Schoop locks in early pay-day for future earnings

[Catch 8]

Can one buy short options?

Need to spread rep. This is hilarious.

[Frobby]

Schoop has a career OBP of .267 and OPS of .673. Those are utility infielder numbers. You are comparing him to All-Star second basemen.

I picked four guys who have had above average careers. I think they represent Schoop's upside. Overall, considering salary inflation and the fact that the base includes off-the-field earnings, I like the "over." Injuries are always a risk, however.

Schoop is now playing his age 24 season. Uggla never reached the majors until age 26, Kinsler played his first season at 24, Phillips had a .556 OPS through age 24. Only Kendrick had any success at age 23 or younger. So that's why I don't consider Schoop's career OPS to be much of an indicator.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Frobby

[BohKnowsBmore]

I picked four guys who have had above average careers. I think they represent Schoop's upside. Overall, considering salary inflation and the fact that the base includes off-the-field earnings, I like the "over." Injuries are always a risk, however.

Schoop is now playing his age 24 season. Uggla never reached the majors until age 26, Kinsler played his first season at 24, Phillips had a .556 OPS through age 24. Only Kendrick had any success at age 23 or younger. So that's why I don't consider Schoop's career OPS to be much of an indicator.

Also, if you look at his two past seasons, there was a huge improvement from rookie season to year two. I never understand the notion that he will always be the struggling bat from his rookie season.

[BohKnowsBmore]

Yeh, that is why I put it in quotes. The situation doesn't exactly lend itself to that term, but it was the only one I had in my lexicon to describe what I was trying to see.

Any thoughts on how they would do it?

I'll look at in more detail later and give a more complete response. Sorry for the near non-response for the time being

[VTech]

This thread title is terrible and I hope it dies in the mlb section. I, like most people, thought this meant we locked Schoop up long term. #dumbthread

I basically restated what the MLB Trade Rumors tweet said. So take your issue up with them, not me.

[Frobby]

Bump...I am a little surprised that none of the local media outlets have picked up on this story and asked Schoop about it.

[hendu]

Bump...I am a little surprised that none of the local media outlets have picked up on this story and asked Schoop about it.

I'm ashamed to admit this, but I asked him about this very thing at Basebowl. He got a bit uncomfortable/agitated. In my defense, he was the next lane over and I had been bs'ing with him a great deal. Essentially, I asked him why he would take the insurance policy, stating, c'mon man, you're easily gonna make well over 40M in your career. He kept asking me, "how do you know that?" I just replied that contracts are out of control and that I would be a fool to doubt his abilities. We joked around a lot afterward as well, so I guess he didn't hate me too bad. It seemed to me like he wanted to be safe than sorry.

[Tx Oriole]

Let's say in his three arb years he makes 2, 4, 8 million. That's $14M, plus the maybe $2M he'll earn his first three. So $16M going into free agency. Meaning he'll have to be worth 49-16 or $33M in free agency. That's maybe four or five wins. What percentage of players similar to Schoop are worth at least four wins in free agency? That's almost more art than science since you need to develop a list of comparables from a niche profile; young, powerful, strike-zone challenged middle infielders.

Here's a list: Nap Lajoie, Carlos Baerga, Juan Samuel, Robinson Cano, Bill Hall, Rougned Odor, Bret Boone, Schoop, Frank Catalanotto, Jorge Cantu, Alfonso Soriano. I figure most of them were more than worth a $33M deal in free agency.

Lajoie played long before free agency. So Drungo I am confused.

[Ruzious]

Bump...I am a little surprised that none of the local media outlets have picked up on this story and asked Schoop about it.

I doubt it affects anything he does as far as future baseball contracts. Seems to me that this is his business, and if I was him, I'd be po'd if a local writer wrote about it.

