Notre Dame coach talks Mancini and Connaughton

[Frobby]

27 minutes ago, Rene88 said:

Been saying this since we drafted him. People calling him names bc he doesn't play baseball? Are you serious? First off, god bless him having the skills to play both professionally. Second, I respect him for playing what he loves over practicality. Let him make his own path. 

Where is Tony calling him names? I don't think he meant "doesn't have the heart to play baseball" in the way you're interpreting it.    He's saying that Connaughton's heart is not in being a baseball player.    Hard to argue with that, at least in comparison with basketball.  

[Rene88]

14 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Where is Tony calling him names? I don't think he meant "doesn't have the heart to play baseball" in the way you're interpreting it.    He's saying that Connaughton's heart is not in being a baseball player.    Hard to argue with that, at least in comparison with basketball.  

? That isn't what I said at all Frobby. I was agreeing with Tony.

[Frobby]

Just now, Rene88 said:

? That isn't what I said at all Frobby. I was agreeing with Tony.

Sorry, I guess I misinterpreted your post.

[Tony-OH]

16 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

He has said that he won't go to Europe, that he will return to baseball when his NBA opportunities are up. I'm not sure where you are getting that he thinks he will pitch in the majors quickly, I haven't seen anything that indicates he won't bust his hump in the minors trying to be a successful pitcher. He thinks, perhaps naively that the NBA time won't hurt his MLB development, but it worked for Mark Hendrickson.

We'll have to agree to disagree. The guy was a dissapointment his junior year in college because he didn't put 100% effort into baseball, told teams he would play baseball, took and cashed in a nice signing bonus, then quit on the Orioles to be the token white guy on the end of an NBA bench because it pays him $1.2 million. I see a history of a "me first" guy and reading an interview with him once made me think this would not be a guy I'd want in my foxhole. Had he returned his bonus check to the Orioles then maybe I'd think a little more of him, but I think this guy is about himself and if Europe comes calling with a nice offer he'll go there instead of riding the buses in the minors for a chance at making he majors.

[Tony-OH]

16 hours ago, Stevie Janowski said:

Totally justifies character assasination.  Totally.

Huh? This is my opinion. Call it what you want, but I have my sources that back up my opinion. Either way, don't really care.

[Tony-OH]

16 hours ago, Frobby said:

By the way, Connaughton was a 4th round pick in the 2014 draft.   So far, exactly one 4th rounder from that draft has made it to the majors.    

Some have said Connaughton was more like a 2nd round talent who slipped to the 4th round because of the possibility that he'd choose basketball.    Well, OK, exactly two 2nd rounders from that draft have made it to the majors. 

My point is, choosing the baseball path was very risky, and any possible big payoff likely to be years away.     He took a shot at making an NBA team and made a nice little killing.    And, he still can try baseball if the basketball thing ends (and won't have to live hand-to-mouth if he does).   He's delayed his development, but would still have a shot.

You keep acting like he didn't cash his bonus check. Had he just chosen basketball, more power to him. But the guy told scouts he wanted to play baseball, hence why he was drafted so high. He asked to be able to play his senior year of basketball which the Orioles let him. He didn't say, well, I wanna go back to see if I can improve my draft stock in the NBA. The biggest issue I have with the guy is he cashed his Orioles bonus then quit on them. I didn't hear of him giving that money back when he got his NBA deal. That's just bad character if you ask me. The Orioles didn't give him that money for a few starts in Aberdeen. the Orioles honored their commitment to the guy by letting him go back and finish out his college basketball career. He then did not honor his commitment. 

Maybe some of you could care less about character, but like Theo Epstein, I believe character should be a big part in assessing a future big leaguer. At some point adversity will strike, and those with limited character and or who have always been about themselves will eventually fail you.

Now I obviously have strong feelings about following through on commitment and character, I can tell by some of the posts that others may not share those feelings and that's ok, it's just a difference of opinion. At the end of the day, I really could care less about the guy. Go do what makes him happy, but for me, I'd rather not see him come back to the Orioles organization.

[Tony-OH]

15 hours ago, Frobby said:

Where is Tony calling him names? I don't think he meant "doesn't have the heart to play baseball" in the way you're interpreting it.    He's saying that Connaughton's heart is not in being a baseball player.    Hard to argue with that, at least in comparison with basketball.  

