As much as I'd like to read what Mills has to say, I am unofficially boycotting JdJo... known, from here on as dill-wad. Dill-wad has made no secret of his contempt for the Astros mgmt, specifically Wade. He pulls no punches, again, in the Chron article with his quotes from Valverde
“Another arbitration wasn't for me. If they want to win with young players, that's good. But a team like that has to invest to win. The GM said he wanted me, but if he really wanted me, he would have offered something. He never offered me any type of offer or anything. They had a chance to make an offer, and they never made it. It was always, ‘Well talk tomorrow.' Then when the time ended for the first offer, they said we'd talk later. They never, never made me an offer.”
Here's a news flash for both dill-wad and Valverde, they are not obligated to make a specific monetary offer. The arbitration offer WAS their offer. From reading this, I hope their intent was to go after the draft picks. And I would not be surprised to see Valverde with a team like the Nats or Baltimore. So much the better.
To me, Wade layed out a sound strategy and executed it perfectly. It was reasonable to expect the market to develop slowly (based on economy, the needs of the competition - and lack of need for the big spenders -, and an abundance of options that while not as good as Valverde are still effective). So they took a gamble offering arbitration, knowing that Valverde had stated repeatedly he planned to go to FA. His comments in the above quote all but confirm he never planned to accept arbitration. So, with this knowledge, what was the real risk to Houston? None, really. Just a good opportunity to further add to the farm system.
A quick comparison: Boston did as much with Billy Wagner. Everyone knew they would offer arbitration, including Wagner. They made no public effort to re-sign him. And the Boston media is doling out compliments to Epstein for being shrewd and effective. On the other hand, dill-wad is leading with the comments from a player known for being highly emotional, which in my opinion attempt to portray Wade as disingenuous, at best, and not really interested in winning (the greatest pro-sport sin!!).
Personally, I am impressed that Wade saw the opportunity and took a risk. Out-friggin-standing. The only way I could be more impressed is if Wade either manages to trade Matsui, re-sign Valverde for less than what he payed last year, land Wolf for the reported deal they had in place last year (3yr 21/24mil), or bring back Tejada for 7-8mil/yr on a 2 yr deal. Do I expect any of those to happen? Nope, not in the slightest. It's completely unreasonable to expect any of that to happen. Unlike the Valverde situation. My compliments to the Astros Brass. Nicely done, gentelman.
