Vladimir Guererro Officially a Free Agent

[....]

Where? Word is it, Baltimore is heavily going after him.

Also, Greg Maddux looks like he's out of Atlanta.....ugh

[bayrider]

ahhh thats it... montreal is officially dead

[Fubalastic Fantaculist]

yeah the orioles are very interested in vlad. with all of the free agents right now, should be interesting to see how everything plays out.

[CatnipOligarchy]

im extremely POd about this maddux situation. i dont see why it would have hurt to offer the guy arbitration and see if something could be worked out. hes won 15 games or more for 16 years in a row. he went 16-11 last year with a sub 4 era. those arent maddux numbers, but they are still top 20% numbers! why are you going to just let him walk out the door?? plus, hes 11 wins from 300!!! thats the kind of thing that puts people in the seats, something the braves could use. maddux has been my favorite player ever since he came to atlanta, and ive been waiting for him to get to 300 for years now. ive got season tickets and i had been planning to go up for #300 if it would have happened in atlanta. im sure maddux would have liked to get 300 in atlanta, but fuking AOL and their budget cuts wont allow this. this is another sad day for braves fans.

vlad - he'll end up with the yankees or the red sox because the other 28 GMs dont friggen care anymore apparently.

[Fubalastic Fantaculist]

yeah you are right. why is the rest of the mlb just sitting around? i dont get it.

oh and the braves would be a lot better off if they would quit making those freaking frisbees.. excuse me, trial cd's and maybe give a little more to a guy that has given so much to the city of atlanta.

[threetonesun]

  CatnipOligarthy said:

im extremely POd about this maddux situation.

vlad - he'll end up with the yankees or the red sox because the other 28 GMs dont friggen care anymore apparently.

Maddux, IMO, is too old to be consistent anymore. He's not as impressive as the new crop of pitchers. Let me say he was, once, one of my favorite pitchers and was obviously dominant in the early to mid 90s, but he's not as key as he used to be. I can see how a Braves fan might be ****ed at the situation though.

Vladimir, let's hope he finally goes to a good team. The guy is amazing, and he's been stuck on the friggin' Expos. Maybe the Sox will take him to keep their Dominican ratio the same if they drop Manny.

[Toxikk Veteran]

go o's!

[Joel]

Damn mother-bleeping, scrotum-licking, piles of monkey bleep.

[LRoling]

They have all these faint rumors in Chi-town that the Cubs are heavily pursuing him. I mean, they have all these Dominican/Carribean presence on the team that apparently Vladmir likes, but I don't think the Cubs have the money after signing the Minnesota set-up guy, name doesn't come to mind, they are probably gonna dump someone if this ever happens.

[Labtec]

  CatnipOligarthy said:

im extremely POd about this maddux situation. i dont see why it would have hurt to offer the guy arbitration and see if something could be worked out. hes won 15 games or more for 16 years in a row. he went 16-11 last year with a sub 4 era. those arent maddux numbers, but they are still top 20% numbers! why are you going to just let him walk out the door?? plus, hes 11 wins from 300!!! thats the kind of thing that puts people in the seats, something the braves could use. maddux has been my favorite player ever since he came to atlanta, and ive been waiting for him to get to 300 for years now. ive got season tickets and i had been planning to go up for #300 if it would have happened in atlanta. im sure maddux would have liked to get 300 in atlanta, but fuking AOL and their budget cuts wont allow this. this is another sad day for braves fans.

vlad - he'll end up with the yankees or the red sox because the other 28 GMs dont friggen care anymore apparently.

If we did offer arbitration we would probably have to end up paying $15 million to maddux again. That's about 20% of the around $80 million Time Warner wants to cut down to. Yes I would like to have Maddux back, but I think there is money better to be spent with that 15 million then on Maddux. Time Warner doesn't really care, although they should because if they field a losing team then low ratings on TBS next season. Corporations never care about the teams they own, a baseball team is probably priority #200 for Time Warner on their list (movies first, aol & other concerns etc) they need to sell the Braves to someone dedicated like an Arthur Blank (who's only priority is the team and not like a corporation who have bigger concerns) who also isn't scared to open up the checkbook.

[BMac]

My predictions are that Vlad will be a Yank and Maddox will be a Cubbie to end his career.

[ChicoCahill]

with sheffield not signed yet, its a good possibility that vlad might go the the yanks

[Galley]

  bayrider said:

ahhh thats it... montreal is officially dead

The firesale has begun! Without Vlad, the Expos' value as a team has easily dropped by $25 million. Smart move, MLB! :angry:

Someone on the Expos newsgroup said it best. That is like trying to sell your home, but not including it greatest asset, like Central Air.

[blackcoffee]

I really hope the O's get Vlad ! that would be rad.

[ehanson]

  Galley said:

The firesale has begun!  Without Vlad, the Expos' value as a team has easily dropped by $25 million.  Smart move, MLB!  :angry:

Someone on the Expos newsgroup said it best.  That is like trying to sell your home, but not including it greatest asset, like Central Air.

You are correct. I cannot think of any reason why the Expos did not offer arbitration. Although I don't think the team value dropped by $25m, I do believe it went down. I wonder if MLB/Montreal management thinks that he also would not want to sign with the team if they moved to Oregon or Washington D.C. Vlad seems pretty intent on going to a city with a large dominican population.

If the Manny/A-Rod deal happens, it leaves Boston without a left-fielder. They seem like they want to move Nomar. How about trading Nomar for some top prospects, and using the money that you free up and sign Vlad? Imagine that... A-Rod and Vlad. Two of the top young superstars in the game, 3 and 4 in the lineup.

--

ehanson

[Stokkolm]

  ehanson said:

You are correct. I cannot think of any reason why the Expos did not offer arbitration. Although I don't think the team value dropped by $25m, I do believe it went down. I wonder if MLB/Montreal management thinks that he also would not want to sign with the team if they moved to Oregon or Washington D.C. Vlad seems pretty intent on going to a city with a large dominican population.

If the Manny/A-Rod deal happens, it leaves Boston without a left-fielder. They seem like they want to move Nomar. How about trading Nomar for some top prospects, and using the money that you free up and sign Vlad? Imagine that... A-Rod and Vlad. Two of the top young superstars in the game, 3 and 4 in the lineup.

--

ehanson

But then they wouldn't be able to blow it against the yankees in game 7? why would they want to do that :p