One Theory About Bonds

Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus speculates on the lack of interest in free agent slugger Barry Bonds:  perhaps teams are concerned that he will go to jail.

Keith Scherer wrote for BP in August:

"The likelihood of Barry Bonds going to jail if he gets indicted is high. If he gets convicted of perjury, it’s certain. If he gets convicted of perjury, he will go to jail for at least as long as the guys who cooperated, but most likely longer. This means he’s likely to do more than three months. If he gets convicted on tax charges, he could do additional time."

Perhaps a "jail clause" would simply be written into Barry's contract.

Comments

[bravesrule14]

lol is there suck thing as a jail clause. im sure whoever signed Albert Belle had to put one in there

[bsox21]

I thot Elijah Dukes would drive the implementation of the jail clause.

[nickjs21]

In all seriousness, yes, a team can put any stipulation in a contract they want as long as the player signs it. He could be banned from eating citrus fruits for fear of stinging juices in his eye.

[nickjs21]

All jail team:

Belle, Dukes, Strawberry in the OF?
Urbina as the closer?
Uribe (maybe) at short?

Lots of possibilities there.

[wihargo]

The one nice thing about Barry Bonds money is that he can afford pretty damn good lawyers (better than the state can maybe?)
He's been pretty successfull in the past: In re Bonds P.3d 815

[yanksfan]

Obviously the team can put whatever they want in a contract, but, at least certain parts of the uniform player contract take precedence.

But what if the team tries to specify that the player's contract override's the uniform contract terms? The union won't approve the contract.

I believe the Giants actually tried putting clauses related to an indictment Bonds's contract last year, but Bonds said it didn't matter due to the uniform contract.