--I made the annual tour of the Midwest, in which I spent a day and a half in Advance, Missouri (my parents' house, actually ten miles outside of it in the middle of a woods) before spending a day and a half in Decatur, Illinois (where my in-laws live).
--I received six Zhu Zhu pets, and one Tickle Me Elmo. (That's a bold-faced lie. I received neither. Instead I got three sweaters and two dress shirts.)
--My mom made 18 different types of cookies, and I was disappointed. (Usually she's over the 20 mark.)
--I gained 2.5 pounds, from said cookies.
--I picked up my dogs poop, and for the first time, I was happy. (It's so cold that it warmed my hand up.)
--I watched Mizzou play perhaps the most atrocious bowl game ever played. Navy, well, blew them out of the water.
So those are a few highlights, and here a few links:
A teammate and friend, Dan Runzler, was named minor league Reliever of the Year by Milb.com. I played with Runzler at two different levels last year and have to say he's a good dude. I already told him this, but congrats again.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091221&content_id=7838298&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
I wrote a "Suitcase Chronicles" article around the time of the Rule 5 draft, and finally it's posted. (Cleanliness, not timeliness, is next to Godliness.)
Lastly, Sadowski signed back with the Giants, albeit the Korean Giants. He'd talked to them for a while, even before his signing with the Astros. He and his agent even negotiated an opt-out date in his Astros' contract, in which he had a short period of time to still negotiate with Asian teams.
I think it's a great decision for him, as it's guaranteed money. When you've had two arm surgeries, you gotta take the money as it comes. And thanks to David O'Donoghue in Dublin (no, I didn't make that up) for forwarding me the link to the story in the Korean papers.
Keep sending me links! And here's to a wonderful and prosperous 2010 for all!
4 comments:
Yo Brosh, another nice suitcase chronicles article. I love the link to the Korean baseball story too. Even though I am the Dominican Baseball Guy, I am interested in all the international aspects of the game.
Can you tell me how Sadowski signed with the stros, then just went and signed with an Asian team. I guess an MLB contract means nothing in regards to other leagues.
...Still looking forward to the article on salaries. Guess Sadowski did what you would do. I don't see how any minor leaguer could turn down 300K guaranteed. Good yearly paycheck in any profession.
I should've elaborated more on the contract. So MLB contracts definitely mean something in the baseball world. All of the players you're following in the DR, for instance, had to obtain a release from their parent club if they're under contract with an MLB team. It's similar with other leagues. Even if I wanted to just play in Italy this summer, I'd have to be released from my current contract.
When Sadowski's agent, Brian Grieper, was originally approached by a Japanese team this summer, the Japanese team had to put in an offer to the Giants to buy out his contract. In free agent contracts, there is often a buy-out clause (usually a couple hundred thousand), but in standard original minor league contracts, there is no clause. The Giants could ask for whatever they wanted. A Japanese team made a reasonable offer, but Sadowski was called to the bigs and the offer was rescinded.
Knowing that Asian teams were still interested, Sadowski had a clause inserted in his contract with the Astros allowing him to still be pursued. The Asian teams had around a month to make Sadowski an offer without having to buy out the Astros contract. If Sadowski chose to accept an offer, which he did, the Astros then had a period of a couple of days to either put Sadowski on the 40 man or let him go. They ultimately decided that they didn't want to put him on the 40 man.
These types of clauses are not as prevalent as buy-out clauses, but they're inserted every once in a while. In the Sadowski's case, it was a great move. I applaud his agent.
Make sense? Great question by the way.
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