An 9 year contract extenstion. $117.5 mil. Cincinatti gets the best player in baseball. Seattle gets (stats for 1999 season):
CF Mike Cameron (.256 BA, 21 HRs, 38 SBs in 146 games)
RHP Brett Tomko (5-7, 4.92 ERA, 132 SOs in 33 games)
Infielder Antonio Perez (no info available)
& a player to be named later.
Questions:
-Griffey earlier turned down an 8 year, $148 mil extension with the Mariners. He paid 30 million smackers to get out of Seattle. Is it really that bad?
-Is this the best deal that Seattle could have gotten?
-Seattle has obviously made the decision to make Rodriguez their franchise player. Is this wise?
“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” -Winston Churchill
The last reason I had for ever paying money to enter that tax-payer robbing monstrosity of a ballpark is now gone. My guess is the citizens of Washington state would rather have paid Griffey’s salary to keep him here than subsidize the owners who are too cheap to know they just traded away their franchise.
In the immortal words of Joni Mitchell: “Don’t it always seem to go and you don’t know what you got til it’s gone.”
well well said the royal desiccation my political opponents back home always maintained
that i would wind up in hell and it seems they had the right dope
Don Marquis archy interviews a pharaoh
Griffey Jr. was already leaving the Mariners. Still, this has to be one of the most lopsided deals in baseball history. The M’s got basically nobody, and gave away everything. The Red’s now have a future Hall of Famer, and arguably the best all around ballplayer in baseball.
It may appear that way currently, but trades (Especially those involving minor league prospects) really should have a wait and see attitude. The same was said of the Randy Johnson deal, and it looks like Seattle may have actually been improved by the deal.
As for Griffey in Cincinnati, who here wants to make a bet that the NL ERA leader comes from the Central Division? Sosa, McGwire, Griffey, Bagwell. Let the good times roll.
Have you voted for your favorite, huggable Mullinator today?
Just like almost every other baseball-loving kid in southwestern Ohio, Junior grew up fantisizing about one day playing for the Cincinnati Reds.
In the press conference yesterday he seemed almost in a daze and he said “I get to play on that field” (refering to Riverfr…er…Cinergy). Notice he said “I get to”…like it’s a priviledge and an honor. That’s touching and you probably have to have been a lifelong Reds fan to relate…
Here’s a man that accepted probably about half of his market value in order to play for the Reds. Reminds me of Johnny Bench foregoing the bigger bucks in order that he could stay with the Reds.
Is there any other team in baseball that inspires superstars to accept half-pay just for the chance to play for them?
Oh yah they came out the huge winner, but he wouldn’t play for anyone else. As Pat Gillick said, that doesn’t leave them with alot of bargaining leverage.
Go to a car dealership and say I want this car, I am not leaving in my car, and I don’t want to buy a car anywhere else. See how much over the sticker price you pay!
-Frankie
“Mother Mercy, can your loins bear fruit forever?/Is your fecundity a trammel or a treasure?”
-Bad Religion
Honestly, I thought someone was calling me a commie. Sorry folks, “born a snake handler, and I’ll die a snake handler.”
As for the Griffey trade and the question of which team made out better, it’s really impossible to tell right now, just as the talent of the players involved in the trade is, in a number of cases, irrelevant. If Seattle was poor (the franchise, that is), and Griffey was asking for a lot over the next few years, the Mariners probably factored the long term financial benifits/losses along with the fact that 30 is almost middle aged in baseball years.
It’s funny…there’s this really great baseball sim out there for your PC. It’s called “Baseball Mogul,” and it’ll make you realize that, while it’s tempting to stack your team with all-stars, and while it hurts your play to trade or release them, and while you’ll probably win your division for a few years straight, the financial burden those players put on you will leave some serious damage in its wake. It’s all about the long term.
pssst…Juniorbunk it’s also about the fact that Junior said he wouldn’t play anywhere but cincinnati. He wouldn’t sign with the mariners for all the money in the heavens!
-Frankie
“Mother Mercy, can your loins bear fruit forever?/Is your fecundity a trammel or a treasure?”
-Bad Religion
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