Aoki's contract status?

[markedman5]

So some of you probably heard the guys on ESPN talking about Aoki's future. They said that he had a player option for next year and suggested that because it was so cheap he wouldn't exercise it.......I thought it was the Brewers option?

[trwi7]

Are they talking about after this season? After this season it's a club option, after the 2014 season he's a free agent, no options either club or player.

[markedman5]

Yeah they acted like the Brewers expected him to opt out next year....I figured they screwed it up

[502 to Right]

So some of you probably heard the guys on ESPN talking about Aoki's future. They said that he had a player option for next year and suggested that because it was so cheap he wouldn't exercise it.......I thought it was the Brewers option?

 

 

Who are "the guys on ESPN" you speak of?

[Invader3K]

ESPN gets it wrong about a small market club player's contract? Go figure.

[chadomac]

Not surprising. I made a comment last night about how maddening it is watching the Brewers on ESPN, because they don't seem to do ANY homework at all regarding knowing anything about Brewers players not named Ryan Braun. They love to gush about the Cardinals, though.

[markedman5]

I think it was Hershiser and Shulman…..whoever the announcers were for last night for the game.

 

So some of you probably heard the guys on ESPN talking about Aoki's future. They said that he had a player option for next year and suggested that because it was so cheap he wouldn't exercise it.......I thought it was the Brewers option?

 

 

Who are "the guys on ESPN" you speak of?

[JohnBriggs12]

Specifically it was Shulman that kept bringing up that Aoki was a FA after this year. I'm not sure if it was Kruk or Hershiser who a bit later correctly stated it was the Brewers that had an option on Aoki that was only about a million and there was no way they would not pick that up. Shulman never acknowledged the correction as it didn't fit his narrative that the Brewers were in trouble. On the positive side, they did bring up the possibility of Braun moving to RF to make room for Davis. My guess is someone in the organization mentioned that to them and they must have thought that was because Aoki was a FA.

 

I'm kind of wondering if the Brewer media people aren't to blame though. On Friday night, the Cardinal telecast referenced Sean Halton as a Rule 5 pick up. Where would they get that? Either that was in media notes, or Cardinal announcers don't want to acknowledge that Brewers have any success with developing lower round picks.

 

By the way, loved how Shulman had barely finished saying that the Cardinals had only made 70 errors all year when Freese made one on about an easy a play as a 3B will ever have.

[1992casey]

For background, here's some previous discussion on the subject of Aoki's contract:

 

Aoki a FA after 2014 (July 2013, correctly explains that Nori will be eligible for free agency after 2014)

 

Aoki's Rights -- Finally an Answer? (February 2013, states that Nori would have been under Brewers control through 2017; at the time, the clause in his contract that grants him free agency wasn't known)

 

I can see where the announcers may not have gotten the memo about the new information that came out in July, but what they had to say didn't match up to any of the previous information that we had available.

[nate82]

For background, here's some previous discussion on the subject of Aoki's contract:

 

Aoki a FA after 2014 (July 2013, correctly explains that Nori will be eligible for free agency after 2014)

 

Aoki's Rights -- Finally an Answer? (February 2013, states that Nori would have been under Brewers control through 2017; at the time, the clause in his contract that grants him free agency wasn't known)

 

I can see where the announcers may not have gotten the memo about the new information that came out in July, but what they had to say didn't match up to any of the previous information that we had available.

 

Not really surprised by this as ESPN is part of the ABC network which has started to just do no research at all and then maybe fix it at some later date or time. I wonder if reporters and editors know that there is this thing called Google.

[SenatorShriv]

Not surprising. I made a comment last night about how maddening it is watching the Brewers on ESPN, because they don't seem to do ANY homework at all regarding knowing anything about Brewers players not named Ryan Braun. They love to gush about the Cardinals, though.

 

Turns out they rarely do their full homework on guys named Braun either...

[sheetskout]

I've seen some national mention of how ridiculously low Aoki's K/AB rate is. I forget where. Hopefully teams are taking notice.

[logan82]

The smart teams are looking more at stats that matter like OBP and SLG or maybe wOBA.