J.T. Snow should have Dusty Baker’s son taken away from him. (by now at least)
Tolbert: Go ahead and give me your thoughts on (Melky Cabrera’s suspension).
Snow: Disappointment. ... And I feel let down. I was saddened by the news. I can’t say that I’m surprised. Not just because of Melky, but all the stuff that’s going on. It’s sad for Melky because the guy was having a great year and now it’s tainted. ... And whenever there’s a great player putting up great numbers and something comes out, it’s tainted. I played with Barry Bonds for nine years. There are questions about his records; are they tainted? It’s just sad. There’s a program in place to catch the cheaters and they’re catching them. ... I feel like not only did he let the organization down, but he let the teammates down. He’s not going to be a part of the team for the next 50 games, and, um, that’s too bad. It’s not the Giants’ fault; it’s professional ballplayers.
Tolbert: You look at the year he had in Atlanta, where it was just not going his way; it’s the worst year he’s had in his career. ... When you get close to being out of the league, you might get a little desperate, roll the dice and see if you can cash in at least one time.
Snow: I go back to when I was playing and I signed a four-year deal with the Giants, and the last year of the deal I was making 6 million dollars and you know, had an average year and got re-signed the next year for 2 million or 1.5 million. I could have decided to do something to make more money out of it, but I feel like there needs to be something within the player. Maybe we need to do a better job of educating the players. ... If you were born over here, and you play over here, and your credibility is over here, then you may not do it. You have to live here the rest of your life. If you’re not born here, you may try it. And your mind-set might be, I am going to go back to my country, anyways.
Repoz
Posted: August 19, 2012 at 10:10 AM |
9 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Tags:
giants
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. ShoeGrit Posted: August 19, 2012 at 11:28 AM (#4211872)Did he just say what I think he said ?
2010 was not the worst year of Cabrera's career, 2008 was. He also got sent down to AAA in 2008. So if this is the explanation, it would make a lot more sense that he'd have rolled the dice in the winter of 2008/9. Of course, that would have certain implications for how well the stuff works and how effective the testing is.
Even as a journeyman and even with the suspension, Melky made something like $4M this year. None of these guys have to go back to Topeka if they don't want to.
I find that people tend not to put their weight behind uncorroborated claims. You can't be guilty if you aren't caught.
Reasonably accurate memory (it was $6.8 to $1.5) but, by then, Snow had made $32 M in his career and was entering his age 36 season. Melky can't complain but he had made "just" $7 M prior to this season and will be an FA at the end of the year. Rather different moral dilemmas. And of course we only have Snow's (implied) word that he didn't use PEDs (which, in his mind, probably doesn't include greenies).
Meh. A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you're talking REAL money!
With that many zeroes in your paycheck does it really matter? I mean, seriously? After your fifth mansion and 23rd Hummer what does Brewster do with all those millions? Is it really worth the opprobrium of juicing if you're already an average player? I'll concede that Melky was a total surprise this season so this news kind of explains his miraculous recovery, and in his case it might have made the difference between *PAYDAY* and out of baseball after the year had things continued apace.
But how many, many guys have hung on by seemingly invisible threads when they really should have hung 'em up? If those guys can squeak by on a mere million or two, can that really be considered pauper level? Give me their rounding errors and I'll be quite content on those scraps.
The amount almost doesn't matter -- Melky was looking at a chance (I said chance) to increase his lifetime earnings by 700% or potentially more while JT Snow (at 36) was looking at increasing his lifetime earnings by maybe a max of 20%. The temptation to (hopefully) enhance performance by violating the rules was simply much greater for Melky.
If Snow had talked about the dilemma he faced as he was coming up to that 4-year contract, it would be more relevant.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main