The Buhner.com Blog

Milwaukee receives:

RHP Scott Linebrink

Padres receives:

RHP Will Inman
LHP Steve Garrison
LHP Joe Thatcher

Thoughts: Linebrink was a nobody until the Padres got him off waivers from the Astros (more…)

I’m a big fan of the guys at firejoemorgan.com , especially since I’ve been known to disect articles like they do while reading them. So I took a shot at taking apart one of the New York-based newsrags (sadly, probably the best of the three tabloids) articles focusing on one of my new Yankee man-crushes, Shelley Duncan . It may not be up to the standards of FJM, but it came surprisingly easy, I guess with such an easy target.

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I’m normally a fan of the XM Baseball morning show with Buck Martinez (who will be forever ruined to me thanks to Triple Play ‘99) and the other guy, but they were pulling some things out of their ass this morning. They were doing some seemingly “on the fly” discussion of last year’s deadline trades (I say “seemingly” because they plugged it several times as coming up during the show, but the prep work involved seemed to be a transaction list from last July) and made accurate comments on what trades have worked (boy, the Nationals really bent over the Reds on that Kearns/Majewski deal), but usually missed the mark on why (Ryan Wagner is pitching “well” for the Nats [5.74 ERA in 14 games before season-ending surgery], Bill Bray is getting hammered for the Reds [hasn’t pitched this season due to injury]).

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Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to make $27 million a year for the next three years after this season is complete. He can elect to terminate this contract in order to receive more money, upwards of $32 million a year, and tacking on additional years to his contract that would likely be his last huge money contract, or at least the last one that would end in his “prime”.

Rodriguez turns 32 later this month, and at the end of his current contract he’ll be 35. I’m no master of economics, but in all likelyhood the contract that Rodriguez would receive to play into his late 30s/early 40s would be larger if he were to sign an extension now than if he were to play to the end of this contract and entering the free agent market at the age of 35, when most players are seeing a decline in statistics (under investigation San Francisco outfielders excluded).

Agent Scott Boras’ threats (we’ll just say they’re his instead of Rodriguez just to make him look better and make an agent the villian, which is easy enough to do) to terminate Rodriguez’ contract at the end of this season and test the free agent market are geared solely at one team - the New York Yankees. Well, that’s obvious, since the team with the most to lose if Rodriguez does this is the Yankees, who lose one of the best offensive players in baseball, and receive no compensation for it.

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Ready for some fun, kids?  Let’s play “You’re The Manager.”   Baseball managers make very important decisions that their years of experience in baseball can give them insight that an outsider like you or me can only dream to have.  But let’s pretend, shall we?

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