Winston-Salem, NC – I couldn’t help but notice that the Orioles’ top pick in June’s draft, switch-hitting catcher Matt Wieters from Georgia Tech, remains unsigned before tonight's 11:59 p.m. deadline. Scott Boras, the agent of Wieters, is asking for a $10.6M, while the Orioles are offering a little less than $6M.
My question to the Orioles is: Why would draft him if you’re not going to sign him? You know that he is a Boras client, so the signing price will be absorbent. I believe that if the Orioles didn’t take Wieters, the Nationals would have selected him next. If the Nats selected him and signed him, imagine the backlash to the Orioles’ front office. For the record, the Nats agreed to terms with their other first round pick Josh Smoker yesterday.
I thought the Orioles were "trying to do everything possible" to turn this franchise around. If you’re going to dole out $30M in free agent contracts to mediocre players such as Aubrey Huff and Jay Payton, why not throw out a “paltry” $2-3M to get this guy signed. This guy is the next Jarrod Saltalamacchia, only with better defense.
I did not laud the Orioles’ decision to hire Andy MacPhail, because one merely has to glance at the Cubs’ record for the past decade. Yes, he won a championship with the Twins in 1991, but the baseball business has undergone a fundamental change. As Ken Rosenthal points out, MacPhail has traveled down this road before. In 1993, the Twins drafted Jason Varitek, a switch-hitting catcher from Georgia Tech, with their first round pick. Varitek's agent, Scott Boras (ring a bell?) and MacPhail could not agree to terms, so Varitek returned to school to prepare for the subsequent year’s draft. We all know what happened to Varitek from there -- drafted by the Mariners in 1994, traded to the Red Sox where he became a cornerstone in the team's 2004 world championship.
Ahhh… the Orioles.
My question to the Orioles is: Why would draft him if you’re not going to sign him? You know that he is a Boras client, so the signing price will be absorbent. I believe that if the Orioles didn’t take Wieters, the Nationals would have selected him next. If the Nats selected him and signed him, imagine the backlash to the Orioles’ front office. For the record, the Nats agreed to terms with their other first round pick Josh Smoker yesterday.
I thought the Orioles were "trying to do everything possible" to turn this franchise around. If you’re going to dole out $30M in free agent contracts to mediocre players such as Aubrey Huff and Jay Payton, why not throw out a “paltry” $2-3M to get this guy signed. This guy is the next Jarrod Saltalamacchia, only with better defense.
I did not laud the Orioles’ decision to hire Andy MacPhail, because one merely has to glance at the Cubs’ record for the past decade. Yes, he won a championship with the Twins in 1991, but the baseball business has undergone a fundamental change. As Ken Rosenthal points out, MacPhail has traveled down this road before. In 1993, the Twins drafted Jason Varitek, a switch-hitting catcher from Georgia Tech, with their first round pick. Varitek's agent, Scott Boras (ring a bell?) and MacPhail could not agree to terms, so Varitek returned to school to prepare for the subsequent year’s draft. We all know what happened to Varitek from there -- drafted by the Mariners in 1994, traded to the Red Sox where he became a cornerstone in the team's 2004 world championship.
Ahhh… the Orioles.
No comments:
Post a Comment