The Chronicle has another story which implies that $50 million is what Selig has offered, but not necessarily that it’s the amount requested by Crane. But who knows.

There’s no way MLB would give a team anything that could be perceived as a competitive advantage. The $50 million will be debt acquired by MLB just to keep from giving a check to Crane, since he could use that, possibly, on free agents. The Astros aren’t an expansion team (the only scenario I could think of where draft picks would be gifted), they’re just moving leagues and divisions. They’re not starting over from square one.

Richard Justice thinks that Selig will try to force McLane to lower his sale price, rather than the money coming from MLB. (McLane already said he isn’t coming off his sale price, when contacted about that idea.) This may well be just surmise on Justice’s part. But, if true, I wonder what the odds are that this could end up in court. This is getting pretty ridiculous.

As I’ve said before, to some extent I feel sorry for Crane. He is caught in the middle while MLB basically uses extortion to get what it wants. I also think that MLB has leaked negative information about Crane in order to put more pressure on him.

I think some people feel like he is in a unique position to stop the move if he doesn’t capitulate. However, they are asking a lot from him, since he takes the risk that he will never owning a baseball team. Steve Campbell, the Houston Chronicle writer, makes this case (“Crane is in more of a position of power than people think”):

Assuming Crane and his investors aren’t desperate to get a deal – any deal – done, they’re in more of a position of power than people might think. If the sale goes through, it raises the value of the other 29 franchises. And if there were a long line of other buyers waiting to shell out $680 million for the worst team in the major leagues, McLane wouldn’t be so intent on pushing through this particular deal. MLB would not be wise to keep the ownership situation in any market, let alone one in the fourth-largest city in the county, in limbo when there is a ready, willing and able buyer.

I know that Sturt (who posts here sometimes and quite often at Astrosdaily) makes the argument that Crane has the leverage if he is willing to wait out (or call the bluff) of Selig. MLB has to get the realignment done in the next couple of months…there are a number of deadlines that creates the rush to get the Astros moved. If they let Crane walk away, there is no reason to believe that any sale will occur soon enough to meet the realignment deadlines. However, I don’t know if it’s fair to expect Crane to take that kind of risk.