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That's Amaury's News and Commentary: Giants would get bargain for Lincecum at $13 mil February 9, 2010 |
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SAN FRANCISCO--The Giants have offered Cy Young Award winning pitcher Tim Lincecum $8 million and he's asking for $13 million any price under $20 million for the Giants is a bargain. There are teams that would love to offer Lincecum way more than that if he was an unrestricted free agent. Unfortunately, Lincecum can't go on the free agency market because he's locked into being Giants property until 2014. He's in arbitration right now and he may not get the $13 million he's asking for but something in the middle like $10.5 mill which is still a song for the Giants after what Lincecum has done for that club. It would be the most ever for a second year player but still and he deserves all the money in the world after what he's accomplished the last two seasons but the Giants are going to drag this one out and they’re going to squeeze this out for as long as it takes. In the arbitration and the way it works and I've never played professional baseball but I've been to arbitration as a broadcaster and I know what happens. You bring your attorneys, the management or the owner whoever is paying you, they bring their attorneys and usually a retired judge decides and the Giants could use some kind of issue as to why they shouldn't have to pay him the $13 million he was asking for, like the marijuana smoking bust he went through this winter in Oregon and saying that compromises his off field behavior and his image to the team. The Giants can try and use that as an excuse to get out of paying what Lincecum wants at $13 million. In San Francisco it's not a big deal but still it's illegal and he's a professional athlete so the Giants can use this as an issue to get out of paying the $13 mill. Then on Lincecum's side of it he could say, "they’re going to bring up all that bad stuff about me and I have been leading this league in strike outs, I'm the best pitcher around" he could come back like that. This is a very interesting case and to answer the question, yes he might not be hurt but wait a couple of years from now because you and I and everybody's grandmother knows that someday if this guy keeps pitching like this, someday he won't be able to stay with the Giants. The Giants don't have the deep pockets like the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox. So the last thing the Giants need to do is antagonize this kid. Even the money in arbitration, even the $10 or $13 million is the best thing you have going. What other player or any Giants fan can go to see this kind of performance for the money? Do you think they come and pay to see Bengie Molina? They want to come and see Tim Lincecum. He's the best pitcher in baseball. Pitch by pitch he's the best pitcher. Let's not kid ourselves here's Roy Halladay of the Phils, he is a great pitcher and completes a lot of games, but there is no talent and no spectacular pitcher like Lincecum in the league like him. The Giants are making a mistake trying to save a couple of millions of dollars and I don't understand the Giants but they are another story. They gave Aaron Rowland $9 million plus, they give Edgar Renteria $9 million plus, and they're paying pitcher Barry Zito $18 million who hasn't won with the team yet and they don't want to give this guy what he's worth. I'm not sure what's going to happen as they go into pitchers and catchers in less than two weeks, and if Lincecum is not signed by then, he will be an empty chair in the Giants’ clubhouse. What's wrong with the Giants thinking here? I wish the kid nothing but the best coming off two Cy Young Award victories for two straight years. What more does he have to prove. The ironic thing is he's not bitter at all for it. He's going to make his $8, $10, or $13 mill but the fact of the matter is the Giants could have settled this right away and it doesn't look good. Earthquakes soccer is starting but no one’s paying attention: I think Major League Soccer has peaked in the United States. I'm not a soccer guy but I have covered the 1994 USA World Cup for Telemundo. I got to interview the greatest player of all time Pele'. He told me at the time that soccer was going to be the top sport in the United States and it hasn't festered. It still is a small sport. They get some crowds like the Sharks get a crowd. Hockey is popular but it's not it's not like MLB, NFL or the NBA. It's a sport that's always against the current and a lot has been written about this in English and Spanish. The main reason soccer is not popular here in the States is that's it's not an American sport, let's face it, it's not from here. Basketball is an North American sport, baseball and football are American sports. Hockey started in Canada. Obviously the football, the NFL is as American as apple pie. Soccer is European and it's not from here, it's started in England and in Americans never adapted to the sport like they have for MLB, NFL or NBA. I have nothing personal against soccer, I think soccer will never be a prime sport in the United States, it won't be because we have too many seasons and too many other competitive leagues for the sporting dollar here. One more point, soccer in many other countries is the only sport they have and it's the only thing like in Spain or England. In the United States, this is the richest country in sports, you have baseball season and you have football season, you have basketball season, you have hockey season. There is no room for MLS. By the way this is not Major League with all respect to the Earthquakes it's more like triple AAA soccer. Major League soccer is played in Europe or South America. That's the real Major League soccer. Their trying to market it as Major League but but anybody who knows soccer knows that this is not real. So that's their problem. Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the play by play voice for the A's on Spanish radio and does News and Commentary on Sportstalk |
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