Report: Brewers mull offers to Braun, Fielder -> Latest: Offers made, decision to be made soon

[AJAY]

Tom Haudricourt is reporting on his JS Online blog that the Brewers have approached Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun about multi-year contract offers.

 

http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/default.aspx

[TooLiveBrew]

Mark & Co. put their money where their mouth is. Honestly, if these guys would take deals to buy out two-three years of FA, get all over this. Weigh the money towards the back ends of the contracts.

[AJAY]

There was an article online somewhere stating that Ryan Howard will probably be asking for something similar to what Miguel Cabrera received from Detroit. I am sure Fielder will be watching closely.

[craigharmann]

Give Ryan whatever he wants. Prince, it would be nice if he'd take it, but as long as Boras is his agent, it ain't happening.

[rluzinski]

Give Ryan whatever he wants.

 

You obviously don't mean that in the literal sense so what does that actually mean?

[John Brew]

If either would agree to a multi-year deal, Melvin deserves executive of the year. I don't see it happening, but a fair offer would be big money and therefore pretty tempting, especially since there'd still be plenty of free agency left for them. It's seems more likely that Hart would accept one, based on comments he's made recently. I wouldn't rush to lock up JJ... it's hard not to look ahead to Escobar.

[twobrewers]

I wouldn't rush to lock up JJ... it's hard not to look ahead to Escobar.

The same could be said for Weeks. As Hardy or Escobar could play 2B.

 

I would be shocked if Prince accepted anything. Braun is possible.

 

I would make Hart my first goal. He hasn't had the amazing success to drive his price out of this galaxy yet. And he has had a few quotes about looking for security.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

I would be shocked if Prince accepted anything. Braun is possible.

I realize that it is the general consensus on this board that Prince won't sign a long term deal because of Boras, but there is always a chance because the decisions are ultimately made by the player, not the agent. I'd give Prince about a 10% chance of doing the deal if we offer him the same contract as Miggy Cabrera. I'd offer Braun a similar deal to Tulowitksi and see what happens there as well.

[sbrylski]

Mark A is cool.

[sbrylski]

Per TH:

Because Braun accumulated only 129 days of service time during his rookie of the year season, he won't be eligible for arbitration until after the 2010 season.

 

Is this a for-sure? Braun is NOT a Super Two?

[PeaveyFury]

I'd give Prince about a 10% chance of doing the deal if we offer him the same contract as Miggy Cabrera.

 

It'd also really help the Brewers in the eyes of both Prince and the public- if the Brewers legitimately put a Carbrera-esque deal out there that Prince declined, if an issue about money comes up like a few weeks ago, the public opinion and those around Baseball will be genuinely disinterested, as he'd have passed up tens of millions of dollars because of his agent. And I'd think that if Boras tells him to pass on 100-ish million guaranteed four years before he's even eligible for that type of payday, you'd think that any player would seriously start to question how the agent is actually helping you at that point.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

That's a great way to put it. Make Boras lose a lot of respect to his clients and then maybe there will be less of them. Can we afford a Miggy type deal though?

[endaround]

The same could be said for Weeks. As Hardy or Escobar could play 2B.

 

I would be shocked if Prince accepted anything. Braun is possible.

 

I would make Hart my first goal. He hasn't had the amazing success to drive his price out of this galaxy yet. And he has had a few quotes about looking for security.

Escobar doesn't have the bat for anywhere but SS right now. Hardy would be foolish to sign long term to play 2B.

Fielder has less service time than Cabrera. How could he even think about turning down a similar contract? One thing people need to keep in mind is that the economy is heading to a recession (which could end up being very severe). The last time there was a recession was the same time baseball salaries stalled.

 

[1992casey]

Is this a for-sure? Braun is NOT a Super Two?

Haudricourt should know as well as anybody that it's impossible to make that determination until after the 2009 season ends.

 

[TooLiveBrew]

A beat writer should, but this is Haudricourt.

[JoeHova]

I assume he just meant that the Brewers have Braun under control for 6 more years and used arb-eligible as a shorthand way to say that.

[danzig6767]

We own Braun's rights for so long that i'm not concerned at all about giving him a long term deal at this point.

[crewcrazy]

I would be shocked if Prince accepted anything. Braun is possible.

