ken davidoff reports that the opt out clause was CC’s agents doing. another report i saw elsewhere says it was Cashman’s idea to make CC feel more comfortable. What’s true here?

Steinbrenner Brothers >>>>>>>> Jeff Wilpon

I’m currently reading John Schuerholz’s book, “Built to Win”. The impression he gives is that he is a man of honor. In it, he tells one story of agreeing with Ted Simmons, at the time the GM of the Pirates, to trade Barry Bonds to the Braves. After Simmons verbally agreed to it, he backtracked hours later when Jim Leyland and the Pirates ownership wouldn’t back him on it. In a polite way, Schuerholz was clearly unhappy about how things played out. He clearly gave me the impression that you should honor your word.

You’re right – this sounds ugly.

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Yeah, and Simmons got caught in the crossfire, because he had to have gotten permission fom the owners to have traded Pittsburgh’s only drawing card at that time.

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I think so. I remember that the NBA, NHL and NFL decertified some agents a few years ago, but, was thinking MLB has, also. I do know that baseball threatened to decertify any agent that represented any replacement player back in 1994. Shane spencer was one of them.

I’m currently reading John Schuerholz’s book, “Built to Win”. The impression he gives is that he is a man of honor. In it, he tells one story of agreeing with Ted Simmons, at the time the GM of the Pirates, to trade Barry Bonds to the Braves. After Simmons verbally agreed to it, he backtracked hours later when Jim Leyland and the Pirates ownership wouldn’t back him on it. In a polite way, Schuerholz was clearly unhappy about how things played out. He clearly gave me the impression that you should honor your word.

You’re right – this sounds ugly.

Look at it this way: Giving up 0-3 runs over 9 innings is the single-game equivalent of a Cy Young Award-level performance. Four runs should be categorized as average at worst. That’s one thing.

I think if you adjusted for these factors, you’d find there were a lot fewer than 63 poorly pitched games, and therefore a lot more than 10 games that the Yankees lost despite good or okay pitching.

Another thing: some of the runs you are attributing to poor pitching are undoubtedly unearned runs (unless you spent a lot more time poring through the data than your post indicates).

Finally, some runs happen on account of bad luck rather than bad pitching (bloop hits and seeing-eye singles, for example).

the third point is interesting:

3. Moreover, the Baseball rules which all agents and teams operate under are clear that no deal exists between a player and a team unless and until: (i) there is a signed and executed player agreement or; (ii) the Player’s Union and the Commissioner’s office have otherwise confirmed the deal. Neither occurred here.

It seems what Furcal did was within the rules. BUT, it was unethical.

“The final point “If it serves our clients we will continue to present opportunities to the Braves, which in accordance with the rules governing Major League Baseball, the Braves must entertain.”

Do the Braves have to “entertain” Tellem’s clients?

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No, they have no obligation to talk to any players that they don’t already have under contract. Extremely unethical, yes. Schuerholz is an honorable man, and considers handshakes and verbal agreements as a bond. He also isn’t given to idle threats. If Atlanta has anything in way of a terms sheet ot LOI from Tellem and Furcal, this could get ugly.