Locals Playing the Market
By Mike Silva ~ November 25th, 2009. Filed under: Business of Sports.
In prior offseason you would see the local teams focus on a player and go “all out” to bring them in the fold. This offseason I get the sense we will see the market develop and then teams will attempt to execute their plan.
Brian Cashman already has told the agents for all the big names to “sit tight” as he still doesn’t have a budget from ownership. George King of the NY Post paints a picture where Cashman may only have around $21 million dollars to spend if he is allowed to keep the payroll at 2009 levels. That means he will be unable to land any of the big fish like Holliday, Bay, or Lackey on the free agent market. It also makes it extremely unlikely the Yankees would take on Vernon Wells in a deal with Toronto. Hearing that Toronto already has demanded Clay Buchholz and top prospect Casey Kelly I would prepare to say goodbye Chamberlain and Austin Jackson in a potential Halladay deal. Of course I will believe Yankee budgetary constraints when I see it.
Joe Demayo, who will make a short appearance on tonight’s show, also talked to a league insider that believes Omar Minaya and company have multiple plans put in place to address the team’s needs. This was addressed earlier today by Matt Cerrone at Metsblog. How the Mets go about improving on their 90 loss season will depend on the market for the big free agents and players available via trade. Joe will go into greater detail tonight, but to quote him “Omar is appears to be acting a bit more like the Omar from 04/05/06.”
I said this on Sports Talk 90.3 and I will repeat it here: we probably will be talking hot stove until Valentine’s Day. That very well could be the new offseason for Major League Baseball. The competitive economic structure of the game creates an environment similar to a chess match. Focus on the players you want, but what you execute depends on the competition. Frustrating for fans, and certainly players, but exactly what is necessary to maximize the dollar value.
Listen to tonight’s hot stove show that features Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball, Mike Newman of Scouting the Sally, and NYBD Hot Stove talk with Joe Demayo.
