Draft Reactions: Nationals

And these are the same guys Hamilton switched to because his previous agent, one of the best in baseball, was Jewish. Looks like they cost Matsuz and the Nats big time

You can look at it both ways. The Nats lost him over 900K but this college kid turned down $3.5 million dollars to play Major League Baseball. Now he runs the risk of injuring himself playing for peanuts in the Indy leagues. On top of that, if he doesn't show well there, he won't get the kind of money he was offered here.

Stupid all the way around. But I think the agents screwed this kid over. 9 million starting point?? Are you kidding? That'll put a team on their heels right quick.

I wouldn't give the rookie $9 million either, but considering the state of the Nationals I would've given in to the $4.4 mil minor league contract.

Both sides did very poor. Bowden is an idiot.

I'm sorry, but I put some of the blame on Crow and his family. I know the agents are there to do the work, but if he turned down $3.5M he's an idiot. The risk/reward in playing Independent ball is simply not worth the 900K he lost out on. If this kid get's hurt he's going to regret this decision for the rest of his life. If he stays healthy, how much higher is he going to be able to sign for?

$3.5 Salary
$1.4 Taxes

$2.1 net income
$0.5 living expenses

$1.6 in savings

$1.6 in a 5% CD (no risk) would net him $80,000 a year in interest. So basically sigining his first contract would have allowed that kid to never work the rest of his life. Greed works wonders.

Yeah, there seems tobe plenty of blame to go around but the Hendricks brothers did not appear to do this kid any favors.

That being said I could see Crow following in the foot steps of Adam Miller and Homer Bailey and not being as special as their draft hype or radar gun readings would lead you to believe they would be. I realize Miller has had injuries but I don't think he or Bailey will ever live up to the hype that has sorrounded them early in their careers. Crow's secondary stuff was not consistently good (I think his slider is the only other pitch that ever shows as a plus pitch). Between his smaller frame, some scouts concerns about his mechanics, and not great secondary stuff I'm not sure Crow will be all that amazing or won't end being a power reliever.

What guy wouldn't give his left nut to play professional baseball? Who cares what team it is for.
He had an opportunity never to work a "real" job in his life and he choose roll the dice in hopes of getting a larger contract next year.

He switched agents not because of anti-semitism, but because he wanted christian agents. He became a christian during his battle with drugs and switched his agent because he wanted to be represented by christian agents. That may not always be the smartest thing, because no matter what my religion is, I want Boras representing me, but I am confident he didn't do it for anti-jewish sentiment.

Sorry to get all preachy, but that really bothered me and I needed to vent.

As for the Crow situation, like I said...you all have made great points.

I think Crow's biggest mistake was in giving the Hendricks Bros. complete authority to not only negotiate but essentially make a decision that was HIS to make. Frankly, it's NEVER a good idea to fully entrust another with a decision that YOU, yourself, must live with. Council is one thing, but THEY don't share the consequences. The Hendricks' are gambling with a young man's future; sitting down at the poker table with someone else's money- their life savings- and pushing 'all in' with every hand. At a certain point, Crow and his family- if they really wanted to ensure that a deal got done- should have stepped in and said, 'Take the deal.' Jared78 said it best above...there is plenty of blame to go around.

Now Crow faces an uncertain future; one that could still have a happy ending, of course, but one made all the more challenging by the missteps made over the course of this mockery of a negotiation. I think the funniest part of Tim's recap was the final mention that, 'neither agents nor teams seem happy with the idea of a midnight deadline.' HA! So, the organizations and the agents play staring games until the last minute, then complain when they can't work out a deal?! What a crock! They could change it to noon the next day; it wouldn't make a lick of difference. As long as greed defines the course of said discussions- which I think we can agree is not changing anytime soon- they'll follow the same petty path.

Both sides got what they deserved.

AA,

To an extent, you are right. I did bring the hammer down and I did so as a result of an unsubstantiated blog comment. That is why I, twice, added the caveat: 'if this is true.' (along those lines if not verbatim).

Nevertheless, it did smack of truth, simply because I am aware of Hamilton's faith and its influence upon his life; in particular, his decision to sober up. Perhaps there were multiple reasons for his change in representation, but IF the motivating factor was the faith of the agent- as even you allow- I don't see how you can deny the intolerant subtext...however subtle.

