The Johnny Damon saga

[kar...@aol.com]

    Are you old enough to remember the Iran hostage crisis during the final year of the Jimmy Carter presidency? If you are you will remember Ted Koppel appearing nightly on ABC television giving updates on the crisis. Even when there was little or nothing to update. The crisis and the ABC news "special" lasted 444 days and eventually the show became "Nightline". And so it is with the signing of Johnny Damon. Days turn into weeks which drag into months. And still the saga continues. Damon's agent Scott Boras does his best to keep the story alive. First the Tigers and the Atlanta Braves are battling for Damon's services. Then suddently the Chicago White Sox are interested. The Tigers make Damon an offer that apparently he can refuse. It is reported that Damon's wife doesn't want to go to Detroit because the city isn't "cosmopolitan" enough. In true cave man fashion Damon responds that his wife will go wherever he goes. White Sox GM Kenny Williams says that there isn't the money left in his budget to sign Damon. And today Tiger GM Dave Dombrowski confirms that Detroit has made an offer to Damon and are awaiting his response. DD says that a deal is not imminent but that he has an idea when the saga will come to an end. Interpret that however you will. At this point it seems clear that Boras is still making all attempts to create a "bidding war" for Damon and drive his price up. Hopefully neither the Tigers or White Sox are falling for his game.
     I have a feeling that Damon, and his cosmo wife, will eventually end up in Detroit. But there is still no hurry. Full spring workouts don't even begin in Lakeland until next Tuesday.

[Withey, Jeff]

Apparently Mrs. Damon has never been to Oakland County.

 

-Jeff

 

Jeffrey H. Withey, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Immunology and Microbiology

Wayne State University School of Medicine

540 E. Canfield

Detroit, MI 48201

 

---

From: listmgr...@lists.ibl.org [listmgr...@lists.ibl.org] On Behalf Of kar...@aol.com [kar...@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 3:00 PM
To: tig...@lists.ibl.org
Subject: The Johnny Damon saga

[Clayton Lord]

I'd like to have Damon but at some point the Tigers ought to start reducing their offer or take it off the table. Damon is making us look like fools. What does this say to our guys, most specifically the man most affected by it, Carlos Guillen? Tell Mr. Damon that the deals drops by $1 million a day. And in five days the offer goes away. Cal Rev. Dr. Cal Lord, Pastor First Baptist Church, Norwich, CT web: www.fbcnorwich.org blog: www.pastorcal.blogspot.com --- On Fri, 2/19/10, Withey, Jeff <jwi...@med.wayne.edu> wrote:

[Rob Hawks]

Cal,

I'm curious what way this is making the Tigers look like fools (I assume that is what you meant by 'us')? An argument could be made that Damon, and or Boras look more so the fools for not taking clearly the best offer out there from a team with a darn good chance to be winners. I agree with your take on the offer though, no reason to sweeten it and at some point it is certainly fair to say 'ok, you've had plenty of time to consider it'.

[Clayton Lord]

Rob, I say that, not that anyone really cares, because it has been reported that our offer is substantially higher, and for more years, than any other offer he has received since he rejected the Yankee offer. Plus, the talk among sports writers is that he is using our offer to try and sweeten the pot from other clubs. I'd say becing used makes us look a little foolish. Cal

[Rob Hawks]

Cal,

I'd say a person so obviously trying to use someone or something else would look as foolish if not more foolish.

Is every offer that is accepted a foolish offer? Darn near every offer accepted by a free agent is an offer that is higher than all the others.

I still don't see the Tigers as looking foolish.

rob

[Marlon D. Shows]

I think the Tigers are far less worried about Johnny Damon making them look foolish than they are about Jackson or Sizemore or both making them look foolish.

Damon isn't going to get a higher bid from anyone, so I'm not worried about that at all.  DD isn't going to panic, so it's all good.