[Sessh]

I know I am in the minority here, but I've just never been that high on Schoop. I don't see anything "wow" about him. He seems like the typical "boom or bust" hitter with no discipline, BA in the .260-.270 range, OBP south

of .300 and slugging around .450. I don't know, I just don't see it or his power holding up. He had very little power above A ball in the minors and he gets to the majors and suddenly, he has power? I still don't know where

it came from. Maybe he just "filled out" or whatever, but it strikes me as odd. He currently has a wRC+ of 94 and I know there's a lot of season left, but Schoop does not have the batting skill to make up for his almost

complete lack of discipline. He is not as good a hitter as Jones who has been able to get away with it up to this point and I don't think Schoop's "power" is real or sustainable. I know some of you could throw stats at me

to show how wrong I am, but until I see something other than what I've seen from him, I don't think I'll budge off of that opinion. He is a good defender at least, but is prone to mental collapses that result in two error

innings on a random basis. He's done that at least twice this year already, I believe.

[Frobby]

So, I got curious today about what ever happened with Fantex.    Long story short, they closed their financing in July and paid Schoop his $4.9 mm.    They have 20 athletes under similar contracts but have decided to hold it there because obtaining financing was so difficult.   

Mesnwhile, they update the fair market value of their player contracts quarterly, and now value the Schoop contract at $5.9 mm, about $1 mm more than they paid for it.    So, they apparently project Schoop's lifetime earnings to likely exceed $59 mm, factoring in all the risks of injury, poor performance, etc.    Arguably, the entire increase for Schoop is based on the fact that he got through the year without getting hurt.    

Unfortunately, the company is taking steps to get below the 300-shareholder threshold for public reporting, so information on how they value Schoop's contract may not be available next year.   

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, Frobby said:

So, I got curious today about what ever happened with Fantex.    Long story short, they closed their financing in July and paid Schoop his $4.9 mm.    They have 20 athletes under similar contracts but have decided to hold it there because obtaining financing was so difficult.   

Mesnwhile, they update the fair market value of their player contracts quarterly, and now value the Schoop contract at $5.9 mm, about $1 mm more than they paid for it.    So, they apparently project Schoop's lifetime earnings to likely exceed $59 mm, factoring in all the risks of injury, poor performance, etc.    Arguably, the entire increase for Schoop is based on the fact that he got through the year without getting hurt.    

Unfortunately, the company is taking steps to get below the 300-shareholder threshold for public reporting, so information on how they value Schoop's contract may not be available next year.   

Smart move.  I can see where they would not want to have to publicly disclose that sort of information.

[waroriole]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

So, I got curious today about what ever happened with Fantex.    Long story short, they closed their financing in July and paid Schoop his $4.9 mm.    They have 20 athletes under similar contracts but have decided to hold it there because obtaining financing was so difficult.   

Mesnwhile, they update the fair market value of their player contracts quarterly, and now value the Schoop contract at $5.9 mm, about $1 mm more than they paid for it.    So, they apparently project Schoop's lifetime earnings to likely exceed $59 mm, factoring in all the risks of injury, poor performance, etc.    Arguably, the entire increase for Schoop is based on the fact that he got through the year without getting hurt.    

Unfortunately, the company is taking steps to get below the 300-shareholder threshold for public reporting, so information on how they value Schoop's contract may not be available next year.   

Thanks! This is really interesting. It's funny how some sports gambling is legal if done in a market environment.

I'd still like to see us lock Schoop into a reasonable extension. Something like this:

17: 5M

18: 8M

19: 12M

20: 15M (FA)

21. 17M (FA)

That's 5/57. We have a lot of money coming off the books in the next 2 years. This is a good risk/reward.

[Frobby]

Just now, Can_of_corn said:

Smart move.  I can see where they would not want to have to publicly disclose that sort of information.

My impression is, they're doing it to save the costs associated with public filings.     That make sense since they are not trying to expand right now.   My guess is, if they prove profitable as their athletes start generating more income, they may find a bigger investment market for this concept.   Honestly, I'd invest in this just for the fun of it.  

[Tryptamine]

Giving him 15M and 17M at this point would be insanity unless those were team options. Remember he's only been worth 3.3fWAR over the last 3 years.