Archive for the ‘OriLOLes’ Category

You may remember back to a couple of weeks ago when we told you about Dontrelle Willis and his strange communication breakdown with the front office staff of the Baltimore Orioles in getting his release from their Triple A affiliate in Norfolk.

Basically, Willis signed on with the Orioles after getting released by the Philadelphia Phillies. They sent him to the Minor Leagues where he was used primarily as a reliever. The left handed pitcher didn’t really want to be used as a reliever, and so he spoke with the team’s front office and told him he’d rather seek employment elsewhere than pitch out of the bullpen.

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This past December, the Baltimore Orioles signed Japanese pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada to a two year contract worth more than $8 million. Wada, and his high strike out/low walk rates in Japan represented an intelligent risk for a franchise that had an off season full of missteps.

However, as we’ve learned over the last few years, the Baltimore Orioles tend to legitimize Murphy’s Law on a frequent basis.

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I don’t know about you, but I tend to think of player agents as a particular brand of slime. That’s not to say they are slime. I’m not Stan Kasten. I understand that they’re a necessary part of negotiations between a baseball player and a baseball team. And I’m glad that baseball players have them to maintain some semblance of fairness when it comes to getting paid.

Of the three parties involved in contract negotiations, I find the team’s interest, no matter how wealthy its ownership, to be the most interesting as it attempts to find value in a contract while balancing current budget demands with future revenue streams. After that, I find it easiest to empathize with a player who wants to make as much money as he possibly can over the course of his relatively short career. This leaves us with the parasite who gets paid a percentage of the player’s contract to do whatever he can to eke out as much money possible.

Again, I understand it’s a necessary role, but I prefer to avert my eyes from the actions of player agents, and pretend that they don’t exist. That was before today. And more specifically, before I was introduced to my new favourite agent, Matt Sosnick.

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Yesterday, we linked to a story out of Baltimore that centred around pitcher Dontrelle Willis, with the Orioles on a Minor League deal, curiously being placed on the restricted list after pitching only three and two third innings for Triple A Norfolk.

When reached for comment, Willis was dumbfounded as to why he would have remained under the organization’s umbrella after requesting his release.

I don’t understand what’s really going on. I don’t know if there’s been a miscommunication there. I talked to my agent and we talked about it, I talked to the proper representation, I talked to Dan [Duquette] personally. It was face-to-face. I don’t know what’s going on. And now if I want to sign with another team, I can’t.

The latest report from MLBTR has the Orioles refusing to grant the Minor League pitcher his release after the pitcher left the Minor League team without permission.

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