chiguy79

QUOTE(SoxPride56 @ Jun 29, 2007 -> 09:41 AM) Isn't there 11 games before the break? 3 with KC, 4 with Balt, and 4 with Min, with a double header on Friday? You are correct, I figure the sox will stretch the win streak to 11 get everyone excited and then Min kicks our ass before the break and puts the nail officially in the coffin. I am just happy to see us win some games and get back to some form of respectability...lets keep things entertaining at least.

15%

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 09:40 PM) I'm not even sure if Pablo is signed through next year or not, but Andy strikes me as the next Pablo Ozuna on our roster, in terms of if things are going well (which for sure they aren't this year of course). Either way, he'll be taking Cintron, Mackowiak, or Ozuna's roster spot next year. If Cintron is still around we have serious issues...looking at our contract chart our bench is way overpaid and should all be replaced with lower cost players/prospects with the exception of Hall...also our entire OF squad is going to be replaced next year, we had $13mm tied up in five guys, it is going to be very difficult to build a productive outfield for $13mm. I think the Sox will deal contreras for financial flexibility more than anything. (BTW- I think there is an error on Contreras' birthday unless that was done on purpose, but I don't think he is 56 years old.)

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 05:37 PM) According to Ed Farmer Mark Buehrle says "nothing is going on." Did he mention anything about Prairie Dogs though? No one initmately involved in the situation is going to say/hint anything even if there is activity...I will believe it if/when there is a press conference.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:58 PM) They're still being hunter by poachers though. They have to be protected by armed guards, many of whom have died trying to protect them. Mark Buehrle pays the salaries of those armed guards. They also have very well funded pension plans and the nicest football stadium of all the tribal villages in the area.

Breaking News... Mark Buerhle reportedly has signed a 7-year / $140mm extension with the White Sox. Buerhle immediately stated that he would have accepted the original 4yr/$50mm extension originally discussed but he made the White Sox up their offer so he could donate the additional $90mm to the Save the Prairie Dog organization. "I just think they are so cute" said Buerhle. Buerhle also required that a Prairie Dog habitat be maintained in the Sox Bullpen and that 25% of the "SoxSplit" raffle go towards the organization.

Mark may be distracted thinking about...

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:43 PM) Or we can flip the lights on and off like and substitute teacher until we have everybody attention again. Nice, nothing can be worse than being a substitute teacher....brings back some solid memories of being a rotten student.

So how about predictions for Mark's performance tonight with all this news swirling. I am guessing (ND) 7.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 6k, 1 BB I am also guessing he burns $100 bills in between innings for fun in the dugout.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:33 PM) You didn't, chiguy79 did. Regarding the financial assumptions, probably best to just wait and see. I agree that Mark is a "simple" man, but from experience I have seen that money brings out a different side to people. He's got to do what works for him. And God bless him for it. I just brought that up when someone mentioned taking a helicopter from Greenwich to games. I know many people who grew up in Greenwich and despise the place. From my experience, and from what I gather from the "limited" knowledge of Mark Buerhle's personal life, I don't think Mark would fit in with all the wall street and hedge fund executives who make up 90% of the people living in Greenwich. (Insert this is my personal opinion disclaimer here) I know we all hope mark signs a deal to stay here and hopefully we can find out something soon. But the POINT remains that most people (not Mark Buerhle personally) who are worth 10s of millions of dollars will not sacrifice a lifestyle that they are happy with for additional $$s.

QUOTE(SoxFan562004 @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:32 PM) OK, i'll be the jackass and not go back and read since I had my 1:30 call... is ESPN still reporting no talks and WSCR still reporting the deal is very close? SORRY!! Correct, I can also report I haven't gotten anything done at work for quite a while.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:23 PM) For somebody who doesn't know Mark at all, you sure pretend to know a lot about him. LOL, yes, I actually care about people that I grew up with, but don't live around anymore. If somebody gave me $70 million, you can bet that my old high school would have a brand new football stadium and weight room. And you can bet that I'd offer to supplement the pensions of some of my old teachers. And you would be a strong candidate for the guy that blew the $70mm he received.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:22 PM) Unlike you I can't agree with that since I don't live that life. Therefor, my opinion is not the same at yours at all. Does this mean you aren't capable of thinking about it or making an opinion on it. Evolution would be at a standstill if we went by those standards/ideals. FYI- per getting back to the thread there is no news so we get to devolve into this arguement...

