For those who thought Tex wanted to be a Yankee...

[Wind Rider]

From Forbes Yankees revenue=327 million, operating income -47.3 million, costs(subtract the two) is 374.3 million.

Yes the yankees position will get better, so will ours we're dropping payroll like mad.

If this proves one thing it proves we could have a 120 million payroll.

[Malike]

We don't know if our farm system is any good yet. The last 5 or 6 players that we have brought up haven't done much at all. Weiters is the only one I expect to be real good right away. We can't count on Tilman, Arrieta or Matusz yet because we don't have a good track record with pitchers.

Vlad or Delgado or Tex could have improved the major league club right away but we low-balled all three of them.

For some reason the O's don't mind signing old average players and over paying for them.

The Orioles offered Vlad 5/65M They were the ONLY team with an offer on the table for weeks. Vlad's agent said it would take 5/105 for him to sign. When the Angels offered 5/70 he immediately signed with them. Don't let the lack of facts stop you from posting nonsense like we lowballed Vlad. I'm glad you are not the GM. You would have probably bid against yourself and given him the 5/105.

[toonsterwu]

Then the Yankees would have offered 8/200. If a player is all about money, then they will get their man. I saw a character flaw in Tex based on the fact that Boras was his agent. Most classy players would stay away from a Boras-esque type representative, but when its about squeezing every dollar out of a ball club no one is better. It all just depends on what the player's MO is.

So, Greg Maddux, largely viewed as one of the classiest players of this generation, isn't classy because he had Boras? I think a guy can be classy and yet want the best possible deal for himself. I know you said most, but that seems like a fairly broad and unrealistic scenario you paint, considering the client list that guys like Boras, Kinzer, and others have.

[millartime15]

I suggest you read this article:

So there you have it folks. Tex wanted to be a Yankee so he didn't have to go to Boston. Had the Orioles stepped up their offer to begin with, he probably would have signed with them. But since they lowballed him to begin with and wouldn't raise the offer, he basically eliminated them from contention IMO...

So while Tex should be booed for choosing the Yankees, he only chose them because he didn't really have much of an alternative...

That tells me nothing.

If anything, that just tells me he wanted to be a Yankee. Boras never got back to AM, he went to the Yanks and ran.

[Birds7]

The Orioles offered Vlad 5/65M They were the ONLY team with an offer on the table for weeks. Vlad's agent said it would take 5/105 for him to sign. When the Angels offered 5/70 he immediately signed with them. Don't let the lack of facts stop you from posting nonsense like we lowballed Vlad. I'm glad you are not the GM. You would have probably bid against yourself and given him the 5/105.

Right you are Malike. I remember people being furious about the Angels, who actually did swoop in under the Radar, but as with Tex, he had no intentions of coming to Baltimore. His agents kept doing the same thing that Boras did. Everytime Flanagan inquired about Vlad, they shifted the talk to one of their other clients, whom we had no interest in. Vlad wasn't coming here and neither was Tex.

You can't meet or beat an offer if you aren't given the chance to.

[SabotageBob]

I agree! Enough is enough...if Tex really wanted to be an Oriole he would have signed for the 7 years 140 million dollars that was offered. Frankly I'm surprised that the Orioles went that high with the offer. It's obvious to me that Tex never wanted to be an Oriole he never wanted to be a National or be a member of the Red Sox. He wanted to be a Yankee. The bottom line is that the Oriole braintrust went up and above what they needed to do to get the "Hometown Boy" in a Oriole uniform but, the "Hometown Boy" snubbed his Hometown team and his Hometown fans..so I say Good Riddance ..if you don't want us Tex... we don't want you!

[El Gordo]

It's a question of myths, and which ones you want to believe.Tex the loyal hometown son, Angelos, the evil owner who only cares about lining his pockets, or AM the bumbling, paper/plastic GM who can't wheel and deal with the players. Well the awful truth is starring us in the face Tex the hometown son, actually wanted to be a Yankee. But it's so much easier to embrace the alternative myths, than to accept the awful truth.

[RShack]

IMO, the only way this thing could have turned out to be "interesting" is if:

• Tex and/or Mrs. Tex really, really wanted no parts of Boston (for whatever reasons, doesn't matter what they are).
  
• They were also 100% firm about being on the east coast (which appears to be the case).
  
• The MFY's declined to make him a competitive offer (ha-ha).
  
• This would have left Tex to choose between 2 things he didn't want: BOS vs. a team that is not ready to win right now.

This is the only way I could see a different result than what happened.

It would have him choosing between immediate-winning in a place he didn't want to be, vs. delayed gratification in either BAL or WAS.

