Roch Article-Wieters

[OregonBird]

When it comes to this organization's ineptitude, nothing suprises me, I mean NOTHING.

We'll see on Thursday AM.....

[bgfield]

Good organizations make fair offers and are willing to lose the player if the refuse to compromise and hold firm. (see Anaheim and Jered Weaver).

Bad organizations lowball and lose players. (Orioles have done this in the past)

Bad organizations get so fearful of losing a player that they give players whatever they want (see Texas Rangers)

So does it make us a good organization if we drafted Weiters and then let him slide because Boras did what we knew Boras would do?

Bottom line, you don't draft a guy like Weiters unless you know you can sign him.

[clapdiddy]

Roch just told you the evidence in his article.

He has given the large bonus to Torii Hunter but didn't with Varitek.

He has all the commissioner office people in his ear as well, the same people that may want him to be the commissioner.

Remember, he has no loyalty towards Wieters...Jordan, Duq, flanny and the scouting staff do...He should listen to them...You know PA was aksed about Wieters when he was drafted and that PA signed off on giving him the money.

Now, if it doesn;'t happen, it will be the fault of MacPhail...We have seen numbers from anywhere from 4.5-6 million for Wieters...That is not too much money at all.

And, on top of all of this, Tony thinks Jordan could resign if they don't sign him.

So, we lose a potential franchise player and the best part of our FO...That would be pretty terrible.

If this plays out, this team is in deep, deep doo-doo.

Who cares about what the commish's office has to say about it? Tell them to pound sand. This organization needs a shot in the arm with some positional talent and Wieters is the best positional player in the draft. Where was the commish when the Red Sox are throwing out a million dollars to guys drafted later in the draft?

[geschinger]

They wouldn't have drafted Weiters if Duke and Flanny weren't willing to pay his asking price (or if they weren't willing to pay what it would actually take based on his asking price).

How could you possibly know what it will take to actually sign him based on his asking price... Say Wieters was asking for $10m, how can you possibly know beforehand whehter or not he'll sign for $4m or go back to college if he doesn't get $9m?

The fact that we won't go high enough to sign him now that MacPhail is in charge is pretty damning evidence that it is MacPhail holding things up.

If we don't sign Weiters, I'll be leading the march on the Warehouse to fire MacPhail, and it will be completely justified. Not signing Weiters would be a complete joke, and would show that MacPhail has no idea what he should be doing to turn this team around.

So your solution is hand Boras a blank check?

[JTrea81]

Not to mention this will pretty much destroy any chance of Teixeira in an Orioles uniform as long as MacPhail is in charge, or any Boras client for that matter. They are going to get this done. Too many things are riding on this one step...

[clapdiddy]

So does it make us a good organization if we drafted Weiters and then let him slide because Boras did what we knew Boras would do?

Bottom line, you don't draft a guy like Weiters unless you know you can sign him.

Right on! As I said before, there was still a lot of talent available. We didn't NEED to draft Weiters.

[TonySoprano]

The cloak and dagger business does not suit the front office. It only makes them look foolish. Flanagan denied there was a deal in place with MacPhail despite the fact that both of them were on a plane the next day to interview Girardi. Along those lines, if there is a deal in place with Wieters, what is the harm in announcing that the deal without discussing the terms? I guess we'll have to wait until Wednesday to see if this is either silly subterfuge from the James Bond wannabes at the warehouse or a badly blown call by Peace's source.

[Sports Guy]

So does it make us a good organization if we drafted Weiters and then let him slide because Boras did what we knew Boras would do?

Bottom line, you don't draft a guy like Weiters unless you know you can sign him.

Right...Which is why it comes back to MacPhail.

[orioles119]

Okay... let's stop the doom and gloom until Thursday AM, alright?

None of us are privy to the entire negotiations - Roch included.

[geschinger]

We need Wieters a lot more than he needs us...Just remember that.

Hold firm with a fair offer and there is no way he turns it down. He won't get anywhere near the bonus he'd need to make up for a year of development time and check for $4-5m. There is no way he'd turn it down. No reason to panic and throw money away for no reason.

[Mackus]

So your solution is hand Boras a blank check?

Its not the best solution, but its a better solution than not offering him enough to sign here.

I'd rather sign him for $15M than not sign him. In the end, the money doesn't really matter. The player matters immensely. If we lose him because he's demanding $7M and we won't go any higher than $4.5M, it'll be a complete joke. A traveshamockery.

[JTrea81]

Its not the best solution, but its a better solution than not offering him enough to sign here.

I'd rather sign him for $15M than not sign him. In the end, the money doesn't really matter. The player matters immensely. If we lose him because he's demanding $7M and we won't go any higher than $4.5M, it'll be a complete joke. A traveshamockery.

Not to mention the Red Sox and Yankees have thumbed their nose at the commish's office and signed players above slot without serious consequences. If they can do it, why not the O's?

[Three Run Homer]

"We held the line on out-of-control amateur signing bonuses!"

I dunno, it doesn't seem like a great marketing slogan to me!

[bgfield]

Hold firm with a fair offer and there is no way he turns it down. He won't get anywhere near the bonus he'd need to make up for a year of development time and check for $4-5m. There is no way he'd turn it down. No reason to panic and throw money away for no reason.

What if he's stupid or stubborn? Maybe he believes he can hold out until next year, get drafted by a better team, or make more money.

SG put it as plainly as it can be said. We need him more than he needs us. We're in the position to lock him into our system and we need to get it done. We can't gamble that he'll be smart enough to realize that signing with us for $4 million is better than holding out for another $2 million and risk going back into the draft pool (or whatever the dollar figures are set at).

The O's aren't a poor franchise and we can afford Weiters. Not only does signing him improve our club, it improves our relationship with Boras, who represents many top-talent players. If we don't get this done, he'll be even more reluctant to deal with us in the future.

[Eddie_Ripken]

Midnight Wednesday means Wednesday at 12am correct??

Not Wednesday night at Midnight which would be Thursday Midnight.

So in reality the FO has approx 32 hours left.

Am I right??