S5Dewey

Of course there are a couple of reasons for that beyond the Red Sox. It's harder and harder to recruit baseball players to the Northeast when the blue-chip prospects have the opportunity to play at Florida, Texas or Arizona where the weather is better and they can play year-round. Also, some of this is due to the NCAA's adding another layer of playoffs just to get to Omaha. In the past teams had to only win their conference tournament + a regional tournament to get to the CWS. Now they have to also win a "Super Regional" made up of teams who won their regional tournament and also teams who didn't win their regional (mostly from the South and West) but are selected to play by the tournament committee. The deck is stacked against the schools from the North and Northeast from the beginning. That has more to do with the NCAA than with the Red Sox crowding out college baseball in interest.

Lest I get branded (by some) as being a basketball misogynist I'll point out that I attend about as many girl's/women's basketball games as I do boy's/men's games at the HS and college level. It's just a different game depending on the gender. A different game played by the same rules.

This is a really good post. This team needs a leader and it's not going to be Pedroia. IMHO the team fractured with "It's not me, it's them". That's when the players learned that Pedroia, the heir-apparent to team leadership when Papi retired, didn't have their backs. When they tried to have his back he threw them under the bus and it created a lasting cancer in the clubhouse. What goes on in locker rooms is usually a well-kept secret so one person't opinion of what happens there is every bit as good as another person's. I believe that the 2017 team won 93 games with individual talent but at the end of the day they weren't playing as a team. They lacked the leadership to behave as a unit. This team is crying for a leader but I don't see anyone there who has the personality to do the job. The two who should be doing it are Hanley and Pedroia but Pedey is too wrapped up in his own performance and Hanley is too busy preening for the TV cameras and everyone else either is too young (Beni, Vaz, Devers) or doesn't appear to have the personality to do the job (JBJ, Mookie). Maybe that's what DD sees in JDM and that's why he's holding out to get him. I dunno. But I'm confident that this team lacks on-field leadership and until/unless someone steps up that will continue to be a problem. But then again, I could be wrong.

Well, yeah, but Seattle has a reputation for having great coffee and ..women's basketball? Really?.

Here's a question. What does DD do if Morrison and Duda sign today with someone else and Boras gets back to the Sox and says, "With these other options now off the table my client now wants $200/7."?

You know my feeling on that. "Our offer expires at midnight. Every midnight after that it becomes $1M less." Right now JDM has no incentive to make a decision. This would move him 'off the pot'.

I agree that JDM hired Boras to maximize his salary, but at the same time JDM mas to make his own decisions. If what you say is true the solution is quite easy. All he has to do is say, "Scott, thanks for your help. I'm taking the Boston offer and it's more than I would have gotten without you. Now get the paperwork ready." I'm admittedly cynical. I believe that Boras operates as much in his own best interest as he does the player's best interest and there's nothing wrong with that until it becomes a conflict of interest. But let's get real. Scott Boras gets 5% (or whatever) of what his players sign for so he has a vested interest in maximizing the player's salaries. However, it should be up to the players to make their own decisions as to where they want to play and for how much. If Boras doesn't get his maximum payday... sux to be you, Scott!

When you have $125M and you're unhappy another million or two isn't going to make you any happier. If he feels he'd be happier in AZ than in Boston then that's where he should be. Move on.

Pretty much a spot on post, and Boras and Martinez know it. There's a better than even chance that come next off-season the kind of money JDM is "demanding" will go only to the top players leaving him with the leavings. B/M are being coy, refusing to commit to anything yet, and risking watching what it appears is the best offer disappear. We all make decisions in our lives. Some work out well, some don't. I'm all for Martinez doing what's in his best interest. I've been a proponent for some time of withdrawing the current offer and making another offer of daily declining money until JDM either takes the Sox offer or signs with someone else. "My" offer will force his hand into deciding whatever he thinks is in his best interest and doing it. Unfortunately it looks like this has become a disagreement over principle, the only way it will resolved is if one party caves in, and neither party will cave. It's too bad but that's the way it is. Move on. Let him sign his one year deal with the D-bax this year and then sign for less than $25M next year. Speaking for myself, I could eat a lot of crow for $125M.

I don't disagree, except for one word. "Is he trying to SET market value, yes"

I think my distaste for Machado is pretty well documented. He's been suspended twice. once for throwing a bat onto the field and once for punching Yordano Vetura in the face being the agressor in a bench clearing incident. And that was just in his first two years. And it seems that was just the tip of the iceberg. https://www.athleticsnation.com/2014/6/9/5793370/athletics-orioles-manny-machado-buck-showalter-boooooooo Then in 2017 there's that nasty issue with Pedey, and I'll be a lot older than I am now before I believe that was an accident. So why is it some people wouldn't want to trade for Martinez if he's a head case, but they'd trade for Machado, who may be one of the biggest head cases and anger issues players in baseball? IMO the jury is still out on Martinez but the verdict is in on Manny Machado. No thanks.

