The Astros are at a point where they are never gonna get the benefit of the doubt. Like most people when I hear the Astros are involved with anything bad, I typically believe it.
I agree completely. Our front office is an embarrassment (in my opinion), in the way that they treat people.
The agent is blowing some of that out of his ass. The part about the Astros maybe using a perceived flaw to lower their offer to Aiken might be a real negative (though they haven't used that tactic before). Not signing Nix because they haven't signed Aiken is the nature of the system. If it didn't happen that way, there would be a possibility that Aiken holds them up until the 11th hour and they have no shot at negotiating a deal and getting a physical with Nix. The worked with Nix on the belief that they were signing Aiken for $6.5M
“We are extremely disappointed that Major League Baseball is allowing the Astros to conduct business in this manner with a complete disregard for the rules governing the draft and the 29 other clubs who have followed those same rules,” said Close, who serves as a family advisor to Aiken. The standoff could lead the Astros to lose their reported $6.5 million agreement with Aiken and $1.5 million deal with their fifth-round pick, high-school right-hander Jacob Nix, who also is advised by Close. Close is not impartial. He has two dogs in this fight. “We’ll weigh all of our options in support of the players,” head of the players union Tony Clark said. “We believe that it is a clear violation of the rules being attempted solely to avoid penalty,” Clark said. “The Astros made a deal with Jacob Nix and should honor that agreement.” I am sure that the Astros told Nix that his offer was contingent on Aiken signing and below slot. Aiken, Nix and Marshall are HSers who told the league before the draft what it would take to get them to forgo their college commitments. In essence they are gaming the system. And when the system games them back, they get upset. Go figure. The Astros, Close said, made one revised offer to Aiken of $3,168,840 million - the minimum amount required to ensure that they would receive the second overall pick of the 2015 draft as compensation if they failed to sign Aiken. The previous rumor is that the Astros offered Aiken $5 million. This lower offer strongly indicates that the Astros have some very serious concerns about Aiken's elbow. There was no drama last year when the Astros drafted and signed Appel. Again this would likely indicate that the Astros are not the bad guys here.
So, I'm guessing it was the agent that first leaked the "possible injury" news to the media, in order to eventually set up this sort of article that has the team creating a "conspiracy" (when there is not really a major injury) in order to lower the signing bonus for Aiken so that they can sign Marshall as well (along with Nix). I guess the good news is that the injury must not be severe at all if its being questioned by the player/agent. The bad news is that there must not be a deal that is imminent if the Aiken camp is using the media to smear the Astros "strategy." FWIW, I doubt the Astros master-minded this and likely did have some concern about Aiken's physical... but once they discovered that it wasn't serious (meaning they still planned on signing him), and that they could possibly get a discount and sign Marshall, they're sort of trying to "have their cake and eat it too". Worst comes to worst, they could always cave and give Aiken the originally agreed to slot, along with getting Nix... but that's presuming there's no real bad blood between the two sides, and this "advisor" steers them both to college.
Man, Houston sports is just awesome right now. Even by our high standards, this summer has been just outstanding!
The lower offer is what they "have" to make or they don't get a pick next year if he doesn't sign. If they have real concern about his elbow... they would/should just come out and say it (and it would avoid them looking like the "bad" guy). Why throw away even $3 million dollars on him? Just to sign Nix? My guess is that they want Aiken, his "injury" is nothing that will prevent him from becoming the player they expect him to be, but they want to see how much further less he can be willing to take to see if it allows them to sign Marshall as well. I have no problem with them doing that... I will have a problem if none of these guys get signed, however, especially if its revealed that Aiken never really had that serious of an injury.
[rquoter]“Brady has been seen by some of the most experienced and respected orthopedic arm specialists in the country, and all of those doctors have acknowledged that he’s not injured and that he’s ready to start his professional career,” Close said.[/rquoter] This part bothers me the most... when you start getting 2nd opinions of medical specialists involved, and where there is doubt in a diagnosis, the team is never going to look "good" in trying to say there is something "wrong" because their doctors said there was.
I actually woke up this morning with excitement that Aiken-Nix-Marshall could be this team's version of Hudson-Zito-Mulder... or Avery-Glavine-Smoltz. BAND OF BROTHERS! (Then I had to read that article... while the agent is totally biased, I doubt he's flat out lying about all his concerns).
But did a lot change since Dwight Howard signed last year, and Harden agreed to a long-term extension the year before (basically a free agent signing since he didn't "have" to agree to a deal)? All the NBA off-season told us was that players will go where the most money is, because that's the best way of showing that they're "wanted". (Melo, Bosh, Parsons). If anything, the Howard/Harden signings were more because they wanted to be here. Back on topic... I hope we start to hear some "positive" spin today or tomorrow about this whole mess. I know the SI article was the best PR article this front office has had... but its surrounded by 20+ negative articles, including ones written by their own beat writers. Maybe the nerd cave needs to hire its own publicist.
Team doctors have final say in post-draft medicals Club will stand by team doctor, especially when highly regarded like (Astros medical director David) Lintner.
No doubt... just letting you know that nothing is ever black/white in the medical field. There will always be countless differing opinions even amongst a group of physicians who work in the same office. And if there's this much questioning about whether or not there is an injury to begin with... I highly doubt its serious (presuming there is "something" there).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>MLB should make Brady Aiken a free agent and see how quickly another team offers him that $6.5 million.</p>— keithlaw (@keithlaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw/statuses/489054870138126336">July 15, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
There are very few things that will offend me when it comes to building the best team possible. Trying to con a 17 year-old kid into taking $2+ million less on his rookie contract by exaggerating an injury is one of them. I get it, you're trying to sign Marshall too. This isn't the way to do it, especially with all the other bad press we've gotten lately.
Even though he doesn't represent Aiken, I'm sure Boras would love if MLB set that precedent. What a troll tweet...
Yeah, I was pretty excited too, then this morning realized "Band of Brothers" can be taken in the opposite context... WE HOLD OUT! ...sigh. Talk about down summer for all Houston sports teams.
He's implying they will, if not more. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>$10 million. Maybe more? “<a href="https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN">@Buster_ESPN</a>: If Brady Aiken were a free agent, <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw">@keithlaw</a>, a guess on how much he would get?”</p>— keithlaw (@keithlaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw/statuses/489055640711487489">July 15, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>I'd at least double that. <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw">@keithlaw</a>: $10 million. Maybe more? <a href="https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN">@Buster_ESPN</a>: If Brady Aiken were free agent, how much he would get? <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBDraft">@MLBDraft</a></p>— Jim Callis (@jimcallisMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/jimcallisMLB/statuses/489057783187136512">July 15, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Another way of looking at it, <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw">@keithlaw</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/jimcallisMLB">@jimcallisMLB</a>: If Aiken signed for $3.1 million,think HOU would swap him for trade value = to that?</p>— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/statuses/489061224416436225">July 15, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
