The Teixeira Watch: Part V - AM says the O's "have flexibility" on Tex

[EASTERNSHOREFAN]

Curious, concern, relieved, and still optimistic (although guarded)

sound slike a pregnancy test

[oriolesfanatic9]

Oh please. Give me a break. If you were fielding offers from various employers and they all were in the same area, except for one, how would you feel about that company? Insane amount of money or not, how would you feel about them knowing that they had the money to go higher? Would you think they were serious about signing you? A company that I grew up with low balled me when I finished my degree. Again, not a huge difference, but it was the principal.

That's my point. Not that 50k/80k thing. I just made up two random numbers.

Best thing to do is let this go man. It's a moot point and there's no need to really discuss it anymore. Just let it roll off your back and keep posting.

[Shopay]

Honestly, the posts over the last 3-4 hours have been pretty ridiculous.

1. Tex isn't signed until he's signed. Do I think he'll end up with the Red Sox? Yes. But I see no reason to cry about it unless it's actually happened.

2. Some of the posters live in a fantasy world where there are no budget constraints on the Orioles and they are on equal financial footing with the Red Sox. That's simply not true. It has always been the case that whatever the Orioles could afford to bid, the Red Sox could afford to bid more. If we don't get Tex, Angelos should not be blamed. Reality is that at a certain price, getting Tex is contrary to the long-term interests of the Orioles.

3. If we don't sign Tex, it is not the end of the franchise. It was NEVER likely that we would get Tex. The vast majority of posters have understood this from day one. Our path to success will never be through huge free agent acquisitions. Our path to success is by building more or less the way Tampa did, perhaps with an extra strategic free agent acquisition here or there to complement our young core once they are ready. Markakis, Jones, Wieters, Matusz, Arrieta, Tillman and a raft of other young pitchers is a very good base from which to build. Tex would have accelerated the process, but at the end of the day, it's the quality of the home grown pitching that is going to decide whether we return to contention any time in the next decade. When the pitching becomes good, we will have a competitive team, and that's when free agents will see Baltimore as a desireable destination.

Thanks. All very good points.

[Tank]

Suppose to be lots of snow tomorrow so even Tex may have an extended trip to the lovely Northeast.

They're meeting in Texas.

[Hank Scorpio]

If all of those Sox heads are down there putting the full court press on him, they are going for the kill.

If we survive the next 18 hours, I think we've got a shot.

[odogs101]

I think if Macphail believed he was out of this he would have had the perfect opportunity to mention it at this point. I just can't believe he would string everyone along if he truly felt he didn't have a shot at this.

We will see how this plays out but it seems like the O's think they will get one more shot at this thing.

This reminded me of a conversation I had with a buddy of mine.

We were talking about this whole saga and the possibility that Belkast may be being fed false info from the warehouse like last year to flush out leaks.

He alluded to this this morning/last night.

If I am Mcphail and I am spreading false info, the last thing I would do would be to spread what seems to be overwhelmingly positive info on us signing Tex.

Why risk the huge amount of backlash to erupt if we don't sign him?

Seems to risky of a gamble, playing with the emotions of a hardcore fanbase.

[Rex Thunder]

What if he doesn't want to sign an extension?

Something tells me that a young guy making under a million dollars a year with over 3 years till his big payday, would welcome a contract that would change his life overnight. Who wants to risk injury or anything else when he could secure his life forever. He knows the Orioles, regardless of the Tex outcome, are committed to winning again.

[WildDave]

That interesting - everyone's trying to keep the door open. It's especially interesting that they have indicated there's room for ongoing negotiations which means, to me, that they'll likely continue beyond tonight.

I agree, I think that the expectations that this will be over soon are going to be wrong. Of course... I'm still here, hitting refresh once every few seconds, but that kind of inability to face reality is exactly why I'm still wearing black and orange after all these years.

[bej6789]

I think this is just more media hype that we're used to. If the Orioles were meeting with Boras now, I think we're all in agreement that "NESPN" wouldn't cover this nearly as much.

[Tank]

This reminded me of a conversation I had with a buddy of mine.

We were talking about this whole saga and the possibility that Belkast may be being fed false info from the warehouse like last year to flush out leaks.

He alluded to this this morning/last night.

If I am Mcphail and I am spreading false info, the last thing I would do would be to spread what seems to be overwhelmingly positive info on us signing Tex.

Why risk the huge amount of backlash to erupt if we don't sign him?

Seems to risky of a gamble, playing with the emotions of a hardcore fanbase.

I agree. And also, they did that last year. Why would they do it again? Belkast and his source have talked about what he can and can't post IIRC.

[Redsoxfaninnh]

The Yahoo Sports report is interesting. So, the offer was more than $160m but less than $184m. Either way, as many of you have pointed out, it's likely one or more of the other teams will beat that so it still comes down to which team Tex is leaning towards.

One thing you should know about the Yahoo writer, Gordon Edes, is that he was a Red Sox beat writer for the Boston Globe for many years and has solid Red Sox and MLB connections. He's generally pretty reliable.

I'm suddenly feeling a little less confident...don't suppose y'all will give me much sympathy on that huh?

[Hank Scorpio]

This reminded me of a conversation I had with a buddy of mine.

We were talking about this whole saga and the possibility that Belkast may be being fed false info from the warehouse like last year to flush out leaks.

He alluded to this this morning/last night.

If I am Mcphail and I am spreading false info, the last thing I would do would be to spread what seems to be overwhelmingly positive info on us signing Tex.

Why risk the huge amount of backlash to erupt if we don't sign him?

Seems to risky of a gamble, playing with the emotions of a hardcore fanbase.

MacPhail himself came out yesterday and indicated that they are flexible with their initial offer.

[Tank]

I think this is just more media hype that we're used to. If the Orioles were meeting with Boras now, I think we're all in agreement that "NESPN" wouldn't cover this nearly as much.

And they certainly wouldn't word it "expected to offer and sign".

[Pruke]

I agree, I think that the expectations that this will be over soon are going to be wrong. Of course... I'm still here, hitting refresh once every few seconds, but that kind of inability to face reality is exactly why I'm still wearing black and orange after all these years.

Ditto - I have to hop on a place in the next hour, but I'll be using the trusty iPhone to keep tabs.

Gotta love technology and it's effects on human obsessive compulsive disorder...

[KyleBoller4Prez]

I just saw the ESPN News clip everyone is talking about. This is likely over for us. ESPN doesn't run that on ESPN News if it's not going to happen. It's one thing for Gammons or Olney to run their biased spin, but ESPN News typically reports stories that they have decent info on.