Nats In The Bag?

[Crash Course]

Everywhere you go, you hear rumors that baseball may be considering another cynical "bag job" akin to the way the Red Sox were handed to the John Henry-Larry Lucchino group because they were "baseball insiders" rather than the high bidders. It worked in Boston. But if Jeff Smulyan of Indianapolis is awarded the Nationals, despite multiple qualified Washington ownership groups, it may be a disastrous decision for baseball, Washington and the Nationals.

The D.C. Council and the public would have every right to go ballistic if local buyers are bypassed, especially for outside ownership that smacks of old-boy-network string pulling. Smulyan is a particularly poor choice.

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/23/AR2005092301767.html

Somebody should sue on this some day.

[captain_napalm]

Someday, someone will. Didn't the Dolans try?

Also I was really hoping the Expos RICO suit would go farther than it did.

[Jayhawk Bob]

The instance of this type that is never remembered is the way MLB handled the sale of the Royals from the Kauffman Trust to David Glass. There were several bidders for the club, but Glass wasn't originally one of them. The Brett brothers had a bid, and so did Lamar Hunt, but the highest bid came from a New York lawyer named Miles Prentice. MLB ignored Prentice completely, going so far as to advise him by letter that he needn't bother calling about the status of his bid, it was rejected out of hand.

At that point, at Selig's personal request, Glass finally entered the bidding, and was eventually awarded the team for just about the same money Prentice offered. Glass is a crony of Selig's and has been a staunch, vocal supporter for small market equality, revenue sharing, etc., to the extent that it is now widely rumored here in KC that the Royals have yet to sign 1st-round pick Alex Gordon because the club is taking one for the team, so to speak, to make a statement about holding the line on signing bonuses, even if it means losing their rights to him. He's lobbying behind the scenes with politicians for a new ballpark, either downtown or on the Kansas side by the new Kansas Speedway, playing the two state governments against each other.

And, oh by the way, while his team has set club records for losing three of the last four years, Glass continues to cut the payroll despite having a 2004 season where the club set a team record for payroll and losses and STILL turned a $5 million profit.

What a swell guy.

[KCBOOMER]

Bob, that is not an accurate description of the Royals sales to Glass. Glass was hand-picked by Ewing Kauffman to be the new owner of the Royals. After listening to all kinds of rubbish on the talk radio shows he announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy to buy the team. Lamr Hunt made a lowball offer to buy the team (it was an actual net of less than $30M) and the Brett Brothers made an offer that wasn't much better. The Prentice Group actually got there bid up to $75M but this grouip would have had no cash with which to actually operate the club and would have had something like 20 partners. You are right that MLB treated Prentice shabbily, but that's MLB's fault not Glass's. When he finally bought the club he paid $95M and none of the provisions that reduced the actual amount of his bid.

Glass has never played "low-ball" on payroll. As you recall he authorized a decent increase in payroll after the 2003 season to about $59M. For his expenditure he got a 100 loss club.

Yes, he did not pony up the money to keep Dye, Damon, and Beltran. Damon and Beltran were Boras clients and were leaving unless Glass ponied up top dollar. Dye simply isn't worth a contract worth $10M a year,

Glass's main fault has been his faith in Allard Baird, club GM, who has turned out to be a good scout but a guy who gets all the big decisions wrong. For Dye, Damon, and Beltran he netted Neifi Perez, Roberto Hernandez, Angel Berroa, Mike Wood, Mark Teahen, and John Buck. The latter six aren't worth any of the prior three. Even now he is blocking the acquisition of Alex Gordon over contract provisions rather than money. He doesn't want to give Gordon a major league contract when the Royals don't have real players to man a 40 man roster.

For me, I'd rather unload Baird and get a guy who knows how to build a farm system and stay with the development process like Minnesota, Cleveland, and the A's. I'll worry about the owner later.

[KCBOOMER]

As for the Nats, Smulyan would be a mistake, but MLB may feel they owe him after the hosing he took in Seattle following the collusion episode.

[captain_napalm]

As for the Nats, Smulyan would be a mistake, but MLB may feel they owe him after the hosing he took in Seattle following the collusion episode.
well, this time he can't threaten to move the team to Tampa Bay :D

[Jayhawk Bob]

Boomer, I'm afraid that's not an accurate description either. Yes, Glass was hand-picked by Kauffman, but when the team finally went up for sale six years after Kauffman's death, Glass stalled. The talk-radio excuse was just a convenient reason to wait, because, having been on the Royals' board all that time, he knew perfectly well what the radio people in town were like. It wasn't until Selig killed the highest-bidder offer and personally asked him to become involved that Glass finally made an offer.

And while Prentice's group did have financing issues, he publicly stated several times that he would gladly get into a bidding situation with Glass, which would have benefitted local charities since that's where all proceeds of the sale were going as a result of Kauffman's will. But, since Selig killed Prentice's offer out of hand, without even meeting with him, we'll never know how high that bidding could have gone or how much financing Prentice could have gathered.

The Alex Gordon issue comes down to money any way you slice it. The two issues of that negotiation that have been widely reported are both related to cost. First the Royals' are refusing to match Gordon's signing bonus request, and obvious cost move. Next, they are refusing to give him a major league deal, most likely over concerns about accelerating his service clock and having to pay him sooner. It certainly can't have anything to do with making room for him on the 40-man roster; He's already better than two-thirds of the guys on that list and he's never played a professional game.

And the $59 million payroll figure is just wrong. The Royals' highest payroll ever was $47 million last season and was promptly slashed by over $10 million this year even though the team turned a $5 million profit. Assuming the same levels of revenue as last year, which is conservative since revenue-sharing payouts will actually be higher this season, the Royals stand to turn a profit of at least $15 million this season while posting the worst-record in baseball.

I agree, Baird stinks. But he was hired and retained by this owner, who has put severe cost restrictions on how Baird can operate the club. Baird hasn't performed well, to be sure, but crap rolls downhill, and David Glass is the man sitting on top of it.