FWIW, the Yanks have been ******* with him for a couple of weeks.   Even a crippled ARod is better than what they've been playing at 3B.    I could see that going on for a long time. 

Another possibility is that ARod sits out his suspension until 2015, comes back and is declared unable to play.    Yanks collect insurance money, ARod gets full salary.   And it's reasonable to believe a 40 y/o with hip problems at 38 is in worse shape 18 months later.

You really don't want the Yankees to have to pay that contract.

The Yankees want Arod gone more than Arod wants to be gone, I imagine. He has all the leverage and it's unlikely he settles. They will just release him and eat the contract.

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/1/2013 2:42:00 PM (view original):
FWIW, the Yanks have been ******* with him for a couple of weeks.   Even a crippled ARod is better than what they've been playing at 3B.    I could see that going on for a long time. 

I guess. Since winning isn't important to the Yankees.

I mentioned this earlier but ARod brings a circus.   Team chemistry, blah, blah, blah.    RIght now, they don't HAVE to carry him on the BL roster.   I imagine they would think the same thing in 2015.  

With H&H being so cap-conscience, I think releasing him is the last option.    And they'd have to be convinced that he can't be convinced to go away.

So is there any consensus on whether Gayrod's salary, which he would not receive while suspended, would still count toward the luxury tax? I thought it did, but saw an interview with Showalter that suggested otherwise.

I think ole Bud wants to smash Gayrod with the CBA/'detrimental behavior' thing (for his actions like recruiting others to Biogenesis, lying, evidence tampering etc), so that he cannot play while appealing. That's a hardnose approach, but athletes' reaction to Braun/PEDs in general suggest that Gayrod won't get much sympathy from them, and he certainly won't have any from fans.

I feel like the one thing Bud wants to avoid is handing out a punishment, having Gayrod appeal immediately, and be able to play in the meantime. If suspended under the drug rules, that's how it happens (assuming, of course, NYY puts him on the field). If the two sides fail to reach an agreement, it's hard for me to believe Bud will use the drug rules for the suspension. If an agreement is reached, I doubt Bud will consent to anything less than a 2013+2014 ban.

I don't think it counts towards the luxury cap. 

Buster Olney was on "Mike and Mike" this morning, and also summed up his view of how Selig should handle ARod in this blog entry.

If that's true, NY is catching a huge break. I think it would drop their tax rate from like 50% to 20%.

Whether or not it should count is hard to form an opinion on. You can certainly say, "Well, they signed contracts that put them above the cap, so they should pay the consequences." But you can also say, "Well, they would not have signed those contracts if the player(s) hadn't benefitted from PEDs." Tough call.

Posted by tecwrg on 8/1/2013 3:15:00 PM (view original):
Buster Olney was on "Mike and Mike" this morning, and also summed up his view of how Selig should handle ARod in this blog entry.

I saw this earlier. I think things like this would be great:

"We want to go after the cheaters with more ammunition. We want to be more aggressive. We think Alex Rodriguez cheated all of you; we think he lied to all of you; we think he tried to make a mockery of our drug-testing system. He thumbed his nose at it and exploited the loopholes.

Let’s close those loopholes. Let’s make this better. Let’s talk about lifetime bans for egregious second or even first offenders, rather than three-strikes-and-you’re-out. Let’s eliminate the incentive to cheat: Let’s talk about voiding contracts under certain circumstances."

But that writer is delusional if he thinks Bud can just waltz in and, on momentum alone, rewrite the drug rule stuff. Ain't gonna happen.

I do think we'll start seeing contracts stipulating that failed drug tests/suspension void the contract. I could see it eventually becoming the norm, and believe it will do much more to discourage PED use than the current suspensions do.

Hell, whether to juice or not seems like a calculated risk for some types of players.

Take an average, or benchwarmer, player. Should he juice? Worst case scenario is that he juices, plays no better, gets busted, serves his suspension, and resumes playing with a similar contract later. There doesn't seem to be any hesitation for teams to sign past users, so this is plausible.

Better scenario for him is juice, get better, get busted, serve suspension, sign inflated contract (inflated based on ped-time stats). Think Melky Cabrera.

Sounds like ARod's peeps and MLB's peeps are far apart in negotiations for a suspension agreement.

Gayrod should take whatever Bud is willing to give, as Bud has him by the nuts. What a dipshit.

BAN HIM!!!

Posted by tecwrg on 8/1/2013 7:36:00 PM (view original):
Sounds like ARod's peeps and MLB's peeps are far apart in negotiations for a suspension agreement.

Whatever MLB has on Arod, it can't be terribly strong, otherwise they wouldn't be negotiating.

If it wasn't strong, Gayrod's reps would be telling Bud to carry out his publicly-declared desire to suspend Gayrod for life, so that they could overturn it easily in front of an arbitrator.

Bud has pretty sweeping authority, justified or not, to do whatever the **** he wants to do here. While I think of him as a spineless jellyfish, he doesn't seem to be backing down much in this case. If Gayrod doesn't accept whatever Bud is willing to give, he's gonna end up with a much stiffer sentence, and it will be up to him to defend himself in front of an arbitrator, while he's not getting paid.

Posted by bad_luck on 8/1/2013 10:27:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tecwrg on 8/1/2013 7:36:00 PM (view original):
Sounds like ARod's peeps and MLB's peeps are far apart in negotiations for a suspension agreement.

Whatever MLB has on Arod, it can't be terribly strong, otherwise they wouldn't be negotiating.

Once again, your ignorance is showing.

Seriously, you don't understand why a negotiated suspension is far better for MLB than a non-negotiated suspension?