Tigers Sign Damon - 1 yr, 8 mil; NTC

[ThunderBolt]

Here's some tweets. Pretty much what we've been hearing and speculating about.

 

cst_sox

 

KW did leave the door open and say if Johnny Damon changes his mind in the next 24 hours, "we would love to have him.’’

cst_sox

 

According to Williams, the Sox waited long enough for Damon and asked for a bottom line. Bottom line was "unrealistic.’’

MDGonzales

 

KW says that Damon and Boras showed a willingness to be creative but ‘’the total dollars and cents didn’t make sense to us.’’

MDGonzales

 

KW: "the delicate part is what is a player’s value to team x vs. team y and in city x vs. city y. Some of it is real, some is manufactured.

[ptatc]

I'll say this if we sign him or if we don't, but Damon is a piece of crap. I've heard a lot of stories about him outside of baseball, and he deserves to have Boras representing him and his image.

 

He is a good friend of AJ. He can't be that good of a person.

[southsider2k5]

Here's some tweets. Pretty much what we've been hearing and speculating about.

 

cst_sox

 

KW did leave the door open and say if Johnny Damon changes his mind in the next 24 hours, "we would love to have him.’’

cst_sox

 

According to Williams, the Sox waited long enough for Damon and asked for a bottom line. Bottom line was "unrealistic.’’

MDGonzales

 

KW says that Damon and Boras showed a willingness to be creative but ‘’the total dollars and cents didn’t make sense to us.’’

MDGonzales

 

KW: "the delicate part is what is a player’s value to team x vs. team y and in city x vs. city y. Some of it is real, some is manufactured.

 

Good for Kenny. Why let them control negotiations?

[ThunderBolt]

Good for Kenny. Why let them control negotiations?

Anyone else find it i interesting that KW threw out a timetable of 24 hours for Damon to change his mind?

[striker]

Anyone else find it i interesting that KW threw out a timetable of 24 hours for Damon to change his mind?

It doesn't make sense. It's like he's showing his cards and making them show theirs.

[Dick Allen]

Anyone else find it i interesting that KW threw out a timetable of 24 hours for Damon to change his mind?

Yes. Johnny has until Sunday to accept the offer that has been pulled off the table. What?

 

I understand pulling the offer to give yourself at least a little leverage if he really wants to sign with you, but why give him a Sunday deadline if the same offer should be available in a week or two?

 

I suppose they are just sick of the game. Can't say I blame them, but they probably need Damon more than Damon needs the Sox $6 million.

Edited February 19, 2010 by Dick Allen

[striker]

Anyone else find it i interesting that KW threw out a timetable of 24 hours for Damon to change his mind?

Maybe he wanted to leak his offer to get a decision made.

[striker]

Interesting quote from KW via Cowley:

we thought we were competitive with what the rumors were out there.

 

Shows you the GMs to bite on the rumors that are probably manufactured by Boras.

[Dick Allen]

Maybe he wanted to leak his offer to get a decision made.

When KW said he would talk about it Sunday yesterday, he had the deadline in place. I don't know if Boras and Damon knew about it, but KW obviously did.

[flavum]

Kenny didn't have a lot of negative things to say about Boras, which is surprising. Let's just give this until Sunday afternoon when the players show up. If it isn't done by then, then ok, this thing is dead in the water. Until then, it's just a negotiating move.

 

http://www.670-thescore.com/blog/2010/02/1...l-things-damon/

[Balta1701]

Shows you the GMs to bite on the rumors that are probably manufactured by Boras.

Frankly, I think the rumors the team heard about what Detroit was offering were probably legit, as was the Sox's offer. Boras just wanted to continue playing his game to try to push both teams upwards, and the Sox didn't want to deal with that.

[chunk23]

The Sox (and everyone else) are afraid Matsui's knees will not allow him to play the OF much. Damon is more versatile because he can stil play the OF and Kotsay is the LH backup 1B so they don't need another one. So they weren't going to sign him unless they were confident he could play the field. They met with him decided he couldn't play the field and that ended it. With Johnson they weren't going to pay a DH only guy 5.5 milllion and since this was early on in the process they weren't going to sign a DH only guy at all.

