I believe this should assure that Mr. Wilson starts all season.

He's taking a page out of Derek Bell's playbook. What's with Pittsburgh and Operation Shutdown?

So the Pirates can place him on the restricted list and not pay him. If he does say he'll playnext year, do they have to pay him the buyout to get rid of him? I'm sure they expected a full year of service in 2004 for his 2004 salary + buyout.

this story/article is bizarre; what is going on here?...who is this Mario Guerrero fellow and what are the validity of his claims?...apparently he has some pull if a Dominican court order is freezing raul's assets...sounds like raul has some business to take of - "ok raul, i can imagine this came out of left field, go on down there and take care of things and get back up here just as soon as we can; after all, we're looking out for our employees"...but then this:

"I've played 20 straight years of baseball all year round," Mondesi said. "I deserve a rest even if it's only for a few months. Today I took my children to school for the first time in my life. It was an amazing feeling."

what am i missing; is he firing his lawyer and taking the phone off the hook (i haven't been following this story)...

As a Craig Wilson owner in fantasy, I am pleased by this development.

I never understood the Mondesi and Simon signings in the first place. This is much better for the Pirates. They need to just play the young players and develop them.

If Raul is really just taking time off to spend time with his kids, I applaud him. He has enough money to live and if he feels his kids need him now, I say go for it.

Apparently, Mario Guerrero is a buscome, or sort of a street agent in the Dominican who takes young players and trains them in baseball with a verbal or implicit agreement to take a percentage of the player's first contract. Outside the Lines did a multipart story on it which at one point was online, but I now can't find.

Mario Guerrero is also an ex-Major Leager, who apprently had considerable influence on Mondesi's early development. His stats:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/guerrma01.shtml

Bon voyage, Raul!

Mario Guerrero played SS for the Red Sox after Luis Aparicio retired. Guerrero stunk.

Handed a golden opportunity to give JJ Davis regular PT, they're going to go with Mackowiak as the everyday RF instead. Way to go, Pirates!

Mondesi really doesn't make much sense to me.

If he is not playing this year because of this $640 K in the D.R., he is forgoing a much bigger chunk of money (around 1 MM, if we take into account what has already elapsed of the season).

And that judgement in the D.R. is still waiting to be exercised against Mondesi (it is not clear yet whether this ruling is by the D.R. Supreme Court or by a lower court and it may be appealed).

So the most reasonable course of action was for Mondesi to keep on playing, because if he ultimately lost, his 2004 earnings would havepmore than paid off Guerrero.

The second most reasonable thing would be to simply pay Guerrero and get this whole thing off of your mind (Mondesi's in this case).

But the worst thing you can do is stop working, stop getting new revenue, while there's a chance you will still have to pay Guerrero $640 K.

And what really guarantees Mondesi that he will be contracted for good $$$ when he tries to come back in 2005?

So the most reasonable course of action was for Mondesi to keep on playing, because if he ultimately lost, his 2004 earnings would havepmore than paid off Guerrero.

Thats been my opinion of the matter. It's stupid to turn down this year's salary, which would have paid off Guerrero. Instead, Mondesi will forgo his salary, and I imagine rack up some huge legal fees trying to fight it.

Shrug, there is principle and all that, I guess.

I was wishing I could post as Lloyd McClendon and ponder how to block Craig Wilson or the kids, but I see they've already taken care of that problem. Wilson probably sits when Bay comes back, too. Is there anyone, even among Pirates fans, who likes Littlefield/McClendon?

This is beyond the "players the fans have heard of" saw-- who in Pittsburgh has heard of Rob Mackowiak?

Makes me wonder who you would like to send to Pittsburgh to do their own version on "Operation Shutdown".

Isn't Mondesi the player who, when he was age "30," said he was only going to play three more seasons and retire when he was 37?

Isn't Mondesi the player who, when he was age "30," said he was only going to play three more seasons and retire when he was 37?

The man is obviously a genius.

I've played 20 straight years of baseball all year round," Mondesi said. "I deserve a rest even if it's only for a few months. Today I took my children to school for the first time in my life. It was an amazing feeling."

Why didn't he take his kids to school in the off-season??? Hasn't he gotten to rest the entire off-season?

And Raul Mondesi was an All-Star?

Everybody's an All-Star these days. Robert Fick was an All-Star. Lance Carter, too.

Off topic: often, when players are eligible for the Hall of Fame, one of the "stats" that gets bandied about is the number of times they were an All-Star. Considering my first paragraph, at what point is that number significant? 5-time All-Star? 6? 7?