Read between the lines. Again, IF Hamilton switched representation because of the agents' respective faiths, it was a willful act disassociating himself from a familiar, longstanding relationship solely because of a wish to be amongst 'his own.' I'm not saying Hamilton did so with hate in his heart, but I DO think that, however benign it may look, such an act is rooted in the ideology of difference inherent to religious dogma; of separatism and divine superiority. To base a decision of this nature on misappropriated religious fervor would seem, to me, to define intolerance. Is it up there with Nazis and the Holocaust? Of course not, but it is representative of an insidious, modern zeal that I believe has been taken far too lightly and threatens the fundamental virtues of love, brotherhood, and community.

Let's say I'm the IT guy for a company run by an African American family. They treat me real well. Still, I'm all depressed and want to kill myself. So I go to my white doctor and he treats me with Prozac or whatever and I start feeling happy and life's great and all that jazz. Am I going to quit my job and go to a company run by white people just because the guy who saved my life was white?

Granted, that isn't the best metaphor, but I think it appropriately gets to the heart of the issue which is the definition of difference and the actions taken in 'choosing a side.'

Obviously Hamilton is free to choose to be around whomever he chooses, I just wonder if- in all fawning stories and happily-ever-after talk- we're giving fundamentalism a free pass.

One thing to think about... baseball prospects are always simply projection at this point. Every pick from the first round or for that matter every pick from the first 10 picks is pretty much a statistical impossibility. So it comes down to this, this could be the only windfall for some of these guys.

Which brings me to my final point that is mostly unconnected... Bowden has been a joke for a few years now. Spend the freaking money already. When he was rumored to be Theo's replacement in Boston, I wasn't the only Red Sox fan who was prepared to run him out of town before he arrived.

AA,

I don't pretend to know the inner workings of Josh Hamilton's thoughts or intents. I can only state what I have heard and read in print, which is he wanted agents with a christian influence. How you interpret that as firing Sosnick because he is Jewish is basically setting up a strawman argument. So if Sosnick was a muslim, your rationale would be Hamilton fired him because he was muslim. He didn't fire Sosnick for what he was, he fired him because of what he wasn't. I don't know anything about either agency, but as I said before it wouldn't matter to me what religious affiliation someone is as long as they get me the best deal. However, I recognize there are people who want to be aligned with people who believe the same thing as the person they are representing. That is all Hamilton did. I have seen nothing else to prove is was for any other reason than that.

Frankly I dont care why a guy changes agents. Usually it's to get more money (i.e. switch to Boras). Instead this guy switched because of his religious views and now he's being beaten down for that? It's like giving a Jewish kid a hard time if he felt more comfortable at Yeshiva University (5th highest Jewish enrollement) instead of Notre Dame. Ok, maybe thats a little stretch, but I think you know what I mean.

Papelboner-

That IS a bit of a stretch, but I DO see your point. Perhaps we can soften the contrast levels to make the metaphor a bit more accurate. Let's say Yeshiva and your average state school (take your pick- we'll call it...State). I would make the same argument here as in the case of Hamilton. If faith and the desire to surround himself with ONLY those whose beliefs echo his own proved the decisive factor for the student's decision, he's demonstrated the same subtle intolerance (dare I say, bigotry?) we've seen on Hamilton's part. The problem with your example- from my point of view- is that it ignores a social dynamic that I imagine would arise from being a minority surrounded by those who might not tolerate YOU (as a Jewish kid amongst a largely Christian populace at State). However, if we ignore this and assume the student's decision was SOLELY a matter of faith, then yes...he's just as bad. It's not a matter of which faith is right or wrong...quite the contrary; my point is that this kind of thinking is at the root of the problem.

You can swap out religions however you like. If the end result is self-imposed separatism and exclusionary segregation motivated by judgment/value calls, themselves informed by faith, then I would argue there is an inherent- if subtle- sense of intolerance at the heart of the matter.

You call it being comfortable, but comfort is more a matter of the aforementioned social dynamic, which we've already ruled out. Hamilton would not have been in an uncomfortable position- this was a familiar he'd been with for some time and it is doubtful that he'd ever be in a position where the issue of faith would ever arise! If that were the case, I would have no problem with his decision. If Hamilton were being asked to parade around in a yarmulke in a commercial to target Jewish consumers, or forced to attend Temple in order to get a face-to-face with his agent... But that hardly seems realistic. This wasn't about comfort- not really. It was a decision that- IF this story is true- implies an insidious prejudice as subtle as it is powerful; one predicated upon a desire to NOT engage in business with an 'other' and to surround himself with ONLY those whose beliefs he shared.

That may be his prerogative, but that doesn't make it any less distasteful.