It's been 10 days since the Red Sox made their initial offer to Scott Boras regarding Daisuke Matsuzaka, and they have yet to receive a response.
"[F]rustrated Sox officials were privately wondering whether the player was aware that Boras so far had not made a counter-offer." ... 10 days is 1/3 of the total negotiating window. Weekend talks between the Sox and Boras were "limited and unproductive". I'll bet.
Edes held an online chat today. Two points of interest: Boras told Japanese reporters that Matsuzaka would meet with the media tonight. And DM will take part in the negotiations on Tuesday and Wednesday.
One GM: "From the looks of it, [Boston's] only chance may be if [Matsuzaka] stands up to Boras."
That implies that Boras is going against the wishes of his client. I don't believe that is happening. Boras and DM likely worked out a strategy and they know nothing will happen until the final day or so. Matsuzaka wants to pitch in the US in 2007 and he has the final say on accepting a contract. On Thursday morning, he'll be holding up a #18 Red Sox jersey.
SoSHer Doug Beerabelli: "This is one of those situations where it'd be best as a fan to go for a three or four day hike in the mountains with no access to electronic media, and find out the news when you come off the mountain four days later."
That is probably the sane approach, though not many of us (any?) will do it.
J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo are in Boston today for their physicals.
Thanks to SoSH and ESPN, some perspective from Japan:
ReplyDeletehttp://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove06/columns/story?id=2693833
This'll all just go into the book, "What Really Happpened in Red Sox Nation a Few Years Ago, Which We Knew at the Time, But Waited To Tell You So We Could Sell Copies of This Book," to be re-written every few years.
ReplyDeleteHeh, the notion that Seibu's failure to land the posting fee has tax income implications for the Japanese government is almost too funny to be true.
ReplyDeleteI have no faith in them getting anything done. I think that Boras feels like Matsuzaka is another Curt Flood and he plans on destroying the posting system. The Sox are not going to go over 12 mil a year for an unproven pitcher and Boras wants 18 to 20.
ReplyDeleteNo faith in them getting anything done? Of course they'll get it done. This is all part of the show.
ReplyDeleteFrustrated Sox officials were privately wondering whether the player was aware that Boras so far had not made a counter-offer." ... From the looks of it, [Boston's] only chance may be if [Matsuzaka] stands up to Boras.
ReplyDeleteThis is the usual blather: make the player look stupid, make the agent look like a villian taking advantage of the poor sap. It happens every time.
A few threads ago when I mentioned Michael Kay bashing JD Drew? This was one of Kay's themes at the time, how Drew was being taken advantage of by his greedy agent and greedy mother. Bernie Williams, too, was supposedly led down the greedy garden path by his agent. (A few dozen other examples spring to mind, but I'll control myself.)
As if the agent isn't working for and with the player?
In this case, there's the extra twist of the player speaking a different language, so it's even easier to paint Boras as a con man and Dice as his unwitting victim.
It's a tad transparent.