BTW, that is exactly what I meant. I don't think his heart is in baseball. My only issue with him is with him cashing that check from the Orioles and quitting on them after the Orioles honored their commitment.

[NCRaven]

Real shame there's not more talk here about Aoki's comments on Mancini.  Like the kid more everyday.

[Tony-OH]

7 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

Real shame there's not more talk here about Aoki's comments on Mancini.  Like the kid more everyday.

What did he say? Mancini is the epitome of hard work and a baseball rat. He's easy to root for because he had some issues with his swing and throwing, and worked hard on both until they became pluses. 

Even though I'll have concerns about him being an everyday player until I see him make adjustments once pitchers start throwing a bunch of curveball and changeups at him, I'm certainly rooting for him to make those adjustments and become a solid everyday major leaguer. 

The fact that he walked out there and became a usable outfielder really adds value to him.

[Frobby]

39 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

You keep acting like he didn't cash his bonus check. Had he just chosen basketball, more power to him. But the guy told scouts he wanted to play baseball, hence why he was drafted so high. He asked to be able to play his senior year of basketball which the Orioles let him. He didn't say, well, I wanna go back to see if I can improve my draft stock in the NBA. The biggest issue I have with the guy is he cashed his Orioles bonus then quit on them. I didn't hear of him giving that money back when he got his NBA deal. That's just bad character if you ask me. The Orioles didn't give him that money for a few starts in Aberdeen. the Orioles honored their commitment to the guy by letting him go back and finish out his college basketball career. He then did not honor his commitment. 

That is not a version of events I've heard before, and if it's accurate, it would change my opinion, at least somewhat.    I always thought it was up in the air whether he'd try to pursue basketball, and that the Orioles had their eyes wide open about that when they signed him.   Even if he did tell scouts he definitely planned to play baseball (which is contrary to what I thought was the case), it may have been because at the time, he realistically wasn't an NBA prospect.  I think his odds of getting an NBA gig shot up during the latter part of his senior season.    Sometimes people can have an honest change of mind when circumstances change.     I'm not comfortable judging the guy just based on reading some articles.     You may know more about it from your sources than has been said publicly.   

[MurphDogg]

If the Orioles felt duped they could have tried to recoup his signing bonus. They didn't do so. I certainly haven't read anything publicly that suggests that the Orioles were duped but maybe they were. Tony would know better that me whether he mislead the Orioles.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, MurphDogg said:

If the Orioles felt duped they could have tried to recoup his signing bonus. They didn't do so. I certainly haven't read anything publicly that suggests that the Orioles were duped but maybe they were. Tony would know better that me whether he mislead the Orioles.

They'd have to prove he knowingly misled them when he signed his deal, as opposed to changing his mind later.    That would be very difficult.    They'd spend more money litigating the issue than it's worth.

[MurphDogg]

15 minutes ago, Frobby said:

They'd have to prove he knowingly misled them when he signed his deal, as opposed to changing his mind later.    That would be very difficult.    They'd spend more money litigating the issue than it's worth.

I would think that there were very clear terms in the contract, for example he could keep the bonus so long as he was an NBA player but not if he went to Europe. I think that idea that a 21 year-old outsmarted and duped a billion dollar franchise out of $400K+ is farfetched.

[Tony-OH]

17 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

If the Orioles felt duped they could have tried to recoup his signing bonus. They didn't do so. I certainly haven't read anything publicly that suggests that the Orioles were duped but maybe they were. Tony would know better that me whether he mislead the Orioles.

They had no legal recourse to recoup their money. Any player can just quit after taking a bonus and there's nothing the team can do about it. The bonus is for them to sign a contract that gives the team six years of minor league control. As far as I know, there is no way for a team to write into the contract that a player must perform for x amount of years of forfeit a portion of the bonus.

[MurphDogg]

16 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

They had no legal recourse to recoup their money. Any player can just quit after taking a bonus and there's nothing the team can do about it. The bonus is for them to sign a contract that gives the team six years of minor league control. As far as I know, there is no way for a team to write into the contract that a player must perform for x amount of years of forfeit a portion of the bonus.

In this unique situation, I would be floored if the Orioles didn't mitigate their risk in signing him by having a mechanism to recoup the signing bonus if he wasn't going to play baseball. It doesn't make sense that you couldn't negotiate that into the contract. This article suggests that the Orioles might attempt to recoup the signing bonus.