Oh we're talking about coming on in relief against the Nats. Got it. Sorry but I have those bad memories blocked out.
I never liked the guy. He always gave off gigantic ******* vibes. I wasn’t that broken up when he didn’t resign cause I never really liked him.
I fail to believe any true Astros fan watched Gerit Cole dominate for those 2 seasons and thought to themselves, man I REALLY don't like this dude. I mean the way he reacted after the game 7 loss I was definitely in adios, don't let the door hit ya mode. But I'm not gonna sit hear and rewrite history and say I disliked the dude when he was helping us win over 100 games for 2 straight seasons. That dude was electric and hella fun to watch.
Gerrit Cole was one of the best acquisitions that the Astros made. While it did hurt to lose Joe Musgrove, the two seasons that Cole was here were well worth it. I was a huge Cole fan and he flourished here in Houston. People may have forgotten that The MO on a Cole was that he felt pressured as the Pirates’ ace, but was firmly entrenched and comfortable as the #2 behind Verlander. I lost all respect for Cole after during the post-game interview after the Game 7 loss in the 2019 World Series to the Nationals. I can understand being disappointed that you lost the World Series, that you felt like you should’ve been put in the game instead of Will Harris, but act like a professional. When Cole took off his Astros cap and put on a different cap and acted like a complete jerk, muttering that he was a free agent now that the World Series was over, that was the moment I said “screw this guy”. Cole left for the money, and good for him to get paid. The Astros moved on and went to two more World Series in 2021 and 2022 without him. Cole is a great pitcher, but I’ll never root for him while he wears pinstripes or any other uniform.
Cole definitely gives off a Kevin Durant vibe. He's not sensitive like Durant, but he does not like to be criticized in the same way. And that to me is surprising because he had a lot of struggles to get to where he is, and that normally comes with some humility.
Oh yeah, totally. Next time you're crossing the border tell him to pitch better, then he might win some ribbons and prizes and such. Otherwise, **** him.
It was incredibly predictable too. I know that getting the most money is basically what people are brought up to believe in, but the end goal should be happiness. He left the organization, city and teammates for an organization that doesn’t care because they can always buy someone else to do the job. The fans in NYC don’t even like Cole. He doesn’t like the media or fit in with his teammates or the city. The utility of money goes down the more you have of it, so he isn’t even really seeing any change in his happiness or lifestyle that is positive from it. He could have signed a 3/100 deal with the Astros or signed with his home team and been more successful on the field and happier off of it. Verlander is making the same calculated risk. He claims he is happy in Houston, he has a staff he knows, teammates he likes and has two WS rings.
Getting the most money is what the overwhelming majority of people do in all walks of life, especially competitive people. Often times it is the right decision. The utility of money decreases at some point. Players have lots of internal and external pressures to take the most money. Ego’s are huge, players seldom say they make a mistake taking or passing on money. Some players like Kershaw have left money on the table, but he is the exception.
Have heard players talk about being pressured by the union to take the biggest contract available even if it's not a situation they particularly want to be in due to it raising the market for the players beneath them in the FA pool.
Were the Astros even going to make that sort of offer to him? I think Cole has done as good as he possibly can in NYC. Yes, the crackdown on the sticky stuff definitely did impact his overwhelming dominance, but it didn't turn him into a scrub either. Yankees fans will turn on anybody who wasn't brought up in the system or anybody who had their best years away from NYC. The real question is was there ever another team who was going to come close to offering him 9 years and $40 mil/per. It really seems like the Yankees bid against themselves for this one. And its certainly going to impact their decision making going forward on trades/free agents given that they're no closer to overcoming the Astros (let alone, overcoming their AL East rivals) than they were without him.
The problem is Boras gets paid the same regardless of if his clients or not or if they have to pay more taxes or not. The other thing is that we would have never paid Cole even close to what NY was going to pay him. He's getting guaranteed twice as much money as we would ever offer.
Boras works for the player, not the other way around. He generates all the offers... in some case gets teams to raise their initial offer by bidding against themselves... and then the player gets to choose where to go. Fairly certain that he can articulate tax implications for the Texas/Florida teams when it comes to some of these negotiations... but when 81 games are possibly played elsewhere, and players have certain desires of where they want to live/establish their brand, that stuff won't end up mattering as much to them (unless they really want to be on a Texas or Florida team).
Since no one has properly answered the OP's question, it's probably that sticky stuff. Got to hide it somewhere.
To be fair, I think this is generally true, but the modern levels of money athletes are now getting are opening up new doors. You see more and more athletes getting involved with ownership of teams and things like that. So now those extra dollars actually can make a difference in their post-sport endeavors. Mahomes, for example, is now a minority owner in both the Royals and the KC soccer team.
