Collusion Against A-Rod?

I smell some bad Karma coming A-Rod's his way.

Collusion is serious. If he signs for under 30 but over 25 it's gonna be hard to prove that especially if the average salary of free agents continues to rise this offseason.

Where the owners will have a big problem will be when the 11 free agents on the Mitchell report are announced. If they sign for well under the market and bring the averages down, the MLBPA will be on them in full force. Should be an interesting offseason to say the least.

kgbaseball: what are you basing that statement on? Personal opinion or fact? Between the skills he brings to the ballpark, the butts he puts in the stadium seats, and the merchandise the teams sell with his name on it, I say he is worth way more than $30 mil per year. Of course, that is just an educated guess on my part, but that is exactly how Boras is trying to sell ARod's worth.

I don't care if he gets paid league minimum. I just don't care about A-Rod's financial security.

Totally unrelated, but I read something that made me feel even better (as an Astros fan) about the Lidge/Bourn trade.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5286405.html

"Wade and his crew were busy at the GM meetings, pushing for top-shelve center field prospects before landing one in Bourn. At one point, they told the New York Mets it would take their phenom Carlos Gomez to get Lidge. Mets GM Omar Minaya balked, keeping one of the premier prospects in all of baseball."

My only real complaint was wondering whether the Astros might have been able to get a better young CF than Bourn. The Astros clearly wanted someone who was ML-ready, or very, very close. So here were the options (as I see them).

Gomez - Mets said no
Milledge - Mets would have said no
Adam Jones - only if someone as bad as Bavasi was GM ... oh wait...
Jay Bruce - fat chance
Cameron Maybin - fat chance
Colby Rasmus - fat chance, don't need Lidge
Andrew McCutchen - not ready, don't need Lidge
Jacoby Ellsbury - hopefully Wade asked about him, but the Red Sox would have and should have said no. fat chance.
Baldelli - more upside than Bourn, but less trade value because of injuries and salary.
Upton brothers - fat chance
Chris Young - fat chance
Willy Taveras - hahahaha
Matt Kemp - would have asked about him, but Dodgers don't need Lidge and they should have said no anyway.

I may have missed some, but honestly Bourn looks like the only choice once the Mets said no on Gomez. There are plenty of other younger prospects, but none are ML-ready.

The only other viable option I see would have been Victorino, who would have been preferable to Bourn. Presumably Wade asked about Bourn and was scorned.

So if the Astros couldn't get Ellsbury, Gomez, or Victorino, getting Bourn and a solid 3rd base prospect is a fine return. Plus, they save $7 million this year and don't risk another Lidge blow-up depriving them of any return.

Time will tell, but I'm glad to see Wade explored other options before Bourn.

Great article. I am interested to see how this whole Arod situation plays out because it seems like anyone with half a brain can see that boras' demands are beyond unreasonable yet you can't help but think boras already has an under the table deal with some idiot. It will be interesting to see who that idiot is or even more interesting to see boras' face when his years of smoke and mirrors negotiating tactics blow up in his on the largest scale of them all.

Comparing A-Rod to Ortiz in terms of contract and value is silly. Ortiz signed a few years back at an under market value. If Ortiz was a FA this year he would be looking at $20m annually. So the question really becomes is A-Rod $5-10m better than Ortiz.

As this continues to shake out I stand firm by my earlier prediction. A-Rod will not get more than $25m annually. He opted out because he doesn't like New York - not because of the money. He is willing to take less cash to play somewhere else that will appreciate him.

It's a two team race between the Angels and Dodgers. Anyone else mentioned (i.e. Mets) is there strictly to drive up the price.

"Between the Numbers" by Baseball Prospectus had a chapter in it named "Is A-Rod overpaid?" They said all things considered that he actually was over-paid. According to BP, Pujols and Miguel Cabrera were very under paid. It was no slight to A-Rod. No one is worth what he has been paid.

Its not like they have any sort of replacement ready, and there is not one on the market either. Who would play first for them if they traded Delgado. Tony Clark? Shawn Casey? Somehow I doubt it.

Someone will pay the 30 million, but let's hope it's for 7 years or something. That, I'd take (if he can play Right Field!) The man could hit 60 homers per season over those cozy power alleys at Wrigley.

I know this is kind of in favor of Boras. Also keep in mind I'm not a Boras fan. But I live in South Florida and try to go to as many Marlins games as I can. But if Arod were to come down here. I know a hell of alot more people would show up at the games.

you can't justify it for a ball club like those. But for a little club like the Marlins it would be huge. I went to a Brewers - Marlin game a year ago and the paiud attendance was 935 people.

for sure... it's a ridiculous amount of money

chicagobubbleblog: Agreed!

Also, fair salary compared to other superstars, even if you rank him #1, would be about 20/mil per year. And even compared to himself, he's lost a LOT defensively since 2000 contract. There would be no collusion, just intelligence.

I grew up in a Teamster family and don't quite understand the union nature of the MLBPA. The player contracts are independently negotiated. The union has done a very good job of negligence in protecting their players in recent years. Steroids, etc

I know I'm late on the comment, but I second tmar's remark and add that I hope that A-rod puts up the mere 35 home runs, tying his tally a mere 2 years ago.

The fact is, that not only is A-rod not going to pay for himself in revenue, he is no guarantee to pay for himself in performance either.