 

If they were going to do this they would have signed Thome who was going to give them a discount.

 

This shows nothing about how crappy their plan is. It shows how crappy YOU think the plan is because you don't agree with it.

 

The plan is crappy because the depth chart is like 4 deep at every position already. We don't need versatility at DH. we need a real hitter. Not a gamble, not a reclamation project.

 

Seriously, look at this

 

C: A.J., Castro, Flowers, and they're even having Retherford take reps at C.

1B: Konerko, Kotsay, Flowers - really anybody.

2B: Beckham, Teahen, Alexei, Nix, Vizquel, Retherford, Lillibridge,

SS: Alexei, Beckham, Vizquel, Nix, Lillibridge,

3B: Teahen, Beckham, Vizquel, Nix, Retherford, Lillibridge

RF: Quentin, Rios, Kotsay, Jones, Teahen

CF: Rios, Jones, Pierre, Alexei

LF: Pierre, Quentin, Jones, Kotsay

 

We don't need someone who can rotate in the OF. We don't need someone who can be our 2nd backup IF. Matsui is a great hitter. Thome is a great hitter. Johnson is certainly better than what we're going with. It makes no sense to choose a DH based on their defensive abilities. They wouldn't be a DH if they could field.

[whitesoxfan101]

Good for Kenny. Why let them control negotiations?

 

Because Johnny Damon turns the Sox from a team that will be botton 3 in the AL in DH production to middle of the pack, is probably worth a few more wins, and could make the difference between a playoff team and a non playoff team?

Edited February 19, 2010 by whitesoxfan101

[BigSqwert]

Does this organization have any clue on how the fans feel? Don't they have social networking people? I assume they do since they have a facebook and twitter account. There's been a TON of buzz from fans about potentially signing Damon and that's it?

[Dick Allen]

The amazing thing about this is KW is actually complimenting Boras. He's probably biting his tongue doing it hoping it will help Damon decide to be a White Sox, but its wierd nonetheless.

 

I suppose he can't rip Boras when he himself is obviously playing a little game here. People have to remember negotiating is a game. My dad who is about as honest of a person as I have ever met and he's a lawyer to boot told me the only time it was ok to stretch the truth a bit was in negotiations. I'm sure Boras leads the league in BS, but it does come from both sides of the table.

[bmags]

Yeah, okay, I don't really mind this move by KW.

 

BUt that doesn't change the fact that going into the season with 1 below avg. LFer at leadoff, another question mark at 3b, and a DH combo that is probably worse than sticking carlos zambrano there is brutal.

 

When you look at every move in a vacuum you might say what could we have done? But, the fact is we have a 100 mill payroll in a division that is pretty easy to win, and for 4 years we've had one playoff birth. Now we have the best pitching staff by far in the division. Not winning it is absolutely despicable. And with this offense it'll be a real struggle to win. It's a shame.

 

[Dick Allen]

Does this organization have any clue on how the fans feel? Don't they have social networking people? I assume they do since they have a facebook and twitter account. There's been a TON of buzz from fans about potentially signing Damon and that's it?

I'm sure they are quite aware the buzz signing Damon would create, as well as the dissappointment that will be felt if he goes elsewhere. Its probably one reason for KW to come out today, basically saying they have done all they can do, if he goes to Detroit or anywhere else, its not because they didn't step up. Has anyone mentioned the additional time Damon could live at home if he signed with the Tigers? I'm sure that has to be worth something to him. Its more important that he can help them win, and they believe he would.

[longshot7]

Williams did clear the air on the relationship between himself and Boras. It was rocky in the past, at best, but Williams did say, "If there is a silver lining here, from beginning to end, Scott and I had some pretty good dialogue. At the end of the day it wasn't a meeting of the minds, but it may lay the groundwork for future deals.''

