Thursday, December 18, 2003
Still Pay-Rod
The Alex Rodriguez deal apparently is dead. However it's cause a storm over who killed it. Many people are blaming the Major League Baseball Players Union for its demise.
But I respectfully refuse to accept accusations that this is the union fault for holding up the deal. Frankly, the problem still remains the ridiculous contract that Tom Hicks signed with Rodriguez, not the union upholding its contractual obligation that the Office of the Commissioner signed and 29 out of the 30 major league baseball teams voted to approve.
At issue is what value Rodriguez will get out of renegotiating the terms of his deal. The union's position is that the player must get something of value back--this means the value of the deal cannot be less than it was before the negotiation.
How do you figure value? There's a complicated formula that takes the years involved and figures the money, how much is deferred, how many years are guaranteed. etc., etc., and then they come up with a number. Where the press reported that the Rodriguez contract was a $252 million deal in 2000, the union probably gave it a smaller number because of the deferred dollars. Over the remaining life of the contract about $24 million is deferred.
President/CEO of the Red Sox, Larry Lucchino says that the union has arbitrarily decided what is of value for the player. But clearly the union ran the numbers and saw a contract with fewer dollars in Rodriguez's pocket. And less dollars is less value, no matter what the Sox or Rangers or Office of the Commissioner say.
This is starting to look like is a mud-slinging contest between the parties that would like to trade horrible contracts, Bud Selig--who would like to see those contracts vanish (if not get smaller) vs the union's legally negotiated rights. The union probably sees it as the first beachhead into their ability to enforce a simple rule: you don't give money back in a guaranteed contract.
Think about it, if Alex Rodriguez is allowed to give back $10 million in guaranteed money, what's to say that say Jeff Cirillo wouldn't be allowed to give the Mets back a couple of the $6.725 million he is due to earn in 2004 for say "a bag of baseballs" or "a private parking spot at Shea" or other items "of value" to the player just to get his deal to clear. The union doesn't really give a damn about how much ARod really will get a year. They care about enforcing the contract to the letter of the law.
I have absolutely no sympathy here for the owners. You made you bed by signing Manny, Alex, and Jeff to ridiculous contracts and now you complain that the union has the gall to legally enforce them? Caveat emptor, man. Caveat emptor.
The Alex Rodriguez deal apparently is dead. However it's cause a storm over who killed it. Many people are blaming the Major League Baseball Players Union for its demise.
But I respectfully refuse to accept accusations that this is the union fault for holding up the deal. Frankly, the problem still remains the ridiculous contract that Tom Hicks signed with Rodriguez, not the union upholding its contractual obligation that the Office of the Commissioner signed and 29 out of the 30 major league baseball teams voted to approve.
At issue is what value Rodriguez will get out of renegotiating the terms of his deal. The union's position is that the player must get something of value back--this means the value of the deal cannot be less than it was before the negotiation.
How do you figure value? There's a complicated formula that takes the years involved and figures the money, how much is deferred, how many years are guaranteed. etc., etc., and then they come up with a number. Where the press reported that the Rodriguez contract was a $252 million deal in 2000, the union probably gave it a smaller number because of the deferred dollars. Over the remaining life of the contract about $24 million is deferred.
President/CEO of the Red Sox, Larry Lucchino says that the union has arbitrarily decided what is of value for the player. But clearly the union ran the numbers and saw a contract with fewer dollars in Rodriguez's pocket. And less dollars is less value, no matter what the Sox or Rangers or Office of the Commissioner say.
This is starting to look like is a mud-slinging contest between the parties that would like to trade horrible contracts, Bud Selig--who would like to see those contracts vanish (if not get smaller) vs the union's legally negotiated rights. The union probably sees it as the first beachhead into their ability to enforce a simple rule: you don't give money back in a guaranteed contract.
Think about it, if Alex Rodriguez is allowed to give back $10 million in guaranteed money, what's to say that say Jeff Cirillo wouldn't be allowed to give the Mets back a couple of the $6.725 million he is due to earn in 2004 for say "a bag of baseballs" or "a private parking spot at Shea" or other items "of value" to the player just to get his deal to clear. The union doesn't really give a damn about how much ARod really will get a year. They care about enforcing the contract to the letter of the law.
I have absolutely no sympathy here for the owners. You made you bed by signing Manny, Alex, and Jeff to ridiculous contracts and now you complain that the union has the gall to legally enforce them? Caveat emptor, man. Caveat emptor.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Pre Non-Tendered Thoughts
Taxachusetts
The biggest winner in the proposed A-Rod/Manny deal? Perhaps the State of Massachusetts. If the deal goes through, Mass would gain about $30,000 difference between the two players salaries, thanks to the state's 5.3 percent state income tax. The $583,000 in taxes works out to a 2.65 percentage of A-Rod's total salary that he wouldn't pay if he still played a majority of his game in the non-income tax state of Texas. Of course A-Rod would still have to pay taxes on the three days that the Rangers would visit Beantown, but that'd only work out to $16,657--merely tip money for Alex.
Petering Out
Rob Neyer is convinced that Pete Rose's book, due to publish on January 8th (a day after your favorite Brushback author's birthday--no gifts, please) will include the shocking disclosure that he bet on baseball. Of course along with the disclosure will be Pete's public self-flagellation and the equally shocking lamentations from the self-monikered Hit King that he never meant to hurt the game.
Since Hall of Fame vote announcements are due on January 6th, Neyer believes that this has been closely choreographed by the Office of the Commissioner to allow the appropriate timing of the hullabaloo that will surely follow. Which would give more creedence to Baseball Prospectus's story from last summer that there already was a signed Selig/Rose agreement. I wonder if Bud will send BP's Derek Zumsteg and Will Carroll a magnum of Champaign as an apology for slamming their report. Or did Bud think we'd all just forget....
Taxachusetts
The biggest winner in the proposed A-Rod/Manny deal? Perhaps the State of Massachusetts. If the deal goes through, Mass would gain about $30,000 difference between the two players salaries, thanks to the state's 5.3 percent state income tax. The $583,000 in taxes works out to a 2.65 percentage of A-Rod's total salary that he wouldn't pay if he still played a majority of his game in the non-income tax state of Texas. Of course A-Rod would still have to pay taxes on the three days that the Rangers would visit Beantown, but that'd only work out to $16,657--merely tip money for Alex.
Petering Out
Rob Neyer is convinced that Pete Rose's book, due to publish on January 8th (a day after your favorite Brushback author's birthday--no gifts, please) will include the shocking disclosure that he bet on baseball. Of course along with the disclosure will be Pete's public self-flagellation and the equally shocking lamentations from the self-monikered Hit King that he never meant to hurt the game.
Since Hall of Fame vote announcements are due on January 6th, Neyer believes that this has been closely choreographed by the Office of the Commissioner to allow the appropriate timing of the hullabaloo that will surely follow. Which would give more creedence to Baseball Prospectus's story from last summer that there already was a signed Selig/Rose agreement. I wonder if Bud will send BP's Derek Zumsteg and Will Carroll a magnum of Champaign as an apology for slamming their report. Or did Bud think we'd all just forget....
