Brocail signs with the Astros for $2.5 million
by Stephen Higdon on Dec 2, 2008 9:47 PM CST
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Print****UPDATE 9:45PM****
While this post has devolved into a discussion of the reasons we love JD, a few hours of perspective has lead me to this conclusion:
Ed Wade is a negotiating GENIUS
Think about it. He declined Doug Brocail's $3.25 million option for 2009 and then took away his extreme opportunity cost as a Type A free agent. As of 11 PM last night, Doug Brocail was one of the better relievers on the market -- he wouldn't cost a negotiating team anything except his 1 or 2 year contract. The Mets, the Brewers...the list could go on of teams who desperately needed stable bull pen arms. His market value had to SOAR last night after he got his arbitration declined.
And somehow, someway Mr. Edward Wade talked Doug Brocail into taking a $750,000 pay cut. It's just incredible.
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From CBSSportsLine, more will be posted as it comes.
Ed Wade most be a negotiating genius, that's a $750,000 pay cut from his declined option.
****UPDATE**** It's official.
I'm still shocked we got him to take a pay cut.
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BEN SHEETS BEN SHEETS BEN SHEETS
We are still missing a major piece of the puzzle!
by entropic soul on Dec 2, 2008 5:44 PM CST reply actions 1 recs
You gotta actually give him the plus one
Through the Rec option. Click actions and then click Rec. Let’s give the Ben Sheets chant some overt love.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on Dec 2, 2008 10:38 PM CST up reply actions
maybe this is what they are waiting for..
If Hampton pass the MRI and sign; Brocail signed with cut, that will mitigate my anger.
Never let them rob you of your anger
Two small and minor victories shouldn’t over shadow the structural cluster fuck that is the foundation of this organization.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on Dec 2, 2008 10:00 PM CST up reply actions
lol: "structural cluster fuck"
I thought the Astros’ organizational foundation was entering Carlos Lee and Berkman in competitive eating contests.
Something odd to me....
Astros.com article says that Brocail knew he wouldn’t be offered arbitration, because he had a deal in place with the Astros for some time. Yet Wade was quoted just a day or two ago as saying that he hadn’t made progress with Brocail and hadn’t talked to his agent in more than a week, etc. It makes me thing: during this off-season period, don’t believe everything you hear from Wade.
Smoke and Mirrors
I know that in talking with HLP last night, we came to the conclusion that there’s just no way of divining the tea leaves. Whether that’s by design or not could be disputed though.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on Dec 2, 2008 10:17 PM CST up reply actions
In his chats online and in interviews with him, he flat out says that he doesn’t discuss his deals before they go through. And he definitely follows through on that. It’s very rare to get any information about who the Astros are considering (compare with the daily commentary from Padres GM Kevin Towers about who’s doing well in the Peavy sweepstakes).
The Brocail comment is interesting. Why might Ed Wade want to keep the Brocail agreement under wraps until after the arbitration deadline? The only things I can think of is that it was either (a) conditional upon whatever payroll number Drayton finally handed down; (b) if other clubs were expressing interest in Brocail, Wade might have asked Doug to keep fielding offers, just to get a feel for what the market was like; or © Doug didn’t know whether he was going to play in 2009, and they had an agreement to sign him if he wanted to come back.
The paycut...
If I’m Ed Wade, I go to every single guy who I’ve got to sign a contract with and I say “Look. I’d love to give you what you deserve. But Drayton is putting the screws on me to keep the budget down. I want to improve our starting pitching so that this team can win more games next year, but I need to free up some money. The most important thing that you can do to help this team right now is to sign a below-market contract.” Maybe he had that kind of heart-to-heart with Brocail. I’ve seen other players say that it’s not about the money anymore…it’s about winning. And I can see Brocail going for it.
True story and good insight
I hope that that exact conversation took place.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on Dec 2, 2008 10:56 PM CST up reply actions
Brocail may be a special case, in that regard.
At his current age, he wants to stay in Houston, and he has to take a pay cut to do it. Brocail said that everyone knew he wanted to play close to home, and it made negotiations tough for him, because both sides knew it.
As far as any other players who can provide any salary relief by taking a discount, that really would come down only to Wigginton and Valverde, since they are the only players who will get new contracts with sizeable increases. They might justly react by saying, “why do we have to shoulder this problem, particularly since we aren’t even free agents yet, and several teammates earn a lot more than us.” The players under current contract can’t renegotiate for smaller salaries, even voluntarily, because the changes have to be approved by the union.
Oh, I figured it was just a leverage thing and that his choices were probably Houston or retirement. He probably would have jumped on arbitration had we offered it, too. As for other players taking a paycut….it never hurts to ask!
In reality, of course, with players like Valverde, a below-market salary this year would probably mean a guaranteed 3+ years with a backloaded contract. And I hate backloaded contracts.
have to agree with clack
Altough it’d be nice, we really shouldn’t expect Wiggy or Valverde to take anything below market. We have four players eating up $60 million. I don’t know maybe that’s a problem the team should have avoided. Not having a strong farm system is really hurting right about now. At this point they’re left with having to trade wigginton and/or Valverde just to be able to sign a legit No.2 starter under the self imposed $100 mil cap we’ve been hearing about.
It's all finally biting us in the ass.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on Dec 3, 2008 9:06 AM CST up reply actions
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