Stay cool
We like to think of baseball living in its own, little bubble (for better or worse), impervious to the realities of life that persist away from the game. But the hard knocks of the country’s financial concerns might be catching up to America’s pastime.
Case in point: It hasn’t just been a slow start to the hot stove season. It has been a monumentally slow start. No big name free agent, including Manny Ramirez, Mark Teixeira, Derek Lowe, and CC Sabathia has come close to inking a deal as of yet on the verge of Thanksgiving. While that might not seem abnormal, with the GM meetings but a fortnight away, history proves otherwise. The New York Times’ Ben Shpigel writes today:
A review of baseball’s transaction history since 2001 showed that the only period featuring fewer signings in the first 12 days of open bidding than this year came in the 2002-3 off-season, when Jesse Orosco was the only free agent who had signed. Each of the last five free-agent off-seasons included at least six signings by this stage, led by the 2006 bonanza when Alfonso Soriano, Juan Pierre, Nomar Garciaparra, Gary Matthews Jr., Aramis Ramírez and Frank Thomas signed before Thanksgiving.
There is a similarly attractive group of free agents available this year — C. C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Manny Ramírez and Francisco Rodríguez, for starters — but teams seem to be proceeding cautiously and dispensing fewer offers than in years past.
While the economy certainly isn’t going to play too much of a factor into the gazillions that the above, aforementioned players are expected to receive, there will undoubtedly be enormous trickle-down for the second class of free agents still looking for jobs. Guys like Rocco Baldelli, Brad Penny, Kerry Wood, and Orlando Cabrera aren’t going to be getting offers like ones they might have expected a year ago.
Fewer years – with perhaps higher annual price tags – may be the norm this offseason, with the economic future of the country up in arms, a major reason why the Dodgers have offered Ramirez just a two-year deal, a proposal that even they seem to be regretting based on comments made by Dodgers president Jamie McCourt – wife of team owner, Frank – who helped announce yesterday that the club would build 42 youth fields around Southern California.
“If you bring somebody in to play and pay them, pick a number, $30 million, does that seem a little weird to you?” McCourt asked. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We’re really trying to see it through the eyes of our fans. We’re really trying to understand, would they rather have the 50 fields?”
A survey on LA Times.com proposing the question shows more than 65 percent favoring a big-name free agent like Ramirez over the 50 baseball fields.
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