Why the Cubs didn't land Furcal (per George Ofman)

[erik316wttn]

Last Saturday, Furcal's agent told reps that the Dodgers made a "significant offer". Furcal's agent went to the Cubs, and said that all they had to up theirr 5/47.5 offer simply just a little bit (probably less than a million per year) and he would have signed. The term Ofman used was "mere pittance."

 

Furcal wanted to come to the Cubs and play for Dusty and with Aramis and Neifi, and was willing to take siginficantly less money to come here, but those higher up than Jim Hendry nixed the deal for less than about $1 million per year.

 

This smacks of MacPhail or the Tribune who completely botched this move.

 

This is all per Ofman on Boers and Bernstien on The Score.

[hawkeyecub]

There is a lot of speculation in that "story." Notice the use of the words "just a little bit" and "probably" less than a million a year.

I doubt that all it would have taken was an additional total of $3-4M. As bad as Hendry wanted him, if that was really all it took I would be very surprised.

Either way it doesn't really bother me that we aren't paying him a 5/$51 deal.

 

George Ofman is the same guy who said last winter that J.D. Drew wouldn't make sense for the Cubs because "He's a rightfielder and the Cubs are looking for a left fielder to replace Alou. It would be hard for him to adjust from RF to LF so unless the Cubs trade Sosa, he just doesn't fit.

[erik316wttn]

There is a lot of speculation in that "story." Notice the use of the words "just a little bit" and "probably" less than a million a year.

I doubt that all it would have taken was an additional total of $3-4M. As bad as Hendry wanted him, if that was really all it took I would be very surprised.

Either way it doesn't really bother me that we aren't paying him a 5/$51 deal.

 

George Ofman is the same guy who said last winter that J.D. Drew wouldn't make sense for the Cubs because "He's a rightfielder and the Cubs are looking for a left fielder to replace Alou. It would be hard for him to adjust from RF to LF so unless the Cubs trade Sosa, he just doesn't fit.

 

If it's true, someone messed up.

 

He's still on the Score right now if you care to listen.

[TXCubsFan]

Last Saturday, Furcal's agent told reps that the Dodgers made a "significant offer". Furcal's agent went to the Cubs, and said that all they had to up theirr 5/47.5 offer simply just a little bit (probably less than a million per year) and he would have signed. The term Ofman used was "mere pittance."

 

Furcal wanted to come to the Cubs and play for Dusty and with Aramis and Neifi, and was willing to take siginficantly less money to come here, but those higher up than Jim Hendry nixed the deal for less than about $1 million per year.

 

This smacks of MacPhail or the Tribune who completely botched this move.

 

This is all per Ofman on Boers and Bernstien on The Score.

 

Sounds like an agent's BS to me. If Furcal chose LA over CHI because of $500k in a $40 million deal, then he's either greedy or stupid.

[hawkeyecub]

Last Saturday, Furcal's agent told reps that the Dodgers made a "significant offer". Furcal's agent went to the Cubs, and said that all they had to up theirr 5/47.5 offer simply just a little bit (probably less than a million per year) and he would have signed. The term Ofman used was "mere pittance."

 

Furcal wanted to come to the Cubs and play for Dusty and with Aramis and Neifi, and was willing to take siginficantly less money to come here, but those higher up than Jim Hendry nixed the deal for less than about $1 million per year.

 

This smacks of MacPhail or the Tribune who completely botched this move.

 

This is all per Ofman on Boers and Bernstien on The Score.

 

Sounds like an agent's BS to me. If Furcal chose LA over CHI because of $500k in a $40 million deal, then he's either greedy or stupid.

 

Exactly.

 

If he truly wanted to come here that badly, why was the difference between $9.5M and $10.2M the breaking point?

[goonys evil twin]

This smacks of MacPhail or the Tribune who completely botched this move.

 

 

If it smacks of Any or the Trib, then it's the best thing they've done since reinvesting in the farm system.

 

Mere pittance? What a ridiculous choice of words. 5/50 was a terrible contract. Not signing Furcal has been one of the best moves the Cubs made this offseason.

[Jehrico]

I don't buy the story. I think Ofman's full of it. The agent wouldn't leak something like that and burn bridges with a GM...it's bad business for future clients. If all it took was another million, I'm sure that Hendry would have been for it, and the Trib would have allowed him. He's gotten a budget, he would have just had less to spend in other places. MacPhail isn't going to micromanage how Hendry spends his money as long as it's not an something that's just flat out stupid (like signing Neifi to a 50 mil contract or something blatantly stupid like that).

 

What I think it came down to was we weren't going to pay stupid money like LA did. I think Ofman has an agenda and is fishing from less than reliable sources. He could have gotten it off of a message board. Either that, or an agent is going in and doing some damage control for his clients rep, as now everyone thinks he's all about the money.

[Backtobanks]

I don't buy the story. I think Ofman's full of it. The agent wouldn't leak something like that and burn bridges with a GM...it's bad business for future clients. If all it took was another million, I'm sure that Hendry would have been for it, and the Trib would have allowed him. He's gotten a budget, he would have just had less to spend in other places. MacPhail isn't going to micromanage how Hendry spends his money as long as it's not an something that's just flat out stupid (like signing Neifi to a 50 mil contract or something blatantly stupid like that).

 

What I think it came down to was we weren't going to pay stupid money like LA did. I think Ofman has an agenda and is fishing from less than reliable sources. He could have gotten it off of a message board. Either that, or an agent is going in and doing some damage control for his clients rep, as now everyone thinks he's all about the money.

 

I think these baseball writers now have to "invent" stories to keep their name in the news until spring training. Furcal went for the money and also the opportunity to hit the free agent market again at 30 years old.

[Jehrico]

Furcal went for the money and also the opportunity to hit the free agent market again at 30 years old.

 

In other words, he went for the money :wink:

[sweetpeteman]

George is the same one who said that the 8o'clock press conference was to announce a trade, most likely Lugo or Pierre... I don't listen to him much anymore, since I can't remember a story that he's been correct on that isn't obvious.

[Soul]

This is the same recycled story that gets bandied about every time a team loses out on a free agent.

 

The next day there's always this story. It's always "all they had to do was give just a LITTLE MORE and he would have come here." Always.

 

Ofman needs to get some new material. His schtick is old and tired.