I never thought I'd say this to you T_J, but you are a complete, unadulterated moron. Luis Pujols and Vlad Guerrero (who are both top talents) got deals worth no more than $14M a year. These are the highest salaries under the current CBA. Both of them have better numbers than Beltran. This was not a "cheapskate" offer. All of the baseball commentators are saying that the Mets totally overpaid. Drayton made a market offer. This was not a hometown discount deal and in saying it was, you are showing your ignorance. What the Mets have done is equivalent to paying $50,000 for a $40,000 car. A smart person allows the other guy to have the car rather than overpay. A thought you may have understood that. Sorry to give you too much credit.
I hope Carlos enjoys paying NY state income tax on $119M...he probably would have ended up with more $$$ in his pocket by signing with Houston. But then again, Boras' cut is based on the pre-tax price. Here's the article from ESPN.com: NEW YORK -- The New York Mets have reached an agreement in principle to sign center fielder Carlos Beltran for $119 million over seven years to make him their centerpiece player, ESPN.com has confirmed. The sides agreed that the deal will include an $11 million signing bonus, an Associated Press source said on on condition of anonymity. New York and Beltran's agent, Scott Boras, still had to work out how to structure his salaries for each season and any deferred payments, the source and another person involved in the talks said, also on condition of anonymity. Beltran is expected to take a physical Monday and sign the deal Tuesday. The press conference is likely to take place Tuesday. Beltran, who helped Houston come within a victory of its first World Series last year, will became the 10th player in baseball history to agree to a deal worth $100 million or more -- and the first to switch teams for a nine-figure contract since Jason Giambi got a $120 million, seven-year contract from the New York Yankees in December 2001. A source familiar with the negotiations told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney that the talks with Houston fell through Saturday night because the team would not give Beltran a full no-trade clause. Beltran and his agent, Scott Boras, were OK with the seven-year, $108 million deal from the Astros. But the offer included a "limited" no-trade clause -- a stipulation that turned out to be the fallout of those talks. The source also told Olney that despite numerous calls from Boras, the Yankees never made an offer for Beltran, and they did not engage in serious talks for the center fielder. The Mets, who haven't made the playoffs since 2000, were on the verge of pulling off their second coup of the offseason. They lured three-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez from the Boston Red Sox last month with a $53 million, four-year deal. Because Beltran became a free agent and rejected salary arbitration, under baseball's rules Houston had to re-sign Beltran by midnight Saturday or lose rights until May 1. "The serious parts of this only happened in the last six hours," Astros general manager Tim Purpura said. "Really, I think we ran out of time. Mostly, it's time and distance. Certainly I regret the fact that we didn't deal with some of these things earlier -- but we didn't control the pace of the negotiations." Astros officials said an agreement was difficult to get in place Saturday night because of the logistics involved: Team staff was at the ballpark, owner Drayton McLane was at his home in Temple, Boras was at his home in Newport Beach, Calif., and Beltran was in Puerto Rico. It's been a tough offseason for the Astros. All-Star second baseman Jeff Kent signed with the Dodgers, pitcher Wade Miller was let go and signed with Boston, and All-Star outfielder Lance Berkman severely hurt a knee playing flag football, an injury that will cause him to miss the start of the season. Also, Houston is trying to persuade Roger Clemens not to retire. Clemens, 42, has said he would make a decision this month. But McLane said Saturday he believes Beltran's departure doesn't ensure Clemens' exit. "I certainly hope not and I don't think so," McLane told The New York Post. "Roger said that we would get together. He's been in Hawaii and he's coming home this weekend. I feel very confident that we'll be able to reach an agreement with Roger. "We'll move on to Roger next week." "Certainly we will welcome Roger back," Purpura said. "We're not going to shift into a rebuilding mode because of this." Clemens, who won his record seventh Cy Young Award in his first season with his hometown team, already has agreed to salary arbitration. If he exchanges figures with the Astros on Jan. 18, he could ask for a record amount, topping the $18.5 million request Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter submitted before the 2001 season. Purpura said the candidates to replace Beltran in center will most likely be Jason Lane, minor-league prospect Willy Taveras or Craig Biggio, who held the position before Beltran joined the team. He also said Houston had not ruled out a trade to upgrade the spot. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
