Not the same. The contact with Longoria was done shortly after he came up to the majors and was a risk for both sides. He had shown nothing in the MLB so the MLBPA wasn't going to fight over that contract and he was no guarantee to live up to expectations.
Yeah, but it didn't have to be a six year deal. He gets out of his contract after, what, his age 30 season? He could have done what most other top prospects do and negotiate a contract so they can cash in as soon as they're eligible.
Rocinante2: you know Rocinante2: its easy to dismiss the orioles as a bad team ofanrex: go on Rocinante2: i'm done Rocinante2: lmao
It was still clearly known at the time that he could have gotten a lot more. Whether or not it was a risky move is irrelevant. I think it's much more risky to sign Derek Jeter at $20M a season right now, anyway.
The only argument I can see for the MLBPA to mandate that players take the highest contract offered (I'd be pretty pissed if I was told I had to take money over a better situation for myself, but anyway...) is that it lowers the market value for other players. "If Jeter gets $10M, then Tulowitzki gets less than that in arbitration", as a poorly thought out example. It's a weak argument though, and only looks good on a pie chart in a board meaning as opposed to real life. Arbitration is another ridiculous can of worms that i won't get into now though...
wrveres wrote:the mlbpa insists that each player get as much possible out of every contract. They aren't doing it for themselves per se, but for future talent. And they aren't so concerned with the replacement type players, but the big name players, like Jeter. You betcha the MLBPA will be reviewing his contract proposals.
Each player is still free to do whatever it is they want. The MLBPA can strongly suggest but not dictate what a player is willing to accept.
It's a good topic for conversation but IMO the only team that would pay more than $10 mill for Jeter these days would be the Yanks. That doesn't mean some team won't but he isn't worth that these days to any one except the Yanks, and that number is very debatable.
Didn't Halladay accept less than what he could have gotten elsewhere to join the Phillies? And didnt' the MLBPA get all bent out of shape over it?
Not the same. The contact with Longoria was done shortly after he came up to the majors and was a risk for both sides. He had shown nothing in the MLB so the MLBPA wasn't going to fight over that contract and he was no guarantee to live up to expectations.
Yeah, but it didn't have to be a six year deal. He gets out of his contract after, what, his age 30 season? He could have done what most other top prospects do and negotiate a contract so they can cash in as soon as they're eligible.
It's actually pretty common for many top young players to do something similar to what Longoria did if the team is willing to be proactive enough. Teams buy out a few years of arbitration and a sometimes a couple free agency years early in the contract. It costs the team money in the short term (players get millions now when they are still under team control and would be making basically the minimum) and in return they get good value for a few years when the player has more leverage. But the earlier they get the deals done, the bigger the reward can be.
Players like McCann, Tulowitzki, Sizemore, and Braun all signed long term contracts fairly early in their careers (less than 2 years in) that extended 5-6 years and bought out a year or two of free agency (or at least gave the clubs option control for a year of free agency).
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by wrveres » Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:18 am 