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:09 PM) Because it backs up my opinion. Not Mark's. Mine. But your point is flawed because you are a fan and don't know anything about Mark's personal or financial life. Your point is not a point.. it's an OPINION. Obviously we can't state Mark's opinion...only he can do that. But as IAMSHAQ suggest we can draw inferences that money becomes less important the more of it you have, is pretty much the point we are trying to make. You can disagree with that and that is fine, that will be your opinion. But you pretty much pointed out that your opinion is the same as ours. Again, head hitting wall.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:11 PM) LOL. So what's to stop Mark from living in Greenwich, CT and taking a private helicopter to Yankee Stadium every day? Pay attention, he wants to be close to MO...it has nothing to do with his commute. And maybe he doesn't want to live with all the ultra-wealthy snobs in Greenwich...

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 04:05 PM) Not quite sure why you brought up your work situation at all then. And I agree, I wouldn't want to leave Chicago either. If someone offered me $50 million and told me I could live in Chicago for the next 5 years or $70 million and I would have to live in New York for the next 5 years, I would take the $50 million. That is the ENTIRE POINT we are trying to make here. ditto...and you called anyone who doesn't agree with you a retard...which is why we are so FRUSTRATED! (insert smily with head hitting wall here)...I am pretty sure no one on this board has a "work situation" like Mark Buerhle unless there are some Sox players lurking on the board...which if you are send me a PM so we can meet up for drinks and discuss MLB contract negotiations. Oh what the hell, actually I make about $10mm a year...so if you are the hot Sox ball girl who has that myspace account feel free to look me up.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 03:42 PM) No one has stated that he doesn't or shouldn't care about that money. We're stating that it is conceivable he may want to play in Chicago and have $50,000,000 rather than play in New York and have $70,000,000. In other terms, if my work offered to pay me my current salary as a bonus to move to rural Iowa to work for the next five years, I would turn it down. Same thing for Mark, essentially the $10mm differential is a years salary and it may not be worth it for him and his family to deal with the crap. DA- Mark may have turned down the extension last year as a bargaining chip or to try to push the sox further, maybe that is all he ever intended to do was to put pressure on the sox by bringing negotiations down to the wire...one thing is for certain is that with the sox playing the way they are I think Mark may have realized that the odds of him getting traded are/were almost guaranteed, so maybe he approached the sox and said he want to stay, doesn't want to get traded but wants a "fair" deal somewhere along the lines of what was previously discussed, would make sense. If the sox were in first place now Mark would have had much more leverage and could have had that same discussion in the offseason but he would still have the upper hand as a division winner would have a tough time selling to their fans not re-signing one of their best/favorite players. Personally, the ideal coup would be for the sox to trade Mark and then resign him in the off-season, lets get prospects and a long-term deal signed. Of course his market value is less if teams can't sign him long-term but the sox already said they weren't granting a window to negotiate a long-term deal.