I guess that works both ways. I'm sick of Martinez inflexibility too. If it's worth it to JDM to possibly walk away from a few million dollars because he doesn't like the Sox "inflexibility" he needs to remember that flexibility is a two-way street.

I dunno.. Not everything in the world is about money. There's an old saying that money isn't everything, as long as you've got plenty of it. Maybe Dempster thought he had plenty of it.

It's hard for me to work up any sympathy for owners OR players. I believe that owners are astute businessmen, otherwise they wouldn't be able to be owners of an MLB team so if they want to throw millions of dollars at players it's hard to feel sorry for them. I don't think you'll see any of them living in a trailer park in the near future. [hyperbole. But you get the point] As for players, again no sympathy. I'm reminded of what two players said who are now not playing baseball. Curt Schilling: "I've made money (playing baseball) that my grandchildren won't be able to spend." Ryan Dempster retiring after walking away from $13M in 2014: As a major league player "I've been treated like a king all my (playing) life. Now I have to learn how to live my life like a normal person". I question how much Dempster's life is going to be like mine if he was walking away from $13M, but anyway.... What part of that makes JD Martinez believe that he deserves more money?

And all of that chatter is based on the assumption that Hanley doesn't produce. I'd rather see him have a career year (but I'd settle for a solid one of .800+) and have the option vest than have him stink up the place and sit on the bench.

What? These guys don't even have to buy their own SEEDS??? Do then need a raise in pay???

Unfortunately, no. I'd love to do it just once but that 250 mile drive..... Ugh If anyone here does go please post some pics. Now I have to go and text "HAPPY TRUCK DAY" to my kids.

Yep. This is why the Player's Assn. has always been against performance-based salaries. If, say, a player was going to get a $1M bonus for hitting 40 HR's, he had 38 runs on Sept.1 and the team was in last place management wouldn't be playing this guy in September. It's a basic (and probably well-earned) distrust on both sides.

I've rewritten your post a little bit to show how this works both ways. What I mean is owners becoming super-conscious of a player's PA's because of the vesting clauses, and trying to protect themselves. It's sort of a 'conflict of interest' situation, because the owner is thinking about a player's PA's rather than the team. It already happens to a certain degree, I imagine, but the existing PA clauses could make it worse. In short, it's a lot like what we're talking about on this forum in trying to limit HanRam's PA so he doesn't vest.

I still don't know what's going on with the FA market this year. It appears that either Boras has fed his players unrealistic expectations and all the other agents are waiting for Boras to 'set the market' or else the teams are stonewalling the players. . A little anecdote - I've mentioned that I did some negotiating at one time and the plant I worked at was veryyy close to striking. It was near the 24th hour that the top management negotiator made what I thought was an interesting comment. "Strikes over money have a way of getting solved, but strikes over principle can go on for a long time". I'm now wondering if this Sox vs. Martinez thing hasn't become an issue of principle more than of money.

Mal, My best guess is that if you call the number for the park and tell them who you are and what you want to do they'll accommodate you. I've found everyone at the park to be very friendly and helpful, especially to the (ahem) "geriatric group". They'd probably even allow the bus to drive nearer the fields rather than park in the lot. My experience in workout days (FWIW) is that there's no point in showing up too early - like before 9:00 am - and don't plan on staying past noon. Those players have tee-times, after all! And BTW, there's usually one concession stand and one souvenir shop open if anyone is so inclined. Good luck, my friend!

Copied and pasted from The Oklahoman, NewsOK "Arbitrators Daniel Brent, Mark Burstein, Phillip LaPorte heard arguments Tuesday, and a decision is expected Wednesday."

Meh. As I said last week, I'm willing to call JD's bluff. "Today's offer is 5/$125, tomorrow it's 5/$120, and we'll have to wait to see what the next day's offer is. And if you think you can do better than that, go to it, but know that our best offer may go down with every day we have to wait, until we sign someone else."

While that may be true it's also very misleading. The only way that $2.7 billion can be accessed is by selling the team, and selling the team is counter-productive to building (and keeping) a winning team. The sale value of the team doesn't really matter when it comes to paying the expenses.

You know it's a slow Hot Stove season when the biggest news out of Fenway is that they're extending the netting on both sides of the field.