I can't believe I'm arguing with you about this. It's common knowledge here that Ortiz is a joke. "Your first mistake would be reading an Ortiz article." means what it is. I don't know anyone on this board that has access to those direct quotes.
It wouldn't hurt to get one of those guys...I know we'd like them cheap, but maybe an incentive laden contract that rewards him for individual and team success...
Like I said, the original comment was a joke. Apparently the humor was not picked up on. That's why my comment was like 2 lines long, it wasn't meant to be a lecture on acquiring proper AP quotes or whatever else it was interpreted to be. It was a joke.. that Ortiz sucks. Nothing more than that. Maybe he did get the quotes himself and they aren't from an AP article, I didn't actually check on it. Like I said, just a silly jab at Ortiz.. a joke..
Yeah, I never understood why so many folks looked at this as a realistic possibility... it was always an extreme longshot. San Diego is better for Prior on a personal level because he's from the area. San Diego is better for Prior on a professional level because Petco should help him to produce really quality numbers. The only way the Astros could've competed here would've been to make a very large guaranteed commitment to Prior over one year, and given his injuries, I'm not sure that's wise. And even if they did that, you could still make the argument that Prior could more than make up for that money by the numbers boost he'd get from Petco. So, I imagine it's no big loss to the Astros, because I doubt they considered it all that viable to begin with. Hopefully Wade's still in dialogue with the agents for Lieber, Hernandez and the other mid-to-high 4s ERA/innings eater types.
1) I think maybe because the Padres have more bonafide starters than we do. 2) It was reported that Prior was not going to sign a multi-year deal, unless of course, it was some absurd deal that would mirror what he would get next offseason, which no one was going to do. 3) Why would Astros fans believe we had a shot at trading for Beltran, Randy Johnson, etc.?
The Padres were a better fit for Prior, like Cat said. Both professionally and personally, I always thought it'd be a longshot that he'd sign with Houston. I'd wait till next season though to say if that was a good or bad thing with his injury history. Can it even be called "history" if its ongoing?
Yeah, but keep in mind San Diego has/had a glaring hole at No. 5 (and their No. 4 is a very injury-prone Randy Wolf) and all he needs is one slot. Who said anything about a multi-year deal? Come on, you have to know that trades are a different animal than player signings.
I meant to type, "The Padres were a better fit for Prior, like Cat said, both professionally and personally. I always thought..." I don't have both professional and personal thoughts.
How so? Their top three are Peavy, Young, and Maddux. After that, they have Randy Wolf and Justin Germano, both of whom had ERAs in the 4s. All five of those guys would be the #1 or #2 pitcher on the Astros right now (some may be #3 if Backe is 100%). They also have Clay Hensley who struggled last year but was pretty good the previous year (ERA under 4). I'm not sure what Prior ended up signing for, but was very possible that the Padres wouldn't have been interested in paying all that much for a #4/5 injury-prone starter given their other options and needs on offense.
The Padres home park is certainly more pitcher-friendly than MMP though. Factor that in with the fact its a pretty decent opportunity to get into the rotation in a city where he REALLY wants to be was the nail in the coffin, IMO. If he truly believes he is going to be good this year, like his agent is saying, then he wouldn't doubt he can beat out Wolf, Germano, or Hensley for a spot.
Oh certainly - I don't disagree from Prior's viewpoint. I'm just saying that the Padres have a lot of options and pretty good, young pitchers so it was very possible they might not offer all that much $$. Other teams such as the Astros need him more, so they were willing to offer notably more, he might have gone elsewhere. I don't know what Prior ultimately signed for, though.
They also have Glendon Rusch who they signed recently. Rusch is nothing amazing, but he is a decent spot starter. It could always be worse.... They could have Woody Williams still.
Prior only got $1 million in base salary with incentives that could take it to over $3 million with an option as reported by ESPN. I would think that he may have declined better offers.
Prior is a reclamation project... you don't want to give him too much guaranteed unless you KNOW that you have people in your organization who can turn this guy around, or has a track record of rehabbing this type of injury. The Cardinals are probably the de-facto experts at reclamation projects... they were in the hunt, but obviously they didn't come close to thinking about breaking the bank for him (unlike the time they signed Carpenter to a 2 million extention when they knew he'd be injured that year... they basically paid him money to rehab, which he turned into a Cy Young award and World Series winning team).
Wow - yeah, I'd definitely suspect he turned down some better offers there. I'm sure somebody desperate for pitching would give him $3-$5MM guaranteed. The upside is just too much - if he does get healthy, he changes your entire's team's potential. For a 1-yr deal, there's just no long-term risk - I hope the Astros at least offered $3MM or so. If we're willing to guarantee a 40+yr old Woody Williams $6MM/per for 2 years, Prior should be worth at least $3MM/1 yr.
You misunderstood me... I meant a very large commitment over the course of one year. I didn't mean over a year in the sense of a multi-year contract... my mistake.