QUOTE(watchtower41 @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 03:44 PM) kinda makes me want to bet the house on Tampa tonight. I would take your bet, I bet Mark pitches lights out tonight...would improve his bargaining power big time and Mark is a pretty good clutch pitcher.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 03:26 PM) Oh, I just give up. Ridiculous. I give up also! Time to get back to work anyway where if I work for another 80 years I can make as much money as poor Mark will make this year. Of course if I don't buy season tickets I can make it there quicker.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 03:19 PM) Again, you don't know how it will effect Mark's life and it's uninformed in the least to say so. Mark makes more than the top 5% so to compare the two is apples and oranges. You filp.. my batteries are running low, and I don't really care. With that line of logic, no one know anything for sure on this whole 600 post thread...it is conjecture on a web forum..that is what people do...and that is why there is a forum her. I was comparing him to the top 5% to show how much more he makes than what even most people consider rich. He makes a s*** load of money, CRAZY RIDICULOUS MONEY, that all of you people who say "how do you know it doesn't matter to him" obviously can't fathom. I work with many clients who have as much or more money than him and they are all very financially shrewd people and have the best financial advisors that money can buy, which is why Mark's agent and financial advisors will advise him to take the most money he can get. But people who are worth >$50mm wouldn't deal with a negative change in their lifestyle for more money. So for all we know as someone else said perhaps he doesn't want to sit on a plane an extra 2-3 hours to go home on off-days and that could be worth $20+mm to him. As mentioned it is all conjecture but fun to talk about/discuss...so take it as that...if I were hired to be his financial advisor I would tell him to not take the deal but I am a Sox fan so I would be thrilled if he took it. On another point I would assume Hahn or KW are with the team at all times now with the # of scouts/GMs around the club. I would guess these guys are working different deals on about 12 of our players at the current time. Hopefully we don't get derailed on resigning/not resigning Buerhle and miss good trade opportunities on some other fronts.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 02:58 PM) It was $20M, silly facts... and I don't know what the hell you are doing on this message board if to you $10M is not a significnt financial impact. It is not going to affect his quality of life, obviously it is a large gross number for any "normal" person but that isn't what we are talking about. To be in the top 5% of us household incomes you need to make $157,000, at $12.5mm he makes about 80x as much as that annually. So yes, $10mm is not as big of a deal to him as it is to someone who makes $30,000 a year and gets $10mm. To flip things around...look at how professional athletes don't care when they get fined/suspended to the tune of $100,000...what would happen to you if you got fined $100,000 by your job...$100,000 to Mark Buerhle is 1% of his income...if you screwed up at your job and they took 1% of your income you probably wouldn't care either, you would probably just be happy you have your job still after screwing up...

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 02:55 PM) Hi Mark's accountant. :rolleyes. This is a fun topic to discuss because you can actually fantasize about if you had to worry about taking $50mm or $60mm...would be a nice problem to have for sure. The bottom line is it is really hard to blow through that much cash unless you are very very reckless. Perhaps I should buy some powerball tix today.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 02:48 PM) Who are you and I to say a player should give up an extra 20 million on the open market or 40 million. Yeah, he already has a lot of money but wouldn't you or I take an extra 50,000 (say I make 120K per year and someone offers 170K). I'm damn well entitled to that even if I could obviously still live a solid life on that other salary (and this is being modest). I won't get into politics, but its the same reason I think it is ridiculous to assume that just because someone makes more money they should pay a higher % in taxes as opposed to just the same % everyone else pays based on that same amount of money. You and I would maximize our income and its no different for an athlete. If they take less, more power to them, but I don't think of them any less for taking the best offer. The point wasn't that he should/shouldn't take the deal...the response was to the fact of whether $10mm difference in salary has that large of an impact on his financial well being. Obviously Mark can do what he wants and is entitled to get as much as someone is willing to pay him. I think that much everyone can agree on...hell this is america right.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 02:40 PM) To you and I, it seems like no difference at all. Today versus tomorrow I would agree there is not one. However, in 10 years when Mark is 38 and his arm is s*** and he can't "work" anymore and must rely on that $$ to last him the rest of his life it will make a difference. I don't think so....$10mm in the life of Mark Buerhle is not going to make or break his financial well-being...if he is dumb enough to blow $50mm he would sure enough blow through $60mm if he had it. Mark Buerhle VIII (the eighth) should be covered for his lifetime as well. Well I guess he could go broke if he gets divorced a few times, that seems to cost quite a bit (ask Frank Thomas)...but I am sure they still get a MLB pension, which OJ simpson still lives fine off his NFL pension.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 02:29 PM) But it would prove that he likes it here... waa, waa, waa, bla, bla, bla, yadda, yadda, yadda... Good grief. I like it at my job too but I aint working for less than my decided value. I think the decision on getting paid $150,000 in an office job in NY working 80 hours a week or working 50 hours a week in Chicago for $120,000 is much different thand deciding if you would take $10mm/year or $9mm/year. For all we know Mark's wife could have said she doesn't want to move get the deal done and that is that. People take less money than they could get "on the market" all the time. When was the last time each person on this board sent their resume around to head hunters to see if they could get more money to sign with a different firm/company...I bet not many, but you could...reality is if you are comfortable where you are at and satisfied that you are making "fair" money you probably just keep showing up for work and plugging along. I guess the main difference is baseball players know exactly what their peers are making, but for that matter it isn't much different than most workplaces, everyone has a boss/supervisor that makes more than them and may not produce as much but if they got a good deal at the time good for them...the only difference is baseball contracts are guaranteed, while in the private sector high-paid guys who don't produce get fired.