I think there's more to this that hasn't come out. Based on the D.R. courts freezing his assets - because of Guerrero's suit, the Pirates held Mondesi's first two paychecks in escrow. Last Wednesday, when the court ruling was lifted, the Pirates released his salary. Pittsburgh papers reported Raul was jumping for joy in the clubhouse and proceeded to go out and buy nice gifts for a few of the Bucs' rookies. That doesn't sound like someone who is down on playing baseball. How many ballplayers just up and quit a season after 5 weeks to spend time with their families, anyway?

Another local paper mentioned that Mondesi went back to the D.R. because he was concerned for the safety of his wife and kids. It sounds to me like Raul has a bad feeling about the ramifications of the recent court ruling down there.

My pure guess is that Raul's trying to find a way to get his family out of the D.R. and he knows that might take a while, hence the sabbatical from the Pirates. I mean, does a guy who is unwilling to settle a court case for $640K simply forego a few more years of a career that might make him 2 to 5 Million or so?

I don't think this is a "Shutdown" situation - Raul was playing every day - and he seemed to be content playing in Pittsburgh. My gut tells me that he is worried about his family's well-being and I can't blame him for that.

Related topic: It's not the playing of Rob Mackowiak over JJ Davis that bothers me as much as McClendon's continued wasting of plate appearances with Chris Stynes. At least Mackowiak has a little pop and is showing improvement with increased playing time. Plus, he's the only lefthanded bat in the lineup, notwithstanding Tike "Suck" Redman. The only thing Chris Stynes has proven over the last few years is that he's not a very good hitter at all. So Lloyd, if you're listening, go ahead and pencil in Mackowiak in the lineup, but just make sure that Bay, Davis, and Craig Wilson are in there too and see if Mario Guerrero can sue Chris Stynes for some reason.

This story is based on an AP report out of the Dominican Republic, and has not been confirmed by the Pirates. Furthermore, as the article notes, there has already been an erroneous report issued by the AP in this situation, when they reported that Mondesi said he wasn't going to play unless he got paid back when the Bucs were placing his salary in escrow. Until and unless the Pirates confirm the story, I'd be inclined to take this with an extra-large grain of salt.

In an ideal world, JJ Davis would start every day in RF until Mondesi gets back. Unfortunately, this is the Pirates, so I expect Mackowiak to be out there, with Davis being plugged in occasionally against LHP.

-- MWE

"Off topic: often, when players are eligible for the Hall of Fame, one of the "stats" that gets bandied about is the number of times they were an All-Star. Considering my first paragraph, at what point is that number significant? 5-time All-Star? 6? 7?"

We might answer that by considering what percentage of players with X allstar appearances are in the hall of fame.

21   1  1
20   2  2
19   1  0
18   2  2
17   2  1
16   1  1
15   5  4
14   3  3
13   1  1
12  12  8
11   8  4
10  16 11
 9  16  6
 8  27 11
 7  41 14
 6  49 13
 5  68  6
 4  91  3
 3 159  6
 2 278  6
 1 612  9

Most of the high misses are permanently inelligible, or not yet on the ballot. Bill Freehan had 11 appearances, Garvey and Sandberg 10, Concepcion, Gordon, Gossage, Howard, Lynn, Frank McCormick, Santo, Torre with 9....

I keep waiting for Paul Harvey w/the rest of the story. If this was about money he'd play. He must be concerned w/the safety of his family. That'd take precedence over everything in anyone's book. However, can't you just fly them to Pittsburgh and hire a bodyguard?

And how does a court rule to give some coach/scout $600K just cuz you made it to the bigs? Based on a verbal agreement w/a kid? If I were a high school baseball coach I think I'd start looking for a job in the DR.

Getting someone out of the country would require a visa. And in the D.R., like many places in the world, that can be hard to obtain if the right (or wrong) people don't want the visa in question to happen.

Raul has been an easy target in the past. But in this instance I think what some perceive as more odd behavior could very well be a man frantic to look out for the welfare of his family.

Voice of Unreason,
Good post. I wonder if it's easy for you to sort out the people who would have had more All-Star appearances, but for their age when the series started. In other words are some of the guys who made it in with 4 or 5 All-Star appearances guys who would have had more, if the game started earlier in the century? Which is a long way of saying how many people who truly only made the All-Star game 3 times (or 4 or 5) ended up in the HOF.

Does your list count players twice for the double-All-Star game years?

