MrCrowesGarden wrote:That the Cardinals don't just have to have the highest bid to have free agents sign here? That they now must pay a premium on top of that because of some sort of perception of the team/clubhouse/manager/city?
There is zero evidence of that. If Fowler didn't want to play in St. Louis, he wouldn't be in St. Louis.
St. Louis may not have an advantage when it comes to attracting free agents, but I don't think there's anything to indicate that they're at a disadvantage.
MrCrowesGarden wrote:That the Cardinals don't just have to have the highest bid to have free agents sign here? That they now must pay a premium on top of that because of some sort of perception of the team/clubhouse/manager/city?
There is zero evidence of that. If Fowler didn't want to play in St. Louis, he wouldn't be in St. Louis.
St. Louis may not have an advantage when it comes to attracting free agents, but I don't think there's anything to indicate that they're at a disadvantage.
I do. You've already chosen to disagree with me, and that's fine.
Diddy wrote:What players have the Cardinals not signed despite having the highest contract offer?
Heyward, Jason
They also apparently had to go $18 million above the Blue Jays to get Fowler. That's not a million or two.
Maybe I missed it, but what is your source for this stuff? Posting it on a message board doesn't make it true.
dmarx linked to an article that the Blue Jays offered Fowler 4/64. The Cardinals first offer was in that vicinity. It took another year to close that deal.
Diddy wrote:What players have the Cardinals not signed despite having the highest contract offer?
Heyward, Jason
They also apparently had to go $18 million above the Blue Jays to get Fowler. That's not a million or two.
Maybe I missed it, but what is your source for this stuff? Posting it on a message board doesn't make it true.
dmarx linked to an article that the Blue Jays offered Fowler 4/64. The Cardinals first offer was in that vicinity. It took another year to close that deal.
Another year and more money? I have never heard of a team doing that to get the player they want, it must be true he didn't really want to come to St. Louis.
Diddy wrote:What players have the Cardinals not signed despite having the highest contract offer?
Heyward, Jason
They also apparently had to go $18 million above the Blue Jays to get Fowler. That's not a million or two.
Maybe I missed it, but what is your source for this stuff? Posting it on a message board doesn't make it true.
dmarx linked to an article that the Blue Jays offered Fowler 4/64. The Cardinals first offer was in that vicinity. It took another year to close that deal.
If the Blue Jays offered 4/64, and Fowler rejected the offer, it sounds to me as if the team that he didn't want to play for was the Blue Jays. He had no way of knowing that the Cardinals (or another team) would make a better offer eventually. Also, how do we know that there weren't teams offering him $100 million, but he settled for less to play in St. Louis?
The point is that none of us know how any of the negotiations went down. You can assume the worst, but it's 100% assumption to fit an agenda.
