Roch: Tex speaks

[mweb]

Why not? I boo all Yankees. I boo the Yankee bat boy. I boo their manager, their pitching coach, and their strength and conditioning coach. I boo players who used to be Yankees. I boo Yankee stadiums, old and new. Why wouldn't you boo a guy from Baltimore who signed with the Yankees for a stereotypical Yankee truckload of cash?

Well I don't boo as much as you for one, but sure, maybe I would boo him occasionally simply because he's a Yankee, but no more than other Yanks. When deciding whether to boo someone or not, I couldn't care less that he's from Baltimore or how much he signed for. I'm not going to blame a player or be upset about a guy doing the logical thing, which is take the best contract.

[Fan4Life]

Well I don't boo as much as you for one, but sure, maybe I would boo him occasionally simply because he's a Yankee, but no more than other Yanks. When deciding whether to boo someone or not, I couldn't care less that he's from Baltimore or how much he signed for. I'm not going to blame a player or be upset about a guy doing the logical thing, which is take the best contract.

I'm surprised by this coming from you. Not your stance, that's perfectly understandable if it was the truth. I'm sorry to disagree with you here, but he purposely USED his hometown ties to drive up the price for the only team he had any interest in playing for. Otherwise known as, dirty pool. If there are fans outraged by that, great, they should be. If it was a simple the highest bidder won, no big deal.

[mweb]

I'm surprised by this coming from you. Not your stance, that's perfectly understandable if it was the truth. I'm sorry to disagree with you here, but he purposely USED his hometown ties to drive up the price for the only team he had any interest in playing for. Otherwise known as, dirty pool. If there are fans outraged by that, great, they should be. If it was a simple the highest bidder won, no big deal.

Not sure why you're suprised that I said what I did, but anyway, I don't really see much evidence that he did what you're saying he did.

[Mark Carver]

"Anybody in my situation would have done the same thing (picked the Yanks over the O's)," Teixeira said. "It wasn't a crazy decision."

Really, the guy should just put a cork in it. He's incapable of saying the right thing. He reminds me of A-Rod who does much the same thing. He thinks he's got the words right but is fairly clueless about how those words are perceived.

If I was in his position, having already made $34m over my pro career. I would have tried to get the best I could from the Orioles. the team I grew up watching, attending the games at Memorial stadium. The team I wore Oriole memorabilia when I attended.

So, "Anybody in my situation would have done the same thing (picked the Yanks over the O's)", I would not have...

[Fan4Life]

Not sure why you're suprised that I said what I did, but anyway, I don't really see much evidence that he did what you're saying he did.

1) The O's drafted Matusz and not Smoak which gives you an indication they were going to be signing Tex

Tex on comments about playing for his hometown team being a dream come true along with other niceties played into this.

2) Before he signed with the Yanks, during negotiations, he never ever expressed that the Yankees were his favorite team growing up, that he had an interest in playing there, in fact he generally expressed those thoughts about the O's

3) Theo and John Henry flew out to Texas to meet with him and Boras only to leave the next day and publicly stating they were no longer interested and would not be used to drive up negotiations

You think they didn't find out his only interest was to play for the Yankees?

4) How was it that all the teams Boras was pushing publicly during negotitations included every team that had interest except for the one he signed with? In fact, did you ever hear the Yankees were involved in negotiations?

For me, the Yankees new they were his preference and the only thing left to determine was the price. That's why they didn't need to be part of the negotiations.

5) After he suprisingly signed with the Yankees, the owner of the Angels called the negotiations a farce and that Boras never came back to them to continue to negotiate. AM expressed the same sentiments without calling it a farce.

After Tex signed, then we discover his love for the Yankees growing up and how it was a dream come true to play for them....

Also, if Tex had any intentions of playing for anyone else, why didn't Boras give AM or the Angels an opportunity to beat the best deal available? I'll tell you why, because he found the number he wanted, with the team he wanted, and had they allowed negotiations to continue, that would have left him in a difficult spot of likely turning down a better offer to go play for the Yankees. The way they did it, worked out great for them.

He could have saved face and told the O's he'd sign with them if they gave him an out clause after 2-3 seasons. They wouldn't have done that and he'd have been home free. But he couldn't risk their saying OK, because he never wanted to be here.

You can turn and look the other way if you want... but there's enough here and probably some I've left out that tells me he screwed his community and doesn't care that he did so. Listen to his remarks now, after being boo'ed... is he remorseful that his hometown is expressing so much anger towards him? No, he's basically going with the mantra that any good player signing away from home will get boo'ed. Because he doesn't care.

He's a dirtbag in my book.

[mweb]

I think he basically wanted to go where he'd get the most money, the O's were not very aggresive in going after him, which I don't blame them for since I thought it was too much money.

Sure, I would have liked to have seen Tex and Boras give the O's a chance to beat the Yanks offer, but that's not something I'm going to get that upset towards him for. Maybe that's because I didn't want the O's to beat that offer, I don't know.

I do think people make too much out of his comments about him wanting to play for the Yanks, of course he's going to say that, CC has also said he wanted to play for the Yanks, and that was pretty clearly not the case.

[Goop]

I was there....I booed....and it felt fantastic.

[Fan4Life]

I think he basically wanted to go where he'd get the most money, the O's were not very aggresive in going after him, which I don't blame them for since I thought it was too much money.

Sure, I would have liked to have seen Tex and Boras give the O's a chance to beat the Yanks offer, but that's not something I'm going to get that upset towards him for. Maybe that's because I didn't want the O's to beat that offer, I don't know.

I do think people make too much out of his comments about him wanting to play for the Yanks, of course he's going to say that, CC has also said he wanted to play for the Yanks, and that was pretty clearly not the case.

I think the O's would have had the best offer if they had been asked. I can't think they passed on Smoak only too cave in on the negotiations where they did. It was Boras and Tex decision not to continue to negotiate with the O's, Angels etc. He made all those public comments about playing for the Orioles as a wedge to make the Yankees pay more. I'm sure that was Boras' idea, but nevertheless, by making those comments he gave false hope to all those people pulling for him. Now I'm sure they aren't all booing him because of what I've outlined. Many are booing merely because he signed elsehwere and don't really have any knowledge of the situation. But booing is in order...

[mweb]

I think you're looking way too much into the passing up of Smoak. Don't think Tex really factored much if at all into that decision.

The thing is, Tex didn't really use the O's to get the Yanks to pay more, the O's had nothing to do with the Yanks bid since two other teams had better offers than the O's.

I don't believe it likely the O's would have beat that offer.