I'm confused why there is so much discussion of the money Mondesi might or might not owe the guy anyway. I understand he could be fighting it legally, but even if he loses, is there any reason to believe he couldn't pay the $640K? Is the judge tacting interest on? I really think we're not getting the whole story here

Bill Freehan had 11 appearances

Freehan should be very, very high on everyone's list of overlooked, underappreciated great players. 11-time All-Star, 5-time Gold Glove winning catcher, OPS+ of over 140 twice, over 120 four other times, over 1500 games behind the plate. He was a brilliant player, much better than many guys in the HOF.

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but in re: 21 and 22, the D.R. judges can say whatever they want, but I don't see how the Pittsburgh Pirates (surely, a U.S. Corporation) are bound by the decisions of a D.R. judicial decision, unless and until it has been served on them by diplomatic means.

While I don't doubt that the Pirates have a local operation in the D.R., I strongly doubt that corp. is the same as the U.S. Corp. which owns the ballclub, so it's not like the D.R. court has Pirates assets that they can place a lien/encumberance on should they not comply with its court ruling.

the D.R. judges can say whatever they want, but I don't see how the Pittsburgh Pirates (surely, a U.S. Corporation) are bound by the decisions of a D.R. judicial decision, unless and until it has been served on them by diplomatic means.

As was said in response when the subject was first raised, the Pirates said publicly that they took the actions that they did to comply with the ruling of the DR court. I can't imagine *any* circumstance where the Pirates would have done so voluntarily; there was certainly no benefit to them to tie up money in an escrow account rather than paying it directly to Mondesi, and with the possibility of alienating the player by *not* paying him directly, possibly great harm to the team. So I don't doubt that the Pirates acted as they did because the DR court required it, and the Pirates were in fact bound by those requirements.

-- MWE

Mike,

The Courts of one country do not have standing over the citizens and/or businesses of another country (in this case, a D.R. Court over a U.S. Business), unless the latter are either physically in the Court's country (say, a U.S. Citizen in the D.R.) or have assets which can be attached within the Court's country (say, they have buildings, baseball academies, bank accounts, etc.).


This is a fact of life, and the reason why you don't see North Korean courts ordering the foreclosure of U.S. Corporation (again, apply everywhere else, and you'll notice why Robert Mugabe has not been able to foreclose on U.K. companies doing business in the U.K.).

The way that foreign judgements are enforced is long and cumbersome, and it entails serving that ruling to another country by diplomatic means (that's what's called comity in legal jargon).

So for the Pirates U.S. Corp to be bound by a D.R. Court, they would have to: a. Have assets in the D.R. which can be attached, which I found doubtful, since they probably operate in the D.R. through a separate corporate entity (perhaps a D.R. Corp?).

b. The ruling of the D.R. Court has already done the rounds and has been served to the Pirates diplomatically.

While this is possible, I have seen nothing that leads me to believe this is the case.

While the Pirates may have done things right in this case (i.e., may have acted with basis), I have yet to read anything that leads me to believe this is the case.

Which is a long way of saying how many people who truly only made the All-Star game 3 times (or 4 or 5) ended up in the HOF.

Robin Yount only made three.

BBREEF is still somewhat down (anybody else experiencing this? It has been as slow as the new BTF was at the start for over a week now), or I would address this more thoroughly.

As I understand the situtaion regarding the Pirates--they did not HAVE to comply with the D.R. Order, they did it on legal advice (based upon commity principles). More importantly, however, the Pirates put Mondesi's money in an escrow account to protect Mondesi, not the Pirates. If Mondesi was not receiving a salary there was nothing for the D.R. to attach (excluding his assets in the D.R. of course to date). This was all done with the consent and approval of the players union and was in effect a scheme to prevent any judgment from being executed against Mondesi. Well, at least protecting the money he is earning right now.

Tim Kurkjian reported earlier that Mondesi flew home because there have been threats against his family. According to the story, the Police showed up and made threats against his family that if Mondesi did not pay Guerrero they would arrest his wife and daughter. Can't imagine a jail in the D.R. is a nice place to be--especially for a woman.

Finally, are the Pirates cursed? I am starting to think that there is a Barry Bonds hex on them. Not that Mondesi is the be-all save all of the franchise, but besides all these problems, now the Bucs can't even turn around and trade him at the deadline for a decent return. Which, if you listen to Littlfield's garbage rehtoric, was at least a small reason and justification for the Bucs usuing the "mercenary approach" the last couple seasons.

The latest on the Mondesi situation:

Mondesi says he may sit out season, but will return to baseball


Mondesi yesterday added that his dissatisfaction with the one-year, $1.15 million free-agent contract he signed with the Pirates also was affecting his thinking.

"If I don't feel comfortable, either with the Guerrero thing or my contract, it's better for me to stay here," he said.