The Return

The Strib is reporting that the Twins have exercised their $12 option on his contract. Currently I’m taking a class on contracts and we’re just learning about options. So what is an option? Well I’m not too sure because I’m not a lawyer, but here’s how I understand the theory so far: when you offer someone a contract you may include an option in that contract. When dealing with non-sports law, generally the choice to exercise the option is made so that you can prolong the timeframe that the contract is alive. Wait too long and if there is no date in the contract saying when the offer expires, it will eventally “die a natural death.” In this case the regular contract with Hunter is over but the in that contract the Twins placed an option on another year. This requires consideration and that’s why the buyout of the contract is 2.5 million. The 2.5 million is given to Hunter to compensate him for giving the Twins the choice of whether or not to keep him around another year. It’s the payment for not letting him control his destiny.

UPDATE: There is something else dealing with an option contract. There may be sham consideration or nominal consideration [Restatement (Second) of Contrats § 87 ] which is why you can buy out contracts so cheap. Technically you don’t even have to really compensate him but because of the collective bargaining agreement he gets real consideration.

Now Santana is making 12 million next year too. So what’s this all mean? Is it a good thing? A bad thing? As Twins Geek says it’s a defensible decision. Personally? Well it depends on who’s available on the open market. While in 2002 the Twins had a logjam in the outfield that is clearly over. Our current outfield prospects are mediocre at best because we’ve taken mostly low drafts the last few years preferring instead to obsessively focus on pitching (not a bad thing) and middle infielders (also not a bad idea). Outfielders are the most common of baseball players.

So what to do with Hunter now? Well he wants a multiyear deal. The problem is that Terry Ryan is not as smart as Billy Beane (Beane’s team is currently experiencing the other side of the baseball coin) because they make roughly equivalent teams only Beane pays his team about $20 million less. So a multiyear deal that takes Hunter into 2010? Well traditionally teams back-load contracts, starting low and then going up as the years go by so they can defer costs. I’m going to propose something radical. Ready? Here goes.

Front-Load the contract.
If it’s possible, guarantee him the big money up front and decrease it as the years go on. This will do a few things, while thinks will be tight next year the pressure will ease as Hunter gets older and loses his skills. That means that after 2 years (the max time I’d like him to stay a Twin) we can trade him more easily for something more than warm spit. So how about this? 9 million in 2008 and go down from there to about 6 million in 2010. That’s still some $25-30 million over 4 years. Santana will get more. He could wear hats made of money with what he’ll get after 2008, and we need to remind Torii of that but not too harshly. And that’s my take on it for now…

Current Favorite Actress: Jena Malone.

Over at Last

So it’s over. The Oakland A’s have swept the Twins right out of the playoffs. It was a fairytale season and a miracle comeback in the toughest division in baseball. But this is real life, and not all stories end happily. I won’t say they didn’t come up big when it counted because if they had lost 1 more game this year, any game, they would not be in this place, this day. They would be playing the Yankees and for at least a few more hours have life. No, what happened here is that the “piranhas” got shut down, and there was nothing for the middle of the order to bring in. I salute Johan, and Boof, and Radke, and Cuddyer, and Morneau and White. The rest? You should be ashamed of yourself. You played like you should have been contracted. Like you wanted to be contracted.

For now I want the team, every single one of them to remember this:

Brad Radke’s sacrifice and final year? You wasted it. Liriano establishing himself? You wasted it. Kirby Puckett’s year? You wasted it. Ozzie Guillen calling us Piranhas? You wasted it. The Division Crown? You wasted it. The Homefield Advantage? You wasted it. The good Karma from the stadium bill? You wasted it. That 16-2 run in June? You wasted it. That 96-66 record? You wasted it. You wasted it all, pissed it all away.

And you know what? Now you have win 95 more games to try again. Think you can do it? You’d better.

I sure hope you can! See ya next year Twins.

A/N: That’s not me, it’s a random sad girl. You should know I’m a guy by now.

Playoff Bound!

So it finally happened.

The Minnesota Twins have tonight assured themselves a spot in the 2006 MLB playoffs. I never would have believed it at the start of the season. To refresh your memory let’s hop in the Wayback Machine and travel to the lowpoint of the season, April 28, 29 and 30 at Comerica Park…