I realize that it is the general consensus on this board that Prince won't sign a long term deal because of Boras, but there is always a chance because the decisions are ultimately made by the player, not the agent.

While it's true that the agent ultimately works for the player, when you see Prince's comments about negotiating a long-term deal ("I'll let my agent handle all that"), it doesn't seem like he's interested in having an active part in the negotiations.

 

[Invader3K]

Didn't the Brewers supposedly already offer Prince a long term contract earlier this off season, and Boras turned it down?

[JJHardy7]

Is this really a new story? Per the blog:

 

Word is spreading in the Brewers' clubhouse that first baseman Prince Fielder and leftfielder Ryan Braun have been identified as the first players to be approached by management to discuss multi-year contract offers.

 

Is it just stating that the Brewers will attempt to offer Fielder and Braun multi-year deals first? Wasn't that the plan all along? I might be missing something here.

[twobrewers]

I was thinking about this last night as I was falling asleep.

If the Brewers were to offer Prince 5 years and 90 million dollars - Boras would probably have him turn it down.

But that is completely contrary to Prince's best interest. Turning it down might serve Boras in the long run, as he can collect a high percentage later, but Prince would be WAY better off taking a long term deal now.

Here is my thinkings...
If you are going to get a contract for 4 years and 15 million, you might want to play year by year as you try to earn the bigger "pay day". Because, while 15 million dollars guarenteed is nice - it certainly isn't rich beyond your wildest dreams. You could live off of it your entire life, but you would have to have some moderation.

If you receive a contract for 5 years and 90 million dollars...you are set for life. If Prince goes year by year, perhaps he can earn $100 million over the same five years. But Prince is certainly not rich yet. He could be in a life threatening accident (Jason Williams of the NBA) or be diagnosed with a life threatening disease (Baldelli) tomorrow and never play again. Maybe it is just me, but I would much rather be set for life (The difference between $90M and $120M is pretty small compared to the risk of flaming out and never even reaching your big payday)

[homer]

If I were Prince and Braun, my first contract demand would be payment in Euros.

[yfinn6]

No kidding, the exchange rate here is crazy. I just moved here and that seems to be all that anyone can talk about.

[TauPentaRei]

It must be really hot in Arizona, because Rickie sure was wearing a lot of ice around his neck.

 

Ahhh sorry, I was looking for a place to say that all yesterday - after seeing Rickie's home run picture - but no thread obliged, and I didn't feel like it merited a new one. But since we're talking about the long term financial outlook of the club, I hypothesize that if I was Prince I would be irked by Rickie's disproportionate paycheck : production ratio. Thank goodness Prince is motivated by anger, disrespect and spite.

 

Now that that is out of the way, I am just really happy that Braun - Prince will have 3 - 4 (please, Ned?) locked down in our line-up for at least the next 3 years and MAYBE the next 7. How wonderful is that?

 

Moving right along, I see Prince's arby figures (there used to be a roast beef sandwhich joke / pun to be made here) at 9, 12 and 14. Conservatively one could call it 8, 10.5, 12.5. So what is it going to take for Prince to be in the line-up for 2012 thru 2014? The whole concept from the player / agent perspective is more money now at the expense of less money later, yeah? He hits the open market in his slugging prime he is a $20M+ rake.

 

$100M for 6 years puts him at 13M for each of the 3 arby years and 20M for the 3 after that, effectively "overpaying" him 8 million dollars for the arby years and fixing the 3 after that with a hedge. with an extra Mil bonus for homer #52 to round it out.

[sheethead]

If I were Prince and Braun, my first contract demand would be payment in Euros.

Either Euros or Gold. Sad to think that $120 million could actually be 'funny' money one day. As always with star athletes, it's going to be a big dilema for the Brewers, but I agree with a previous post of injecting a 5 year $90 million offer into the fold to see what happens. Its still not Carlos Lee money, but Prince will likely make that and more when he bolts to the Yankees (or similar) when he's in his 30's. An offer like that at this time in his life would be hard to turn down, and he would only be giving up a couple years of free agency in exchange for his arby years. That said, its still a sizeable risk for the Brewers, as are all big, long-term deals. It seems like more of these deals blow up than actually work out.