I know, I know -- there's no evidence that Crane won't spend for the ballclub. But it drives me nuts that he qualifies stuff -- "we'll look at any contract that makes sense." You would never hear Les Alexander say that -- he would say the team will do anything that would make them better. Crane might very well be willing to open his checkbook, but he's not great at inspiring confidence the team will spend for a contender, IMO.
Based on looking at standings for old school teams just now, there does not look to be an idiot bidder as a buyer (maybe Rangers). Sorry, The Beard, you may be right about pitching prices dropping this year. Granted, it would be likely be a black swan event if it did happen.
Two different situations, with the salary cap in basketball it's not really about how much Les will spend, it's soending it right
Johnny Cueto at bat. This happens. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cueto might have hurt his right hand on that swing. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/reds?src=hash">#reds</a></p>— John Fay (@johnfayman) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnfayman/status/625121289225633793">July 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And was nearly traded to the Royals <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash">#Royals</a> were close to acquiring Cueto from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reds?src=hash">#Reds</a> earlier tonight, sources tell me and <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi">@jonmorosi</a>. Deal fell through.</p>— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/625140321039568896">July 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources indicate that the problem was that one of the players going from the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash">#Royals</a> to the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reds?src=hash">#Reds</a> for Cueto did not check out medically.</p>— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/625140327515574272">July 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That's just it man, I don't dislike you as you say. I've never met you, have no idea who you are. I do know that you love the Astros, and that in itself makes you someone I would put on at least one good list.... You talk a lot about respect here, and here is what I think you need to understand This is a community message board. If you "talk/post" in a way that annoys a large majority of the community, you should expect to not be received very well. You might think we are being dis-respectful, you might think we "don't like you", or whatever. The fact is, many times we have specifically commented on the things that a Majority of this community gets annoyed with. Do you might think we are being disrespectful, and in your mind i'm sure we are. Bottom line though, if you (or anyone else for that matter) continue to post in a way that is very annoying to us, you won't be accepted very well around here. Thing about this board is, if you would tone it down a bit, you would pretty quickly gain a lot more acceptance around here. This is a great community of posters, and we accept people we don't agree with. When I first came to this board it was right about the time of the CSN fiasco beginning. A majority of my posts at that time were about how much I hated Crane, Les and the guys that ran comcast (for the record, I still hate comcast)...Going back and reading my posts, they were very obnoxious, I was really pissed at the situation...Even the guys that agreed with my view wouldn't really get into conversation with me because of the way that I posted my views. I was banned for a week one time for my banter. Looking back at that, it's easy to see why most were annoyed with me. I toned it down a little (ok a lot, lol)..I'm sure there are many that see my name on a post and just turn away because of all of that a few years ago, but I think a lot of people around here now read my views and comment on them, we can go back and forth on thoughts with respect whether we agree or not... Sorry so long...but it's not about whether I (or anyone else) likes you or not, we just get very annoyed by the constant banter
I agree with Crane. There is no need to take on a contract that is out of line. However, essentially all contracts make sense depending on the situation. Right now, with the acquisition of Kazmir, Hamels' contract makes less sense than it did a week ago. They should be able to acquire a consistent hitter, a solid bullpen arm and a mid tier starter for 20 million.
I guess my real issue is with him substituting the word "contract" for "player" or "deal". "We'll look at any deal [player] that makes sense" -- I would have NO problem and completely agree. When he says "contract" instead though, it just makes him sound cheap IMO. We're paying Kazmir $4M for the rest of the year -- I don't think that should be cost prohibitive of acquiring Hamels. It doesn't make sense to me that we could afford Hamels last week but now they we have another $4M on the books, it doesn't work. Again, if you argue that we got a top flight SP in Kazmir and would be better served using our assets to acquire a bat or RP, I would completely understand. It's when you start bringing up contract and $ that I start to balk. If anything, that should give Crane the advantage since he doesn't have to work around the impediments of a salary cap.
Oh I agree, in baseball if you want to spend it you can so Crane has an advantage over Les in that sense. What I was saying is it's easy for Les to not get into those type of conversations, cause for the most part he is going to spend the max, while there are some situations where you pay the tax and go over and so forth, in general Les is gonna pay what he is allowed to pay. Just saying it's really tough to compare the two situations because of that I have not been a big fan of Crane since he bought the team. Most of that though, was because he kept popping off at the mouth. He pretty much voiced that he was the owner and we were just little fans and he would do as he wished. I'm sure a majority of these team owners have similar thoughts and feelings, Crane was just not smart enough to shut his mouth. For whatever reason, someone apparently convinced him to shut it up and he pretty much has. When it comes to actually spending, I see no reason at all to think he won't spend a legitimate amount on this team. Fans in general will never like what we spend here, we will hear about the Yanks payroll or Sox or Dodgers, and say our owner was cheap. People used to rip McLane for not spending, which was always untrue. McLane didn't understand how baseball is run and in the end that cost him, but he spent plenty. I think Crane will too, time will tell
This may be a poop show in the making. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“Nobody told me nothing,” Cueto said. He just arrived at the park, usually tell the player in person. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/reds?src=hash">#reds</a></p>— John Fay (@johnfayman) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnfayman/status/625348528445898753">July 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
One of the Royals failed their physical last night, which is why the deal got delayed. Still no word on the whos and whats that I've seen.
