Post by sj on Feb 8, 2010 17:28:07 GMT -5
Any experienced Mogul retro league player, who hasn't been in TMBL these last several seasons, would tell you that nobody is going to pay tens of millions of free agent dollars to a past peak SS with a predicted BA of .301 and marginal power, and with a fielding rating of 69.
A guy who, at 34, has a career batting average of .292, a career Fpct of .969, and a middle of the pack average of 3.41 assists per game.
Who, that isn't in TMBL, would pay this guy 22 million?
But this is TMBL. No way to get around that. The free agent pool is more shallow then a Death Valley drainage ditch in the summer, and some owners have more money than they know what to do with. Or think they do.
Last season, the war for Russell ended with the Twins outbidding the Red Sox, agreeing to pay a three year, 22 million per season contract, worth a staggering 66 million dollar total. And why not? He's valuable.
So valuable, in fact, that the division contending Twins traded him to Boston, the same team they so voraciously and relentlessly out bid for his talents, by the end of April. The end of April. in the same season they signed him. He almost spent less time on their team than it took the owner to win the contract war.
Hot Potato! Here, you take him!
For their part, the Red Sox, already a lock to win their division even before the first pitch of the 1981 season, valued him so highly that they not only agreed to take on that insane salary, but traded another player for him. To the Twins.
The same team they had stopped bidding against for Russell when it became obvious that the Twins owner didn't know how to stop adding money to his own offer. The same Twins owner who had to have Russell at any and all costs, until he suddenly, and for no explicable reason, didn't have to have Russell anymore after one month of play.
Hot Potato! Here, you take him!
Then the Red Sox, which traded to obtain the 22/66 million contract negotiated by the madcap Twins owner, played him for the remaining five months of the season, plus their inevitable playoffs appearance, and then bought out the remainder of his contract, right after their WS loss to the Braves, for another staggering 22 million.
Hot Potato! Here, you take him!
This was because Russell had a terrible season for them.... oh wait, no he didn't.
Russell actually played stellar, for him, ball in Boston. He batted .294, fielded at .970, and managed 3.98 assists per game, with a RF of 5.92, all above his career totals, meaning that he played better than anyone could have reasonably expected him to. So, he must have really bombed out in the WS, made the Red Sox management so mad that they lost all reason and released him, right?
Well, no. He went 5 for 15 with 1 walk, 1 HR, 2 RBIs, and 3 runs scored, a .333 BA and .375 OBA. In the field, he didn't make a single error, had a RF of 5.4, and made 4.25 A/G. But, despite that:
Hot Potato! Here, you take him!
So, once again Russell finds himself in free agency, in another god-awful free agent pool so typical of TMBL, and - wait for it - is once again the subject of a multi-multi million dollar bidding war.
Hot Potato! Hey, I Want him!
Two of the prime participants in this bidding war are - are you ready? - the Twins and the Red Sox.
Hot Potato! Hey, I Want him!
The Same Twins that drove his contract price up to 22M, then traded him before the month of April was over. The same Red Sox who traded to get him, paid the bulk of his 22M contract, then paid 22M more to release him into free agency again.
Hot Potato! Hey, I Want him! No, You take him! No, I Want him!
Why in the holy hell Russell would be negotiating with either one of these teams after the way they treated him last year is beyond me. Or, no, maybe it's not, since the guy got paid a total of 44 million dollars for one season of play, by far the highest single season total ever paid to any player in the history of TMBL.
Not too shabby for a guy whose only chance of getting into the hall of fame is buying a ticket and waiting in line.
So here we are again, but this time, as this is being written, the highest bid on Russell is coming from - I can't say it, I don't want to say it, oh hell, here goes - it's coming from the Yankees. I guess they think it's time for one of their three times per century attempts at the playoffs.
Hot Potato! Hey, I Want him!
A guy who, at 34, has a career batting average of .292, a career Fpct of .969, and a middle of the pack average of 3.41 assists per game.
Who, that isn't in TMBL, would pay this guy 22 million?
But this is TMBL. No way to get around that. The free agent pool is more shallow then a Death Valley drainage ditch in the summer, and some owners have more money than they know what to do with. Or think they do.
Last season, the war for Russell ended with the Twins outbidding the Red Sox, agreeing to pay a three year, 22 million per season contract, worth a staggering 66 million dollar total. And why not? He's valuable.
So valuable, in fact, that the division contending Twins traded him to Boston, the same team they so voraciously and relentlessly out bid for his talents, by the end of April. The end of April. in the same season they signed him. He almost spent less time on their team than it took the owner to win the contract war.
Hot Potato! Here, you take him!
For their part, the Red Sox, already a lock to win their division even before the first pitch of the 1981 season, valued him so highly that they not only agreed to take on that insane salary, but traded another player for him. To the Twins.
The same team they had stopped bidding against for Russell when it became obvious that the Twins owner didn't know how to stop adding money to his own offer. The same Twins owner who had to have Russell at any and all costs, until he suddenly, and for no explicable reason, didn't have to have Russell anymore after one month of play.
Hot Potato! Here, you take him!
Then the Red Sox, which traded to obtain the 22/66 million contract negotiated by the madcap Twins owner, played him for the remaining five months of the season, plus their inevitable playoffs appearance, and then bought out the remainder of his contract, right after their WS loss to the Braves, for another staggering 22 million.
Hot Potato! Here, you take him!
This was because Russell had a terrible season for them.... oh wait, no he didn't.
Russell actually played stellar, for him, ball in Boston. He batted .294, fielded at .970, and managed 3.98 assists per game, with a RF of 5.92, all above his career totals, meaning that he played better than anyone could have reasonably expected him to. So, he must have really bombed out in the WS, made the Red Sox management so mad that they lost all reason and released him, right?
Well, no. He went 5 for 15 with 1 walk, 1 HR, 2 RBIs, and 3 runs scored, a .333 BA and .375 OBA. In the field, he didn't make a single error, had a RF of 5.4, and made 4.25 A/G. But, despite that:
Hot Potato! Here, you take him!
So, once again Russell finds himself in free agency, in another god-awful free agent pool so typical of TMBL, and - wait for it - is once again the subject of a multi-multi million dollar bidding war.
Hot Potato! Hey, I Want him!
Two of the prime participants in this bidding war are - are you ready? - the Twins and the Red Sox.
Hot Potato! Hey, I Want him!
The Same Twins that drove his contract price up to 22M, then traded him before the month of April was over. The same Red Sox who traded to get him, paid the bulk of his 22M contract, then paid 22M more to release him into free agency again.
Hot Potato! Hey, I Want him! No, You take him! No, I Want him!
Why in the holy hell Russell would be negotiating with either one of these teams after the way they treated him last year is beyond me. Or, no, maybe it's not, since the guy got paid a total of 44 million dollars for one season of play, by far the highest single season total ever paid to any player in the history of TMBL.
Not too shabby for a guy whose only chance of getting into the hall of fame is buying a ticket and waiting in line.
So here we are again, but this time, as this is being written, the highest bid on Russell is coming from - I can't say it, I don't want to say it, oh hell, here goes - it's coming from the Yankees. I guess they think it's time for one of their three times per century attempts at the playoffs.
Hot Potato! Hey, I Want him!