a slight edge to wanting Zito.

when i said "japanese players" i meant "players who are playing in the japanese baseball league" the fact that so far they have been ethnically japanese as well has nothing to do with it. ] I don't think it's instructive to weigh where a player was born as an indicator of his ability to perform. me neither, my point is about the leagues there and how highly thought of players who play there are when they seek to come here. in my opinion they are over-valued.

taguchi 3...i dont really remember what the expectations were for the white sox secondbaseman, but based on his contract i'll call him a 3 as well exact numbers arent really important though, would anyone disagree with any of the following theories: 1. Japanese players so far have as often as not failed to live up to expectations 2. With the posting fee included, a Japanese veteran will likely give you less "bang for your buck" than an American who you expected the same stats out of.

congratulations. i'd rather a met won the world series MVP, but this is a good start.

its a legitimate fear, theres alot of risk in bringing in a guy who hasn't played in the majors before and acting like he will suddenly be a veteran star. heres all the guys i can think of that have come over, and my own 1-5 rating (1 being totally failed to meet expectations, 5 being exceeded expectations) Nomo- 3 Ishii- 1 Irabu- 2 Yoshii- 3 (or am i just remembering him better than he was) Shinjo- 3 H.Matsui- 4 Ichiro- 5 K.Matsui- 2 Saito- 5 i'm missing the reliever who came to seattle who i'd call a 2 without checking, am i missing anyone else?

why get out of Norfolk in favor of the (further away) New Orleans? don't you wnt your AAA as close as possible for injury replacements?

B-Jays would be an awesome uniform, though a tad inappropriate

]For the final round 13 of 15 participants picked the Mets to win it all, and ABG picked the Yankees. I picked the Tigers to win the Worlds Series, so basically I'm the only one who has a chance to get 100 more points. On the whole, I'd rather the Mets win the World Series than I win this contest. i dont know where you are looking, but i also picked the Tigers.

i doubt any of these guys need to be held on to.

]If you're gonna choose a stupid long team name you have to deal with the inconvenience of spelling it out on the uni "Metropolitans" on the home unis next year? i like the new color scheme beter than the old one, purple is an awful color.

they get the 30 million back if they cant reah a deal, or at least thats my understanding.

i'd need more info on his injury before i endorse that. Peterson did coach him for years, so if he'd be willing to work out for him, and he ok'd Mulder, i'd take his word for it that the guy is ok.

i'd pass on 15 a year for 4 years even without the posting. the guy is an unknown despite his success in Japan, you can probably have Zito for less than that and money left.

Edgy DC wrote: No, the cabals working in concert that the laws were aimed at restrict the market. labor unions restrict the market just as much, but i sense no hostility to them...

="Edgy DC"]Questions un-answered: Why is the hostility with amateur prospects, a small percentage of whom will one day be milllionaires, but not with the billionaires who screw them? Who have a special right to conspire to set prices that other industries aren't allowed? i'm somewhat 'hostile' to antitrust law in general, thats probably why i see exceptions to it as a good thing, but beyond that my hostility in the baseball context is to anything bad for the GAME, because i care about the GAME not the business Do you know that minor leaguers make less in real dollars than they did in the sixties? perhaps thats because the major leaguers make a ton more and the market had to adjust somewhere? And what is so threatening the "GAME" about amateurs having an honest right to negotiate? the teams with more revenue getting better players because of that revenue is anti-competittive (and i'm talking about competition in the game not competititon in business/labor) Your point is what? not sure what this was in regard too What are you on about? not sure what you mean by this or what its about But really what should make me give up and walk away is your choosing to make things up ($5-million bonuses to foreign amateurs, calling the Sherman Antitrust Law Communist) to suit your predisposition. In addition to picking and choosing which questions are worth answering, you're picking and choosing facts, and I'm still not sure what your issue is. i'll go look for a large signing bonus to a foreign amateur, the $5 million figure was made up but i'm sure there have been huge ones. the communist comment was because antitrust laws inherently restrict the market, i wasnt being completely serious there

i don't think it would change anything for the guys you were just reffering to, the bottom of the ladder barely drafted guys. if the whole league passed on you for 30 rounds what makes you think they are chomping at the bit to offer you more than whatever their organization's "standard rate" is? what question specifically would you like answered? i, like mostly everyone else, will choose to answer what i feel like answering when i see a ton of questions. pose (or copy+paste) one or two that you'd like answered

metsmarathon wrote: the posting fee doesn't count against the salary cap does it? somehow that has to factor into the discussion in some exceeedingly small way. you mean the luxury tax? i dont think it does i think i'd go for zito myself, i'm scared that this guy could simply flop in the states. maybe he won't, but let it be someone else's problem especially with the shot-in-the-dark posting fee system.

the guys making $850 a month are probably 18 year olds in short-season ball. i didnt make that when i had a summer job at 18, did you? and do you really think abolishing the draft would change things for guys that low on the totem pole? i don't.

when you take into account the posting fee, i think zito/schimdt would be cheaper. how much cheaper is a question. what do you expect from this guy? if i told you now that you could have him for the same amount as zito which would you choose?

Edgy DC wrote: The second most amazing assertion is the notion that owners are somehow denied leverage in negotiating with players from "Argentina or wherever," that owners aren't "free to bargain." you're telling me there'd be nothing stopping an owner from paying a guy minimum wage to play major league baseball? oh, and while we're at it, the minimum wage laws stifle the free market as well. so basically you only favor regulation when that regulation helps labor?

Edgy DC wrote: Players deserve to make exactly as much money as they are able to fairly negotiate in an open marketplace. not according to our elected representatives. oh yeah you don't have one...

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Sweeping the Braves. Oooooh was that awesome. it was better than awesome considering the bet i made with a female braves fan.

Edgy's anti-ownership agenda comes true and the league collapses, leaving us without baseball.

]but go back to my central premise; who deserves to make money out of their talent; the players or the owners? the owners deserve a large amount of that money, they set up and run a league without which the players "talent" is meaningless (except maybe to impress people at the school yard) there are thousands of "talented" professional baseball players in united states, but what separates them (in terms of their earning power) from someone talented at archery or swimming? the demand that the owners through their marketing have created. the 500th most talented baseball player in the country probably makes over $200,000. without the owners these "talented" players would be working in the same place where the 500th most talented archer works- the supermarket.