"Mets GM Omar Minaya is to have dinner at the White House on Monday night with President Bush." What the heck is this? A day after Beltran signs with the Mets, Minaya is eating with W at the White House. I assume their having fish, because something sure stinks around here. And, by the way, I want Stevie "Franchise", "Cat" Mobley. And Kelvin, too. This New York conspiracy makes me sick. Why is JVG our coach? I hate slow-down offense. I just don't like the Rockets anymore. Those commercials with Cat & Steve at the Childrens' Museum and at NASA were just cruel. You groom three athletic, talented players for 5 years and trade them after they make the playoffs for the first time? This has got to be a joke. Patrick Ewing, Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson, Charlie Ward, Charles Oakley on the Rockets' bench. Laughable. Ha Ha. How funny. And, whatever, Beltran. Ensberg, Lane, Wade Miller and Brandon Backe hit for higher average than you in an Astros uniform last year. A .258 average??? Ausmus can hit for that high, with a few seeing-eye balls. 119 million? Yeah right. Good luck with the Metropolitans, you'll need it.
hmm they claimed logistics were a problem .. according to that artcle... they can't control where boras and beltran are... but drayton didnt have to be in temple .
Chill folks! The Mets were absolutely desperate to sign Beltran at any cost because they are a distant No. 2 team in a two team market. If anyone got played here it was the Mets. Boras stalled and used the Astros to get them to cough up that extra $11 million plus a full no trade clause and they caved like little b****es. Drayton & Purpura conducted an honest negotiation and have nothing to be sorry about. I'd rather see the Astros try and fail this way than to pull something dumbass like the Mets just did or what Tom Hicks & the Rangers did with "PayRod". They may suck this year (or they may not) but be happy that they still retain the financial flexibility to make the moves that will improve this team which is something that would not be possible if they'd invested $120+ million on just one guy.
Look i am upset that we didn't get Beltran but all in all i am ont going to hate on Drayton for it. he did all he could do and actually went after him. He wanted more money and has Boras backing him so that's how it fell. I still don't know if i am going to boo Beltran when he comes to houston because of what he did for us. But i do wish that if he did just want more money that he would have said it earlier so we could have gone on and found someone else. But of course thats not in our hands.
Boras sucks. Beltran loses a little respect for allowing Boras to sell him to the highest bidder. Start to finish, all I heard from national media types was that Beltran liked Houston enough to offset the deep pockets of the Yankees and others. But oh well. This is what we knew we were risking when we rented him, just like with Randy Johnson. Beltran owed us squat as far as loyalty. I can't be mad at him. I do feel this isn't doomsday for us. Certainly makes 2005 look like it'll be mediocore, but it does allow us to finally rebuild. We could only squeeze so much more out of Bigs and Bag anyway. Evan
if we believe that once you factor in cost of living expenses.. the houston offer is worth a lot more than the mets offer... wound't that also mean that the mets actually got him "cheaper' the the astros would have? Do their ticket prices etc reflect that cost of living difference?
it's fairly clear to me that beltran either preferred NY to begin with or it was even btwn NY and Houston. If carlos really wanted to be here, he would have signed. But, NY has 3MM puerto ricans. NY put up the exact figure that Boras demanded in the press. They wanted him, overpaid, and got him. I wish like anything we had him but 17MM per year for 7 years is way too much. Carlos made a serious error in judgment to think that NY will win. But it is not a ridiculous story that Minaya sold. We got a big market. we have more revenues. houston will always be middle market. We landed pedro. more stars to come. delgado will be signed. we are going to be the new yankees. the braves are on the down side. we will win the division. In all honesty, I think Carlos probably preferred NY to Houston. He certainly got the bigger contract, especially with that bonus. Boras the beast was appeased becaues the mets kowtowed to him and gave him the exact number he demanded. it sucks to know that if the mets had not gotten minaya, gotten pedro, became a player, we would have landed carlos. just sucks. it woudl have been so much fun to watch that dude play for 7 years.
