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Friday, October 22, 2004 |
Neel And Pray: Thoughts On The Beltran Sweepstakes
Though I've already made my delible yawp on the comments section there, I thought it would be useful to expand a bit upon the column at Mariner Musings pointing us to this ESPN Page 2 dialogue between Eric Neel and David Schoenfield which purports to tell us why the M's will end up with Carlos Beltran. Synthesizing a few things from some of the other posters I agree with and putting up links to those things I didn't substantiate previously:
- Steinbrenner has so much money. How much? Business of Baseball has a spreadsheet with numbers from Forbes estimating $238M in revenues and an annual $26.3M operating loss in 2003. (The original article can be found here.) Whether that includes the estimated $68M over those stated revenues Steiny gets from operating the YES network I don't know. Even if it isn't, Steinbrenner's plan to have the other owners (and/or the city) pay for a new hotel complex near Yankee Stadium begins to make $300M Yankee payrolls look not only achievable, but inevitable.
- ¿Habla Español? Seattle isn't exactly known as a great place to hang for Latin players. In fact, Seattle is the whitest city in the US, with 70% of the population white. It made a difference when landing Vlad. Beltran was a cipher in Kansas City; in Houston, everyone knows him. Question: does he like that?
- Speaking of the 'Stros, I agree with the Baseball Crank in that Houston has a lot invested in Beltran's return. I see them as the first and most likely team to re-sign him, though far from a certainty; and with Steinbrenner in the market, it seems most likely that Beltran will be a Yankee long before he becomes a Mariner. For Beltran's part, it's kind of a crapshoot staying with the Astros; Clemens might retire, again, and for the last time. The team's offensive core is aging badly (as evidenced by the sudden hitting slumps they encountered in this postseason). Because of those two things, the 'Stros teeter toward rebuilding mode. Of course, looking at the Yankees, they aren't the roaring success they were in the late 90's, either. Their core is certainly getting older and less effective, and thanks to George's set-the-market valuations, nearly impossible to trade.
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