Odds and Ends: Putz, Mitsui, Varitek

I love how the poll on whether or not people like the idea for the new system has one choice... "yes"

The only way to fix the MLB free agency is to Install a Hard Cap... Unfortunately this looks like it will never happen. The only other option is if a player is type A, the team should get a 1st round pick no matter what. So the Jay's would get the yanks 2011 first Rounder and this year's 3rd.

The suggestion for fixing compensation is interesting. A few big problems though.

What about a deal with vesting options or incentives. I could see someone offering a 5/$39 deal (to stay under his hypothetical $40m threshold) to a guy like Burnett. Then tack on absurd absurd incentives that would push the deal to where is should be (i.e. $40m more for staying at a good playing weight, or appearing in "x" number of games).

I also think that the team signing a player needs to feel some pain. The threat of losing picks keeps some teams from spending wildly.

Finally, I agree that a salary cap is the only true way to handle this.

good non-move by the Rays here, Crawford will be gone after '10, Perez if he continues to progress won't be Crawford but will still provide the speed and defense that made Crawford so valuable last year even with the negative value his bat added.

I like the Jackson article but I think this is how you approve the system:
1) Make it a 2 rounds and 60 picks so more teams can get compensation, but set the number of free agents who qualify at say 40.
2) Then the top 5 earners (1st tier) are worth 3 compensation picks, next 10 are worth 2 (2nd tier) and next 25 1 (3rd tier). (40 FAs, 60 picks)
3) The compensation should go in this order (using Jackson's model and his conditions)
Teixeira - worth three picks to the Angels - #31 overall, 36, 51
Sabathia - #32, 37, 52 to the Brewers
Burnett - #33, 38, 53 to the Blue Jays
Lowe - #34, 39, 54 to the Dodgers
Ramirez - #35, 40, 55
Dempster - #41, 56
K-Rod - #42, 57
Rafael Furcal #43, 58
Milton Bradley #44, 59
Raul Ibanez #45, 60
This process would continue and the last 25 guys of the top 40 FAs would then be compensation picks 66-90, the last 25 compensation picks.
4) Finally, the free agents would be ranked by amount earned per year (w/ incentives) thereby thwarting crazy contract attempts.
Tell me what you think, and read Jackson's article first, otherwise my post will make no sense

How about you keep quiet yourselves a lot us likes to hear what Schilling thinks, certainly a lot more than spamming these boards with moronic comments about him.

Keep it up Schilling! And I would much rather have Schilling back than Schmoltz but that’s another story.

I like some of what was said as far as restructuring the compensation for FAs, but three picks in a roll is ridiculous.

I say since the first 15 are protected now, let the teams that lost the 5 highest paid players get a comp pick starting at #16. Then let everyone else get comp picks after the first round.

Hypothetically
Angels, Tex #16
Brewers, CC #17
Blue Jays, A.J #18
#19 TBD
#20 TBD
Then continue with the last 15 in the round. Give those teams that lost a top 5 guy a second pick between round one and two after everyone else that has lost a FA worth over 15mil has picked.

No comp for players not worth 15mil total.

Impose a hard ceiling on what a draftee can sign for, (this way teams stop missing out on players they spent draft picks on). Thats a form of limiting payroll and helping small market teams that might actually get past the player's association.

-Maybe add a clause with any team who adds more 50mil+ players than they lose having their first round pick omitted, if its unprotected.(not as sure about this part, but I think some regulation here is needed)

Tim Dierkes,

While I appreciate everything you link and the work you put in, it's a "turn-off" to the site when you're such a snob to commenters. People can say what they want to say, to an extent, which telling Schilling to shut up doesn't nearly reach.

Just telling the truth, delete my account or whatever is in your power - I'm just tired of reading your rude comments, and also seeing where you deleted comments because people called you out for messing up/linking wrong.

"Jon Paul Morosi says the Mariners wanted Fernando Perez from the Rays in the failed talks that would've brought J.J. Putz to Detroit. The Rays were unwilling to do this in part because B.J. Upton will be unavailable to start the season."

???

To expand a little on my post a little.

When the Yankees (or any team) signs multiple free agent players it impacts all the other teams in their division a lot more then it impacts a single team who lost just a single guy.

Compensating the Brewers for Sabathia makes perfect sense; however once you consider what the Yanks signing of Teixeira/Sabathia/Burnett means to the Orioles the impact is a lot great. Toss in that the O's (due to the supplemental round) are now moved back in the draft for the 2nd round and the impact is even larger to their organization.

So while the Yanks were able to stock up on Free Agents and make their team more competitive for the following season the Orioles (who due to budget constraints) couldn't sign free agent help are now also not getting to draft any higher to make them more competitive down the road.

For this reason I think removing compensation but still penalizing teams a draft round for each top tier free agent they sign allows the rest of the teams (who couldn't sign a top tier guy or who didn't lose a top tier guy) to improve through the draft at an equal rate.

Confused yet.....I am and its my own idea.

I agree that the compensation system need to be fixed, but I don't agree with the solution.

First, the Yankees should lose draft picks for signing $400 million in free agents. This system rewards teams for building from within and has provided a modest deterrent (if any, before this year) on player movement. It means that only idiotic general managers will make moves like letting Burrell leave so he can replace him with Raul Ibanez, because the end result will be a net loss of draft picks for (in an ideal Phillies universe) equivalent production. It creates incentives for retaining players of your own without having the ludicrous salary cap results of the NBA where free agency becomes relatively meaningless.

Second, I will not shed a tear for Jason Varitek. He is not a completely free free agent, but he had an opportunity to get paid at market level by accepting arbitration. He was a buffoon for rejecting arbitration in any market, considering how poorly he performed in 2008, because he couldn't lose more than 20% of his current salary.

The value of the contracts signed is a better factor than the multi-year Type A calculations that tell us that a sub-replacement-level player like Varitek is irreplaceable. But given that the idea is to better approximate the value of the free agent, this system will underestimate the value of players like Manny Ramirez who are going to have higher values per year but fewer years (deal with it, Manny).

Moreover, it creates a bizarre assessment of free agents that still creates a pretty substantial gap between near equivalent players. Rather than implement the three Teixeira picks before Sabathia, I would suggest that the three picks should be in descending order.

For instance, taking his example but assuming that there were only the top five free agents, the sandwich round would appear as such:

31. Texeira
32. Sabathia
33. Burnett
34. Lowe
35. Ramirez
36. Texeira
37. Sabathia
38. Burnett
39. Lowe
40. Ramirez
41. Texeira
42. Sabathia

But I'd still be more amenable to penalizing the rich getting richer teams in the top 15 their first round pick and then adding the sandwich round.

Yankee fans need not fear anything anyway, because the players that they'd have drafted in the first round might fall down to the fourth because the other 29 teams won't want to pay them their demands.

"good non-move by the Rays here, Crawford will be gone after '10, Perez if he continues to progress won't be Crawford but will still provide the speed and defense that made Crawford so valuable last year even with the negative value his bat added."

Perez wouldn't be a great value in a corner spot (where he would replace Crawford). His value is in CF. And don't forget that the player that was going to Tampa was Joyce anyway who will slide into Crawfords shoes when he leaves. Upton in center isn't going anywhere for a long time so Perez has a really good chance of being expendable or a 4th OFer in Tampa after Upton comes back. That is unless he has a breakout year.

As for Seattle, Gut is the more proven defensive stud and has more pop at the plate. Both guys are the same age and although I like Perez's speed and the fact he's a switch hitter, Gutierrez is the better fit for Seattle in my view.