Marlon D. Shows
"Every now and then you gotta ask yourself, do you really want to win or just look good losing" - LB




--- rob....@gmail.com wrote:

---

Create your own web site for FREE at http://www.freehomepage.com

[Rob Hawks]

Holy Shit Batman! Marlon, I agree with everything you just wrote.  ;^)

rob

[kar...@aol.com]

    Well, he's no Ted Koppel, but Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the White Sox have withdrawn their offer to Johnny Damon. Apparently Chicago had made an offer of $4.5 million for one year with some deferred money tacked on after that. According to the report White Sox GM Ken Williams said that Chicago doesn't have the money available to compete for Damon at this time. That means the only team with an offer on the table to Damon is the Detroit Tigers. Whether Damon or Boras will choose to accept that offer or continue trying to find another team with interest remains to be seen.
    As for the Tigers looking foolish I really think that would only happen if they were to increase their previous offer even though no team has made an offer that matches or exceeds the Tigers previous offer. That would be silly. There is nothing they can do about Boras shopping their offer around to other teams trying to get a better deal. That really is just part of the process. If he can get a better deal then let him take it. Otherwise eventually he will come back and take the Tiger offer. The Tigers only look foolish if they fall into the trap of negotiating against themselves. There is nothing wrong with putting a reasonable time limit on an offer but 48 or 72 hours is a bit silly. Spring training hasn't begun yet for position players. Neither Detroit nor Damon need to be in a hurry.

[Lor...@aol.com]

ESPN reports the offer at 6M

 

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100219/SPORTS0104/2190407/1129/Tigers-confirm-offer-to-Johnny-Damon--White-Sox-withdraw-theirs

[Steve Bielawski]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Clayton Lord" <fbcno...@sbcglobal.net>

> I'd like to have Damon but at some point the Tigers
> ought to start reducing their offer or take it off the table.
> Damon is making us look like fools.

I have to agree with Rob in saying that the Tigers don't really look
like fools yet. They made a substantial offer, hoping that it would be
enough to intice immediate action, but obviously, immediate action
didn't happen. Still, almost everyone who is familiar with the
situation agrees that the reason why Mr. Damon has not signed with the
Tigers is not because the Tigers haven't made a generous-enough offer.
Scott Boras Badenov is hoping that some team will start a bidding war.

If anyone looks like a fool in this, it's not the Tigers but rather Mr.
Damon and his agent. They look like money-grubbers who don't know when
they have received the best offer that they are going to get. They are
the ones being unrealistic, not the Tigers.

Then again, this is the sort of behaviour which everyone in baseball
expects from Scott Boras and his clients.

> What does this say to our guys, most specifically the man
> most affected by it, Carlos Guillen?

Perhaps it tells them that the Tigers are still out there trying to
improve the team,e ven if it means that Mr. Ilitch has to spend his own
money to do so.

> Tell Mr. Damon that the deals drops by $1 million a day.
> And in five days the offer goes away.

First off, the Yankees tried putting a time limit on their offer, and it
didn't work. Mr. Damon and Mr. Boras will take their time, no matter
what you want. They may come back to the Tigers two weeks after such a
deadline and finally say that they would take the offer that had already
expired. And what should the Tigers do then? Unless they have signed
someone else for about the same money in the interim, they really
wouldn't have a reason for not making the offer available again. Well,
no reason other than stubbornness on the Tigers' part. Taking a stand
like that would make the Tigers look even worse than simply making a big
offer and waiting while someone who is known to play games waits to see
if there is a bigger counteroffer.

A wise man said that you should always see to it that you have enough
money to finish a building project before you start it, lest you have to
abandon it and people point at you and say, "That man started what he
could not finish." Right now, the White Sox are reported to have made
an offer and withdrawn it because they don't have enough money available
for next year. They look foolish in just the way that that very wise
man described. The Tigers would look foolish that way as well if they
were to withdraw their offer.

Worse yet, since it is supposedly the biggest offer so far, they might
be asked very publicly to renew the offer. They would then be in a very
tight spot. If they don't make that offer again, then they look like
they "started what [they] could not finish". And if they do agree to
make the offer available again, then Mr. Boras has made the Tigers look
foolish for taking it off the table in the first place when they didn't
really mean it. It's a lose-lose for the Tigers.

Even if it looks like they are being played for a patsy, it's better to
let that happen then to take the offer off the table. The potential
backlash from that move is really bad.

Now, if the Tigers had someone else to offer that money to instead, that
would make a difference. Then, they could say, "Take the offer by our
deadline, or we will sign player X instead." That's the sort of
ultimatum that the Yankees made, and they don't look too foolish for
having done it. But, who would that other player be, and how much would
they offer that other player? That is the rub. Right now, Mr. Damon
has the upper hand in that way, and he knows it.

[Roger King]

The idea of someone "looking foolish" assumes that anyone besides people on
this list, Damon, Boras and various MLB GM's & sportswriters are paying
attention to any of this at the height of the Winter Olympics :)-

RK

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Bielawski" <stevebi...@sbcglobal.net>
To: "Tigers List" <tig...@lists.ibl.org>
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: The Johnny Damon saga

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