Buck, Dan and ownership need to deal with the Davis issue first

[Aristotelian]

1 hour ago, ReclaimTheCrown said:

Lot of good discussion in this thread, although it is completely depressing. All I’ll add at this juncture is that I think I read the word “bunt” only a few times in this thread. There is no reason that Chris shouldn’t be bunting at least once a game, maybe more. He clearly can’t hit anymore, but if he can drop a ball down the completely uncovered third base line once a game, he would at least be getting on base. Who knows, maybe they’d shift him less and that could open things up a bit. Obviously not going to fix the core issue of his precipitous decline, but there is absolutely no valid reason he isn’t bunting frequently.

And if I hear an announcer recount the anecdote of an opposing player a couple years back saying they would be happy if CD bunted every single time because he wouldn’t be hitting home runs, I’ll throw my television.

Davis has tried bunting. I think his bunting average is .000, even worse than his BA.

[24fps]

2 hours ago, birdwatcher55 said:

Keep testing him for steroids. Something has to give.

If he was using steroids you have to think his bat would be faster.  At this point I don't think anything is going to help his approach at the plate.

[atomic]

The  Angels traded Josh Hamilton to the Rangers paying 73 million out of the remaining 79 million owed to him.  And Josh only gave 0.4 WAR to the Rangers so they even overpaid. So there is precedent fro unloading Davis for nothing and paying the vast majority of his salary. 

[Aristotelian]

3 hours ago, TINSTAAPP said:

I'm pretty sure contracts are guaranteed only if the player is active and/or suffers a career ending injury. I remember Gil Meche retiring about a decade ago and it was pretty well publicized that he was leaving $30+ million on the table when he made that decision. If a player dies, I don't think his estate gets any money. If he gets paralyzed, that's a different story because it's a career ending injury. They probably end up getting the money owed to them for the duration of their contract.

Meche is an interesting example. At a certain point, Davis can't care about money enough to endure the humiliation of playing. Davis has 4/$92M. Offer him a $50M buyout and be done with it. Now is the perfect time since we are rebuilding anyway.

[24fps]

There still seems to be some confusion about CD's contract.

He is paid $17 million every season 2016-2022.  The charge against luxury tax for those seasons is $21,118,782 per.  The luxury tax charge is higher because of the $42 million deferred which will be paid 2023-2037.  Total is $161 million but only $119 million will be paid out during the playing portion of the contract.

http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/baltimore-orioles/chris-davis-5397/

[atomic]

2 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Meche is an interesting example. At a certain point, Davis can't care about money enough to endure the humiliation of playing. Davis has 4/$92M. Offer him a $50M buyout and be done with it. Now is the perfect time since we are rebuilding anyway.

No way he gives up 42 million dollars.  

[Can_of_corn]

20 minutes ago, atomic said:

The  Angels traded Josh Hamilton to the Rangers paying 73 million out of the remaining 79 million owed to him.  And Josh only gave 0.4 WAR to the Rangers so they even overpaid. So there is precedent fro unloading Davis for nothing and paying the vast majority of his salary. 

Arte Moreno and Peter Angelos are not cut of the same cloth.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Of course he was a middle infielder not a first baseman.

Yes, I would say that makes Davis worse since he is expected to put up numbers playing 1B.

[Aristotelian]

16 minutes ago, atomic said:

No way he gives up 42 million dollars.  

Why? He is already set for life. Does it really matter to him if he gets $50M or $92M over the rest of his career? He gets the deferred money too. The union would discourage it, but it's not unprecedented to leave money like that on the table. It would certainly be a nice gesture to the owner and ultimately the fans who have paid him very nicely. In any case, find a number and get it done.

[atomic]

31 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Why? He is already set for life. Does it really matter to him if he gets $50M or $92M over the rest of his career? He gets the deferred money too. The union would discourage it, but it's not unprecedented to leave money like that on the table. It would certainly be a nice gesture to the owner and ultimately the fans who have paid him very nicely. In any case, find a number and get it done.

The Koch brothers have 42 billion each and they pay politicians to change laws to give them more money.   You don't hire Boras if you don't care about getting every cent you can. 

[Aristotelian]

5 minutes ago, atomic said:

The Koch brothers have 42 billion each and they pay politicians to change laws to give them more money.   You don't hire Boras if you don't care about getting every cent you can. 

I am sure Davis wanted the best deal he could get at the time. Right now it doesn't look like he is having fun. That must count for something. 

[Ripken]

35 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Why? He is already set for life. Does it really matter to him if he gets $50M or $92M over the rest of his career? He gets the deferred money too. The union would discourage it, but it's not unprecedented to leave money like that on the table. It would certainly be a nice gesture to the owner and ultimately the fans who have paid him very nicely. In any case, find a number and get it done.

I brought up the buy-out option a while ago after wondering if it was even possible.  I've said in other threads that players simply don't do this and will take every cent of their guaranteed deal.  Davis is maybe a special case though.  My thought centered around how Davis feels being a horrid player now and probably for the next four years.  Someone brought up that maybe there's been a change in Davis' routine since he became a father.  My point was... is he going to stay away from his family for great stretches of time through 2022, riding the bench, getting booed, being disliked by teammates, setting dubious records, and so forth, so he can get $110M instead of, say, $50M, when he's already rich?  Being good to the fans and org is one thing.  I'm thinking about how I'd feel if I had the largest contract in franchise history and I continually embarrassed myself at the plate.  I think I'd want to go away and not deal with the ignominy of that situation.  At least, that consideration would be enough for me, if I was the owner, to approach Davis about an alternative arrangement to the next 4.5 years.

[atomic]

10 minutes ago, atomic said:

The Koch brothers have 42 billion each and they pay politicians to change laws to give them more money.   You don't hire Boras if you don't care about getting every cent you can. 

Why would anyone down vote this?  I am just stating facts.  You don't like facts and want to live in a fantasy land where Chris Davis gives up 50 million dollars?

[Can_of_corn]

8 minutes ago, atomic said:

Why would anyone down vote this?  I am just stating facts.  You don't like facts and want to live in a fantasy land where Chris Davis gives up 50 million dollars?

It delved into politics?

[FanSince88]

Chris Davis is on pace to have the worst season in Major League Baseball history.  

This is not hyperbole.  Davis' current OPS is 50 points lower than Adam Dunn's OPS in his infamous 2011 season.  

According to this site (https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/all-time-single-season-team-the-worst-of-the-worst/), the worst single season ever by a 1st baseman was Hughie Miller in 1914, who finished the year with a .548 OPS.  Which is still higher than Chris Davis' current OPS.  Oh, and by the way, this was during the height of the dead ball era when the average first baseman only had a SLG of .352.  Also, I'm taking a real wild guess here, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Hughie was not getting paid the 1914 equivalent of $20 million per year to play baseball.  

In only 166 PA so far, Davis is already one whole game below replacement.  

If Peter Angelos is still mentally competent enough to feel shame, I hope he is filled with it from head to toe for insisting on the moronic contract for Chris Davis.  If it is true that Buck pushed for this contract, he should also be ashamed that he couldn't see this coming after years in the baseball industry.  In fact, every member of the player evaluation and front office staff who had any involvement in the decision to re-sign Chris Davis for a 7 year deal should be utterly disgraced.  

Now we fans will have to endure the agony of watching Manny Machado put up MVP numbers for some other team over the next few years while we're stuck paying someone who's now one of the worst players in MLB history for decades.