On this date 44-years ago, Marvin Miller was elected as the first full-time president of the Major League Baseball Players' Association by the player representatives. Miller, who was previously the assistant to the president of United Steelworkers, negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement with the owners in 1968. Within his first ten years on the job, Miller was able to get salary arbitration included in the CBA and helped eliminate the reserve clause, ushering in the age of free agency. He is the reason the MLBPA is as powerful as it is today, but Miller has yet to be enshrined in Cooperstown.
Here's a looking at what's being written around the web…
- Crashburn Alley looks at how much Chase Utley stands out from the pack of 2000 first round picks.
- The Ghost of Moonlight Graham says the Angels are playing with fire if they plan on letting Hideki Matsui see some action in the outfield.
- Bronx Bombers Beat wonders what the Yankees will do with their abundance of long relievers.
- Around The Majors hosted a roundtable discussion of this past offseason.
- The Friarhood says the Padres would be foolish not to trade Adrian Gonzalez to the White Sox if they offer Gordon Beckham.
- Jorge Says No! thinks the Cubs are smart to hold off contract negotiations with Derrek Lee.
- Viva El Birdos previews the 2010 draft.
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By the end of the year, A-Gon is going to be more hyped than Teixeira at this rate.
The White Sox are not trading Gordon Beckham.
They will make a run at A-Gon. But they are in “win now” mode, and losing Beckham to add A-Gon doesn’t make sense. My guess is that they’ll try to put together all of their best prospects (Flowers, Hudson, Jordan Danks, ect.) and try to get it done that way. Don’t know if it’ll be enough, as I’m sure Boston and a few others will put together some pretty impressive offers.
There is no way the White Sox trade Beckham with all those cheap years for A Gonz. They can keep Beckham and use the money saved on another big bat.
Five years of Beckham hold substantially more value than two years of Gonzalez. Beckham is a high-level up-the-middle performer. He’s the kind of piece that you build around, not trade away to build around someone older and more expensive who plays non-premium defensive position.