Yonder Alonso

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FRIDAY: The Orioles reached an agreement with Matusz on a Major League deal worth $3.2MM, according to Dan Connolly.

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... MLBTR.

This should help the negotiations. 8 hours now.

On a separate note, if this deal doesn't get done (and even if it does), will this be the end of Chris Buckley as scouting director?

Buckley hasn't exactly been dead-eye on the talent front and now he's reached to take a 1B who's been a hard signing. I doubt Walt Jocketty is impressed.

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Originally Posted by M2

On a separate note, if this deal doesn't get done (and even if it does), will this be the end of Chris Buckley as scouting director?

Buckley hasn't exactly been dead-eye on the talent front and now he's reached to take a 1B who's been a hard signing. I doubt Walt Jocketty is impressed.

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Uh, no. We were considered to have the best draft out of anybody last year you know guys like Mez, Fraizer, Lotzkar, Soto, Waring, Oliveras, etc. and then Stubbs, Valaika, Roenicke, Heisey, etc. two years ago. He is doing just fine

The fans will always take the owners side because the fans only care about winning and couldn't give a hoot about who gets rich off the deal.

If the owner gets the better end of the deal, that means the team has more money to spend elsewhere, meaning a better team overall.

If the player gets the better end of the deal, the opposite is true, it's hurts the overall team make-up.

But owners don't get off the hook completely. If the fans believe the owner is only interested in pocketing a profit at the expense of winning, fans will be far more vicious than they would to a player doing the same thing. Reason is a player's "profit" is directly tied to his production. The same is not always true for the owners because a huge payroll can create a financial loss even while still putting Ws in the boxscores.

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Originally Posted by DntKnw

Negotiation 101 is never, never, negotiate against yourself. If the other side will not come off its initial proposal, you walk away. Alonso's demand exceeds what other draft picks are getting and is so far above his slot # that it's laughable.

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If thats the case, then Alonso would be "negotiating against himself" if he came off his $7 mil right? Seems like a catch 22, like a game of chicken and both sides aren't supposed to budge. If thats the case, nothing would ever get done.

Reportedly, Matusz has signed for 3.2 plus a major league deal. That leaves the 3 big college bats -- Alvarez, Posey and Alonso, and the high schooler Hosmer. My guess is that the deal for Matusz will be ignored by Alonso's team, as they wait on Posey/Alvarez. A SF writer wrote that there's competition between the agents for Alvarez and Posey to get the biggest deal. Sounds to me like the sooner those chips fall, the sooner the Reds and Genske can get the rubber on the road. If the Alvarez/Posey contracts wait till the last second to be announced, the Reds deal may come down to a game of chicken, and if no one blinks the deal dies. Just a guess....

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Originally Posted by lollipopcurve

Reportedly, Matusz has signed for 3.2 plus a major league deal. That leaves the 3 big college bats -- Alvarez, Posey and Alonso, and the high schooler Hosmer. My guess is that the deal for Matusz will be ignored by Alonso's team, as they wait on Posey/Alvarez. A SF writer wrote that there's competition between the agents for Alvarez and Posey to get the biggest deal. Sounds to me like the sooner those chips fall, the sooner the Reds and Genske can get the rubber on the road. If the Alvarez/Posey contracts wait till the last second to be announced, the Reds deal may come down to a game of chicken, and if no one blinks the deal dies. Just a guess....

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I thought Posey had already signed for 7.5 Mill.

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Originally Posted by M2

On a separate note, if this deal doesn't get done (and even if it does), will this be the end of Chris Buckley as scouting director?

Buckley hasn't exactly been dead-eye on the talent front and now he's reached to take a 1B who's been a hard signing. I doubt Walt Jocketty is impressed.

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I would totally s-can Buckley after a choke-job like this. And 2007 is WAY overrated.

Though I suspect Jocketty signed off on this deal and knew his demands. I'm not sure how well Jocketty will be able to palm off complete responsibility on Buckley.

Regardless, it's yet another massive black eye to an already beleaguered organization.

I didn't mean to post the lineup too, but oh well. :O) VERY small Alonso update.

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Lineup vs. Cardinals

Chris Dickerson lf

Jerry Hairston ss

Jay Bruce rf

Brandon Phillips 2b

Javy Valentin 1b

Edwin Encarnacion 3b

Corey Patterson cf

Ryan Hanigan c

Bronson Arroyo p

v. rh Brad Thompson

Dusty Baker, who shares agents with Yonder Alonso, spoke with Alonso by phone. "He talked briefly -- most of this is out of my hands," Baker said. the Reds are prepared to fly Alonso in. He and his agent did not return calls today.

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All per Fay

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I thought Posey had already signed for 7.5 Mill.

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Yeah, it's out there, if not official. So if the teams were to split the difference between the bonuses for college hitters on either side of Alonso -- 7.5 for Posey and 2.6 for Beckham, the deal would be about 5 mill. Then they'd have to haggle over whether it was a major league or a minor league deal.

They've got a ways to go.

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Originally Posted by _Sir_Charles_

Dusty Baker, who shares agents with Yonder Alonso, spoke with Alonso by phone. "He talked briefly -- most of this is out of my hands," Baker said. the Reds are prepared to fly Alonso in. He and his agent did not return calls today.

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I am starting to feel better about this and that we will get him signed. and not returning calls says Alonso is hunkered down trying to get a deal done

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Originally Posted by Strikes Out Looking

In a sense, he is property of the Reds, for at least a few more hours, and a person with another MLB organization is offering him an inducement to not sign with the Reds. Hypothetically, what if Leatherpants was his pal, and he said, you can come crash with me and play a semipro team near my groovy leatherpants pad? Is the difference, one is management and one just a player?

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He's as much property of the Reds as Jeremy Sowers is or some kid they are thinking about drafting next year or the year after that. He hasn't signed anything with the Reds yet so he doesn't belong to them. I'm not sure how much of an inducement being A-Rod's bobo is. Is he going to share Madonna with him or something?

I'd say your hypothetical with JimBo would probably be legal. Creepy, but legal. But it's not the same thing as living with A-Rod.

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Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

I would totally s-can Buckley after a choke-job like this. And 2007 is WAY overrated.

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Based on what? It must be all those players having success that makes it overrated.

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Originally Posted by OnBaseMachine

Based on what? It must be all those players having success that makes it overrated.

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come on OBM you know that all plays in the reds system, overachieve and acctually aren't good talents what-so-ever(regardless of us having one of the highest rated farm systems, and also considered by many as the deepest)

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Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

I would totally s-can Buckley after a choke-job like this.

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Wow, talk about overreacting. :O) Buckley's done a very good job overall. In fact, just looking at the Alonso pick...if he botched that one (which I don't think he did), then who should he have gone with? Crow? Smoak? Beckham? Of those 3 only Beckham has signed. I'd say that regardless of what the players were asking for, Buckley went with the best available player...and then left it up to Cast & crew to sign the guy. That's far from a poor strategy.