 

http://blogs.suntimes.com/whitesox/2010/02...l_but_over.html

 

Interesting.....

[RockRaines]

KW had been speaking with him about Damon and other clients the entire offseason as I mentioned in other threads so thats not really new IMO.

 

And its clear both Santa and the Easter bunny had good info on this one ;-)

[WCSox]

Because Johnny Damon turns the Sox from a team that will be botton 3 in the AL in DH production to middle of the pack, is probably worth a few more wins, and could make the difference between a playoff team and a non playoff team?

 

You're confusing Damon with a healthy Carlos Quentin. Damon isn't going to turn a 79-win team into a division champ.

 

LOL at Kenny for destroying Boras' negotiating power. If you're going to lose a bidding war to Boras, you might as well shoot him in the foot. Damon would've been nice, but $7M+ is a lot of money. That would move the payroll up to at least $107M, and I can't fault them for not wanting to go there. I'll take Blalock or some other lesser talent for less money.

 

Those of you talking about a possible AGon extension are nuts. He's going to get Texiera money, and there's no way that the Sox will dole out that type of contract. AGon would be a 1.5-year rental, with the Sox picking up his $5.5M club option next year. And that's IF they can actually agree to a deal with SD. I'd say that Blalock now and/or Crawford in July are MUCH more realistic scenarios.

 

[quickman]

KW had been speaking with him about Damon and other clients the entire offseason as I mentioned in other threads so thats not really new IMO.

 

And its clear both Santa and the Easter bunny had good info on this one ;-)

 

any chance the tooth fairy thinks that Damon will change his mind?

[justBLAZE]

From what I get out of all this, Kenny didn't pull the offer but said there will be no more negotiations , if Johnny wants to play in Chicago he needs to accept the latest offer that is out there.

 

With that said he will go where the money is and play in Detroit.

 

 

[chunk23]

You're confusing Damon with a healthy Carlos Quentin. Damon isn't going to turn a 79-win team into a division champ.

 

LOL at Kenny for destroying Boras' negotiating power. If you're going to lose a bidding war to Boras, you might as well shoot him in the foot. Damon would've been nice, but $7M+ is a lot of money. That would move the payroll up to at least $107M, and I can't fault them for not wanting to go there. I'll take Blalock or some other lesser talent for less money.

 

Those of you talking about a possible AGon extension are nuts. He's going to get Texiera money, and there's no way that the Sox will dole out that type of contract. AGon would be a 1.5-year rental, with the Sox picking up his $5.5M club option next year. And that's IF they can actually agree to a deal with SD. I'd say that Blalock now and/or Crawford in July are MUCH more realistic scenarios.

 

Quentin being healthy is a big if. Considering the offensive production of Dye and Thome hasn't been replaced, a hitter like Damon at DH is critical for the Sox to succeed.

[Princess Dye]

Reminiscent of how things stayed cordial with Peavy and eventually it all worked out in the end.

 

KW perhaps has learned after his series of blowups (pre-2007 for the most part)

[WCSox]

When you look at every move in a vacuum you might say what could we have done? But, the fact is we have a 100 mill payroll in a division that is pretty easy to win, and for 4 years we've had one playoff birth. Now we have the best pitching staff by far in the division. Not winning it is absolutely despicable. And with this offense it'll be a real struggle to win. It's a shame.

 

It's called adhering to a budget. Most teams can't spend $60M on their pitching staff, over-pay guys like PK, Rios, and Jenks, and round out every other position with $6M+/yr veterans like Damon and Matsui. The Yankees and Red Sox can, but the White Sox can't. And until the Sox become an elite revenue team, that isn't going to change any time soon.

 

Frankly, I'm more pissed that the Twins can win the division semi-consistently with crap like Alexi Casilla, Carlos Gomez, and Delmon Young in their starting lineup.... yet we can't win with elite hitters like Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye in ours. Maybe we need to steal their hitting coach.