Not reading every thread here, so more than likely this duplicates some stuff already said.. However, gonna say it anyway. Drayton needs to sell this team NOW. He has been exposed, time and again, as a rank incompetant amateur. Two facts should have dictated how he handled these negotiations: 1) Beltran has Boras as an agent and 2) Beltran 'declined' the Astros' offer of arbitration. Those two things right there meant the Astros had zero chance from the beginning to sign Beltran. Whenever Boras has a FA who has a 'deadline' such as the one we had as of midnight last night, Boras just uses that to bring the price higher to the teams who DON'T have such a deadline. We never had any chance, and Drayton should have known it. I have no doubt Hunsicker knew it, probably told Drayton even, and rather than deal with it, Drayton let Hunsicker walk because of it. But because of Drayton's naivete', he believed every stinking lie Boras fed him, all the while helping Boras push the price higher for the Mets. If Drayton had been competant, he would have given an early November deadline, made a strong offer, let it pass like he should have known it would, and gone ahead with trying to get JD Drew, or Alou, or someone else who can plug some of these holes. As it is, we now have no outfield, no second baseman, a first baseman who should have retired 2 years ago, no bullpen, only 2 decent starting pitchers, and Clemens AIN'T coming back to this mess. We will be doing well, literally, if we win 60 games next year. I am sorry, all you Drayton lovers out there, but the guy is the worst thing that has ever happened to pro baseball in this town. He is convinced that this city is not a large city, capable of fully supporting a winning franchise. He believes that Houston is the equivalent of Kansas City, or Tampa Bay. Until this franchise belongs to an owner who is committed to producing a winner, by financially supporting the team's efforts the way they should be, this city will have nothing but a joke for a Baseball team. Drayton, you've had your fun. Now PLEASE SELL THE TEAM TO SOMEONE WHO BOTH KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING, AND WHO CARES ABOUT WINNING ENOUGH TO DO WHAT IT TAKES TO GET A WINNER HERE.
Can someone tell me why there is a rule in place that stop his current team from signing him from now on? I cant see why it would help either side. The player now has one less team bidding for him. The team obviously cant sign him.....why is this rule in place?
Edit: Nevermind. According to Baseball America, since the Mets sucked, their first rounder isn't eligible for compensation. Also, Pedro was ranked better than Beltran, so our compensation for him going to the Mets is a pick in the sandwich round (#37), and the Mets third rounder (#92). Pretty much as bad is it gets- if he had signed with say the Yankees, I believe we'd still get that #37, but also the Yanks first rounder (#29) instead of the third rounder.
The MLBPA put it in place to prevent the owners from collusion, or so they say. Looks to me like there was that going on anyway, until the Mets came in with that ridiculous offer....and a $10 Million signing bonus to go with it!!!!
You do realize that Jason Varitek of the Red Sox declined the Sox's offer for arbitration and Scott Bor-ass is his agent? Right? And guess what?? He re-signed with the Red Sox. So that fact sorta destroys your hyperbolic conjecture that I quoted. Drama queen. You heard it first - the Mets will not win their division nor will they even make the wildcard. I hope Beltran enjoys mediocrity along with Pedro. It is going to be fun to keep an eye on that soon-to-be trainwreck known as the Mets.
oh, excuse me, that was an $11million bonus.....hate to lose Beltran, but the Mets were straight up raped in this deal
iso, That is twice today that you have quoted a lengthy post to say "Good job" or "I agree" along with about 8 to 11 other words. There is no need to do that; it wastes bandwidth space. Just say something like: Nero, "Insert 10 words here" Or you could do this: and then "blank out" the rest of his post. But there is really no need to quote the ENTIRE post, just to say 8 to 11 words.