He then would have been facing more $$$ from a worse org with zero romantic appeal (WAS) vs. what I imagine would have ended up being a more BOS-like offer from the O's who present both a better-than-WAS org (believe it or not) plus the whole romantic when-he-was-a-kid aspect. I realize that some have this belief that Boras clients always take the most money (I don't buy that claim, but some do), and therefore would assume that Tex would have become a Gnat, but I don't believe it's that simple. IMO, this is the one and only scenario in which the O's had a prayer, and it hinged on the MFY's not responding to Boras with the offer they did.

That could have been interesting, but I don't see other circumstances that would have permitted it to be.

[bej6789]

I believe Flanagan even said after the whole Vlad ordeal that we had in fact upped our offer to around 100 million, it was just one of those schmidt like offers that never made it to the press.... like everything else good in Baltimore.

[Florida_Osfan]

Hell yeah I'm a cynic. What have the Orioles done over the last 10 seasons to convince me not to be one.

They don't even want to sign Markakis at fair market value.

Sorry to call you on this one, but do you have one shred of evidence to support your last claim? I'm not talking about the "oh the O's FO always botches things," theories, but the I know what MacP offered, it was low and Markakis refused it kind of evidence.

I understand the frustration of having rough years piled on top of rough years, but that doesn't mean things haven't changed. Anyone who neglects that things have been operating differently since Andy Mac arrived just aren't paying attention.

Maybe our FO didn't offer him a fair deal but maybe Markakis was unrealistic with his counter-offer. Just like with Tex - people want to blame the FO, despite more tangible evidence to suggest otherwise.

[JTrea81]

Sorry to call you on this one, but do you have one shred of evidence to support your last claim? I'm not talking about the "oh the O's FO always botches things," theories, but the I know what MacP offered, it was low and Markakis refused it kind of evidence.

I understand the frustration of having rough years piled on top of rough years, but that doesn't mean things haven't changed. Anyone who neglects that things have been operating differently since Andy Mac arrived just aren't paying attention.

Maybe our FO didn't offer him a fair deal but maybe Markakis was unrealistic with his counter-offer. Just like with Tex - people want to blame the FO, despite more tangible evidence to suggest otherwise.

I suspect when Markakis declines his final lowball extension offer and is traded, the same people who are believing that MacPhail can do no wrong will have no problem with that either... :rolleyestf:

It's only a matter of time now before Markakis is dealt. Anything else wouldn't be the MacPhail/Angelos Way...

[Napoleon Solo]

I suspect when Markakis declines his final lowball extension offer and is traded, the same people who are believing that MacPhail can do no wrong will have no problem with that either... :rolleyestf:

It's only a matter of time now before Markakis is dealt. Anything else wouldn't be the MacPhail/Angelos Way...

I expect Markakis will want to leave, and there is no way I would want McPhail to pay him the moon and a bit more just to keep him.

[Malike]

If you are going to call someone out about having the facts right, you might want to have the facts right yourself.

Three major league sources told Olney that if the Mets do make an offer it would be for far less than what the Baltimore Orioles are believed to have offered -- a five-year deal in the neighborhood of $65 million.

Guerrero reportedly countered that offer from the Orioles with a seven-year, $105 million request. No other offers are believed to have been exchanged between Guerrero and the Orioles, though it's believed the club will increase its reported initial offer.

From ESPN. Yeah it was 7/105 and it was a type O. You get the jist though dont you Crstoner? Or do you need it explained to you that it wasn't a low ball offer?

[isestrex]

It's only a matter of time now before Markakis is dealt. Anything else wouldn't be the MacPhail/Angelos Way...

The MacPhail way is to lowball Tex, the Angelos way would have been to sign him for more than the Yankees.

In all this post-Tex stuff, I'm shocked we haven't heard from a livid Angelos. This was, after all, Peter's boy. He probably feels more betrayed than we do.

[RShack]

I suspect when Markakis declines his final lowball extension offer and is traded, the same people who are believing that MacPhail can do no wrong will have no problem with that either... :rolleyestf:

It's only a matter of time now before Markakis is dealt. Anything else wouldn't be the MacPhail/Angelos Way...

Hey JTrea... time to take a chill pill, or I'm gonna get out that picture of the little kid sitting on the you-know-what ;-)

Seriously, I was impressed by the way you stood up and stuck to your guns during the whole Tex-thing.

But, since the outcome disappointed you, you've just about lost your mind.

You're talking like it was a personal betrayal of you, and the O's management are basically evil-doers.

This is crazy. Really, it is.

I think you need to back-up, count to 1,000, go chop some wood, or something. (Honest.)