Definitely.

And treat 'em right and keep this goldmine in operation.

That's the key. They've found a well they can keep tapping. Exploit it for as long as you can.

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Smart non-signing.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

For some reason I thought Springer was younger than he is.

It does not seem like he has been around that long.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

It happens when you're 24 in your rookie year

Sox - Cubs 2021 finances/payroll are fascinating. Cubs 123 mil, Sox 119. Theo spent over 100 mil a year on pitching each last 5 years (Levine) due to dismal drafting. Rickets buying up Wrigleyville then blindsided by covid. Theo leaves a mess.

Reinsdorf has to be the mastermind of all the Sox team friendly contracts mostly on impoverished Latin players. Reinsdorf gets mocked for being a senile old codger. Theo is a genius.

he was a late bloomer

He's a good player and at times very good. He provides a lot more value if he is playing CF. I would have liked the Sox to have him in right but that price would have really restricted them from other moves. Teams with more liberal budgets can afford those luxuries. The Sox cannot.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Who ever said Reinsdorf is senile. He's a great businessman. He just invented a new way of screwing with players in the Hendriks contract. He said he had been toying with the concept for a couple of years before finding his first victim.

JR will give you all the money you want if you are willing to wait 20 years for it. He isn't going to end up paying so you gave him free services. Word is he loved Popeye as a kid and thought Whimpy was a genius.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

10 years. But you're right. It's like when people are ecstatic when the get their tax refund.

Some might use the term market inequity.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

He definitely is.

I wonder how he compares to today's tech billionaires, both in non-business dealings and in how he made his fortune?

He's a complex guy. He is sentimental, he supports at least one pretty progressive charity, and he's loyal to people he likes. He's respectful of tradition--until he's not. He's hard-headed--until he lets a member of his inner-circle change his mind. But he's always shrewd and hard-nosed. Is there a biography on the guy? That old book Stealing Home talks about him and Eddie Einhorn a little, but I'd think he would make great fodder for a bio. And that's just me thinking of the Sox side of him.

He's horrible on the pr side of business and always has been.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

All I know, in a division of nothing but small markets, with the exception of one free spender in Detroit for about a decade, he's come up short. Overall, he's been a failure in the Winning business.

Yes, he digs himself a grave every time he interviews. He did on Day One when he (or Eddie) fired Harry and put the Sox on OnTV. And threatening to move the team, and so on. He seems bloodless and defensive at times. But then you hear other stuff about him. Great fodder for a bio. Father Pfleger should win back his parish by trying to perfect Jerry into a Catholic, or at least a Christian. He'd be a good fit for the Episcopalians.

At least that one is a good deal for the player too. You either get the money right away or you get it over 10 years and can go sign a contract somewhere else or sit at home. I wish someone would pay me $15 million to not work even if I have to wait a little bit for it.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think you are looking at it incorrectly. You can have the $15 million today or you can have the $15 million in 10 years and let JR hold they money for you, interest free, in the mean time.

This assumes JR isn't paying above market to equalize everything for the player. I think that's a safe assumption but I could be wrong.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

You and JR look at the business of baseball differently.

He makes money on the team every year. In fact, it has been reported that the team has been at its most profitable in these last few years when he was losing.

He also makes much more unrealized money on the team in the form of team value. His group purchase it for $20 million and its probably worth 1 billion.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

But you have to work for that $15 million to get it right away. He can sign another contract if they cut him or go home and watch tv.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Say it's reversed. Jerry bought the Cubs somewhat recently, Ricketts family majority Sox owners for quite some time. Would Jerry have overleveraged himself?Threw champagne party for Theo leaving the titanic? Hands off baseball side for Heyward, Kimbrel signings? Jerry in Rickets position anytime he doesn't get what he wants he threatens to move the Cubs. Like he's done multiple times with the Sox.

Right. I don’t know why some perceive this as screwing over the player. The situation where he gets the annual installment likely involves him being bad in year 3. Even then, he’ll still get his $15m along with flexibility.

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Not saying JERRY is right or wrong or whatever or implying anything on Hendricks' part but with the way some of these meathead athletes blow through money, perhaps having a few million bucks as future income isn't necessarily a bad thing.

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Same would be true with a conventional contract. All this does is allow the money to be deferred, possibly

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

It's not a matter of right or wrong.

JR created a form of contract that is more favorable to him and less favorable to the player than a conventional contract. He's done it before.

There is no morality attached to it. The players have VERY SMART PEOPLE representing them...of course, those people don't care about the clause because they get their cut of the entirety of the contract the day it is signed

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

No it wouldn't. A buyout in year 3 of 4 would almost certainly not be for the same value as year 4. Why even have it then? It's just a 4 year guaranteed contract then.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

they don't buy out contracts in baseball. They are guaranteed.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

That's not true. Tim Anderson has a $1 million buyout if they decline his option in 2023 or 2024.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

That's not really a buyout though. That's a penalty for declining an option. I know it probably looks like semantics. I'd consider a buyout to be a payment made to get out of the guaranteed years of the contract.

I'm trying to think of a true buyout in baseball and all I'm recalling is the union rejecting ARod trying to get out of the guaranteed years of his deal when both he and Texas wanted to part ways.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The penalty for the Sox is paying the full amount over 10 years. Good deal for the player.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

And if the player refuses and demands it in year 4, does JR walk away? I don't think so. Jr probably sweetens years 1-3. But we'll never know.

I would assume that like most contracts, a team option would have a lower buyout than the total cost of the season salary.

It's always interesting in discussions like this that people assume the player, after signing the contract is shocked by the screw job that Jerry once again pulled off like he wrote with invisible ink an extra clause and then shot grape juice all over it after it was signed.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!