Just heard Justice echo a lot of the sentiments here about Beltran. Particularly, that all of these peripheral teams are made up...the Mets would like to bid, but can't/won't. The Cubs have repeatedly said they're not in it. He said the reason it's dragging on so long is because the Astros have the ONLY offer on the table. Boras is waiting for something else.
I just want everyone to remember three years down the line when we're all complaining about how we're strapped by Beltran's contract, that everybody wanted this guy.
What moves do you propose they make/should have made then? Willy Tavares? Jason Lane? Some other CF who already signed with another team? Don't just second-guess without offering a solution... because that's just about as bad as doing the hindsight is 20/20 thing well after everything has fallen apart.
brutha, if this guy gets on base, steals bases, plays defense and smacks the ball around the park like he has in the other seasons of his career, no one will be complaining. he's the CF this franchise has needed for a very long time. he makes big plays in big games. sign him, already.
Sounds like that 10 year, $200m demand is coming back to bite Boras. He scared off alot of prospective buyers, I'm sure. Still, the 8th is a long way away. I'd be surprised if there's not a flurry of activity before then.
i think you're exactly right. when you come in trying to set the market like that...and it's soooooo far off track....you hurt yourself. certainly killed off the angels' interest. i hear ya...it wouldn't surprise me to see some offers go public soon, with the deadline coming up.
Believe me, I want this to work out too. But I also remember when everyone couldn't live with the thought of not having Maurice Taylor on the Rockets. Now we have him and look what happened. I also remember when everyone on this board wanted JVG. Talk about irony.
Maurice Taylor has never been in and never will be in an elite class of players. That comparison is completely flawed. Carlos Beltran will give you 30 to 35 home runs, 40 stolen bases and bring tremendous defense to this team. He's an elite player who is just now hitting his prime.
Man...huge differences. Mo Taylor is not a comparable player. Beltran is an all-star caliber player. A potential MVP candidate. He's much more of the McGrady ilk than he is of the Mo Taylor ilk. And JVG. I don't see a comparison there. I wanted Michael Jordan, too. It didn't work out. Wish it would have.
The difference between Carlos and any other big free agent pursued in the history of Houston sports... is that Beltran has already played/proven himself in front of the Houston fans.
OK, how 'bout Richard Hidalgo? I want Beltran too, but it seems like other teams are improving while we're just waiting around for Bore Us (not Beltran) to make a damn decision.
Bagwell proved himself here a long time ago. We gave him a huge contract everyone wanted him to have. Now we all cry because we're stuck with Bagwell for however many more years. I'm just saying that I hope that we don't end up in a similar situation with Beltran. I meant the JVG comment as an aside. There's obviously no comparison between coaches and players.
err... you could have at least picked a better comparison to a 'bust'. Ken Griffey Jr. comes to mind before Hidalgo... simply because Beltran has been consistently improving the last three years, culminating in one big outburst in the playoffs. Richard had upside... and one big year... and everything else fell apart.
Jeff Bagwell's contract runs until age 39. Carlos Beltran's contract would expire at age 34. A player starts to really decline at age 35 or 36. This is a great contract.
All I'm trying to do is say that if this comes back to bite us in the ass, I'm going to laugh when everyone else is complaining.
It wouldn't suprise me... that's sports 'fans', especially Houston sports 'fans', in a nutshell. You don't need to go further than the Rockets forum, and the countless "should have kept Francis/get Steve back" threads that come up.
Why would this come back to bite us in the ass? You've compared him to Mo Taylor and used the Bagwell contract as justification despite one contract running past a players prime while the other does not.
http://www.nj.com/yankees/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1104299407187650.xml Here's an article from the Star Ledger this morning... Nearly two months into baseball's free agent signing period, the biggest free agent of the off-season is still unsigned. If you're Carlos Beltran, there has been no reason to rush. Beltran is the switch-hitting, 27-year-old slugger that at least five teams, including the Yankees and Mets, hope will hold down center field for them through 2010 or beyond. Coming off a 38-home run, 42-stolen base season, and fresh off a postseason in which he belted eight home runs in 12 games for the Houston Astros, he's in a very comfortable position. Sure, spring training is only about eight weeks away, and Beltran still doesn't know to which camp he'll be reporting. But he knows he'll be somewhere, and that he'll be making a lot of money. "As a baseball player, I want to be treated fairly -- based on what I've done in my career," Beltran told the Puerto Rican newspaper Primera Hora earlier this week. "Of course, the opportunity to win is bigger than the economic thing. I want to be part of a winning team." Of course, it's easy to say money's not everything when you're guaranteed to get it. The mere fact of the presence of the Yankees and Mets in the Beltran derby guarantees him a huge payday. And with the Astros fighting hard to retain him, the Cubs trying to find a way to afford him and the Tigers potentially willing to overpay to get him, the price appears to only be going up. So far, it appears that only one team -- the Astros -- has made an offer. And reports peg that offer at $96 million for six years. That's far short of the 10-year, $200 million deal that Beltran's agent, Scott Boras, went into the off-season seeking, but it's also less than Beltran is likely to get. Here's a look at how his suitors shape up: The Yankees . Long considered the favorites to land Beltran, the Yankees have yet to make an offer, though they have talked generally about years and money with Boras. Beltran and Boras met with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner last week at the team's spring training complex in Tampa, Fla., and Beltran enjoyed the meeting. "The meeting with Steinbrenner was very good," Beltran told Primera Hora. "He is a professional person, super-educated. I've let them know my interest, and they have interest, too, about me joining their team." The Yankees want Beltran badly enough that they're willing to upset incumbent center fielder and fellow Boras client Bernie Williams by giving away his position in the final year of his contract. Williams would function as a designated hitter and backup outfielder, since the Yankees would plan on Beltran playing every day in center field. The Yankees have had internal discussions about offering Beltran a deal similar to the seven-year, $120 million contract they gave Jason Giambi before the 2002 season, but they have yet to make such an offer to Boras. One person close to the situation said the Yankees don't want to bid against themselves the way the Texas Rangers did to sign Alex Rodriguez to his 10-year, $252 million deal four years ago, so they want to make sure somebody else is driving up the price before paying it. The Mets. Some in baseball believe reports of the Mets' sudden interest in Beltran are overblown, planted by Boras to drive up the price on the Yankees. But two people close to the Mets said GM Omar Minaya's interest is genuine, and he plans to meet with Beltran and make his sales pitch next week. One person pointed out that nobody thought Minaya had a real chance to sign right-hander Pedro Martinez before he pulled the surprise of the winter meetings by doing so. Minaya plans to try to convince Beltran that he can be the centerpiece of the next great Mets team, and he truly believes he has a chance. Whether the Mets can play against the Yankees financially, and whether Beltran ultimately would choose Queens over the Bronx, are questions that remain to be answered. The Astros. Houston has made re-signing Beltran the only focal point of its off-season, watching free agents Steve Finley and Moises Alou sign elsewhere, leaving them without a fallback option. There's probably no way they can compete with the Yankees economically, but if Beltran decides he's comfortable in Houston and doesn't want to play in New York, they have enough money to make it look as if he didn't settle. The Cubs. Chicago dreams of Beltran in center field for the next seven or eight years, but they first need to trade Sammy Sosa to make room on their budget and in their outfield. If they become serious players, the Cubs could bid more than the Astros and provide Beltran with a comfortable, non-New York option if that's what he wants. The Tigers. After making a big early splash with the signing of closer Troy Percival, the lowly Tigers have found themselves shut out of the free-agent off-season. They're dying to make a huge, big-name addition, but their losing reputation and pitcher-friendly ballpark make them a long shot unless they grossly overspend.
