November 10, 2007
Collusion Concerns
The union launched its annual preemptive strike against collusion:
General managers, in an innovation, each spoke at their annual meeting Tuesday about their offseason goals, and many mentioned what players they were making available. The idea was suggested by this year's co-chairs, Boston's Theo Epstein and Florida's Larry Beinfest, and many GMs said they found it to be useful.
"Over the past few days, press reports coming out of the general managers' meetings relating to the sharing of information between clubs as to their plans regarding players potentially raise serious questions concerning the fairness and integrity of the free-agent market," the union said in a statement Thursday night after the four-day session ended. "Such questions are amplified by reports stating that the commissioner is attempting to influence the market for at least one player."
The commissioner tried to influence the bonuses paid to draft picks, and in many instances teams ignored those suggestions. Collusion is much more difficult to prove today because teams are a lot smarter about pricing players. Without sharing information, I would guess each team has a good idea of what A-Rod should be paid, within a few million dollars over an 8 to 10 year time period. Teams are also smart enough to know that it's silly to bid too much over that calculated price.
The union is smart to mention this, as it puts teams on notice, but they'll have a very tough time proving it. In the Internet age, shared information is the norm.
Posted by David Pinto at
06:44 AM
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