The Mark Teixeira Watch part III

[UMDTerrapins]

I think you have to have a max dollar figure that you are willing to spend that is NOT predicated on what other teams are offering. Not just because you can end up bidding against yourself if the player is simply waiting for the max offer from the bidder they want to play for, but because at some point you lose perspective on the big picture needs and resources of the franchise.

[SilentJames]

I would prefer 8/184 than 10/200.

Indeed. I would rather give him more over a shorter amount of time.

[Mackus]

Why? Do you start chipping in for salary above 25 mil?

Oh yay! The "its not your money so why do you idiots care about how much it costs" argument!

Haven't seen this gem pulled out in quite a while.

[Ozone]

Finally some national media love from Ravech...looks like we may see him in an Oriole uniform after all...

http://blogs.weei.com/alexspeier/2008/12/16/report-teixeira-anticipates-22-28-millionyear/

From the report...

“The five teams that have always been pursuing him—the Angels, RS, Yankees, Nationals and Orioles—continue to be the five teams pursuing him. Someone very familiar with the negotiations said, it’s almost fascinating what’s happened. Every time one team steps up its offer, the other four teams do the same thing. It appears as if the idea that he wants to play for a competitor in the East, while that’s a priority, it’s almost neutralized by the fact that there’s an enormous attraction to the Orioles. He grew up in Maryland. His family is there. His wife has very, very close ties to that area. There’s something that kind of keeps bringing he and (agent) Scott Boras back to the Orioles as a hometown, ‘I’d love to play for the team I grew up watching,’ (destination).

Wow!! Good News!!

[Bearcat Brooks]

ESPN reports Tex is close to a deal, but they did not specify the team. I just saw it on the bottom line.

[Malike]

From the report...

“The five teams that have always been pursuing him—the Angels, RS, Yankees, Nationals and Orioles—continue to be the five teams pursuing him. Someone very familiar with the negotiations said, it’s almost fascinating what’s happened. Every time one team steps up its offer, the other four teams do the same thing. It appears as if the idea that he wants to play for a competitor in the East, while that’s a priority, it’s almost neutralized by the fact that there’s an enormous attraction to the Orioles. He grew up in Maryland. His family is there. His wife has very, very close ties to that area. There’s something that kind of keeps bringing he and (agent) Scott Boras back to the Orioles as a hometown, ‘I’d love to play for the team I grew up watching,’ (destination).

Wow!! Good News!!

He also said something along the lines of, no teams are dropping out. Everytime a team makes the best offer, the other teams step up and beat it. Teams are not dropping out as they expected. This could be a horrible contract when all is said and done if he ends up get 25+M a year for 8+ years.

[Pat Kelly]

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3771867&n8pe6c=2&categoryId=2521705

[hatepaste]

Oh yay! The "its not your money so why do you idiots care about how much it costs" argument!

Haven't seen this gem pulled out in quite a while.

There is no salary cap in MLB. So it is not nearly as necessary to be financially responsible with contracts. Either way, this contract would only put the payroll at 80 mil or so. It was that high before there was MASN and a guaranteed value of the club.

[Mackus]

I would prefer 8/184 than 10/200.

Not me.

An 8/$184M contract is worth $170M. A 10/$200M contract is worth $162M. That's using a 5% discount rate. Its better for the team financially to spread it out. Just invest the difference and you can buy out the last couple years if he's no longer contributing and you still come out ahead.

[OriolesOreos]

This is when I wish I had a "fast-forward" button in my life....A rewind might also help sometimes :-)

[OriolesManiac88]

Sorry Nitty Lion, I think the Hokies are going to sign Newsome today

Dont get your hopes up Hokie. Kevin Newsome will be announcing his decision to play in Happy Valley today. I guarantee it.

[geschinger]

There is no salary cap in MLB. So it is not nearly as necessary to be financially responsible with contracts.

To the contrary... When you are competing in the same division with teams with 2x, or 3x the revenues it is crucial that this team make smart financial moves. They can ill afford bad contract(s) being on the books and still expect to contend.

[JTrea81]

There is no salary cap in MLB. So it is not nearly as necessary to be financially responsible with contracts. Either way, this contract would only put the payroll at 80 mil or so. It was that high before there was MASN and a guaranteed value of the club.

Tex being a FA now is sort of a perfect storm because the Orioles are about to lose a ton of payroll and have core players that will stay fairly cheap over the first 5-6 years of his deal including the pitchers. It will be the last 4-5 years of the deal that might be tricky so the Orioles would be smart to follow the way the Yankees structured A-Rod's contract:

08:$27M, 09:$32M, 10:$32M, 11:$31M, 12:$29M, 13:$28M, 14:$25M, 15:$21M, 16:$20M, 17:$20M

So you pay more for him in his prime seasons and less for him as he ages, and your younger core players start getting more expensive...

[Insomniac]

Regardless of where Tex signs, kudos to Boras for helping create, and then taking advantage of, the perfect storm. We all know why the Os may want to drastically overpay to bring Tex home, but if the final tag is $23 to $25 million per year, what are these other teams thinking? It took a great deal of skill on the part of Boras to create an environment where the Os will have to bid so high to bring Tex into the fold. Well played.

[waroriole]

I have no sound, does this say anything new?

It's just the Ravech report from earlier. I think "Ravech Report" will become more famous in Baltimore than "Mitchell Report.":D