I have a lot to be thankful for....

....so in these waning hours of Thanksgiving, I am going to take a few minutes to think about those around us that are struggling financially.

God bless you, Derek Jeter.

Good luck to you in these negotiations.

In my prayers.

Derek Jeter's agent calls the Yankees' well-above-market offer of 3 years at $15 million per....

...."baffling".

Also calls Jeter a modern-day Babe Ruth.

Personally, I am baffled at the bafflement.

Maybe someone should remind him that Babe ended his career with the Braves.

Prince is no dummy!

Anthony Witrado of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports in an article on Prince Fielder and his contract that he purchased a home in the same Windemere, Florida neighborhood as Tiger Woods.

I bet Prince picked a house without a fire hydrant in front.

I can't blame him.

Prince doesn't need fire hydrant problems especially in that neighborhood.

That can mess you up.

Then again, maybe not!

"The acquisition of a franchise talent is not about a wristwatch. That's about all I can tell you. It's not a particular time. It's about the club recognizing the benefit of having that player and how they'll be dramatically impacted by the loss of that player. When that realization takes place, when there is recognition of the player's place in the market, then you have an agreement."

Scott Boras.*


This is interesting considering his client, Johnny Damon initially made a $13 million contract demand to various teams and then turned down a two year $14 million offer from the Yankees. Now various reports say that after being shopped around the league, the Yankees are the only team with any real interest in Damon but now they can only pay $2 million for one year because they already spent all but that in their budget for this year.

Hmmmm.

Isn't Boras supposed to be like an "advisor"? As in, "I will tell you what to do" and, "Just let me handle it".

After all this is over, I guess Damon and Boras only talk to each other through their attorneys.

*To be fair, he said this during the Holliday negotiations but it is does seem to be presented as a general statement of fact.

Time to call in the professionals

John Tomase of the Boston Herald writes that general manager, Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox and Jason Bay are in contractual negotiations but they have so far been unable to close the deal on a new contract.

Says Tomase: "Epstein characterized the negotiations thus far as 'weird' in the fact that Bay wants to stay, the Red Sox want him, and neither side is being unreasonable, and yet they still can't get a deal done."

Frankly, I know not to take things which are said to the press at face value but this really is one of the most feeble things I have ever heard a major league general manager say. In other words, Bay wants to be here, we want him here, he is not unreasonable in his demands but for some reason we just can't get this done now, this is so hard. As someone who negotiates for a living, I do know that timing can be everything in putting together a deal and the timing just might not be "right" on this one but I am still missing something here.

I think they need a "conflict resolution specialist" like Dr. Phil or Kate Gosselin to mediate this.* Lock them up in a room with nothing but gummi bears and water and don't let them out until they have an agreement so we don't have to hear any more wishy-washy statements from Theo Epstein on this.

Life is too short for these unresolved "weird" issues to be lingering around.

Get to it!

*I bet if you would agree to televise the arrival and departure of either of these specialists, they would be even more likely to come and do this. Just a thought.