Here's the story that's been circulating today via the AP:
Rafael Furcal denies he reneged on a deal with the Atlanta Braves before agreeing to a contract last week with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We never gave the nod to the Braves,” he said Sunday after arriving to play winter ball for the Aguilas of Cibaenas.
“That is not true,” Furcal said. “We never, not my agents nor me, agreed to anything with the Braves.”
“They offered $32 million for four years and later raised it to $35 million and told us to take it or leave it,” Furcal said.
I can see this being a total fubar by Furcal's agent, Paul Kinzer, with Furcal being kept in the dark. Or, he could have had a change of heart and asked his agent to get him out of it. Who knows what really happened, but it certainly seems like the Braves have the proof to genuinely have a grievance.
0 recs | 34 comments
Coughcoughtermsheetcoughcough
I’m still going to boo him.
beeniez - December 22, 2008
+1
FrankyWren - December 22, 2008
Furcal Followed the Money
Just when I thought Furcal was happy about coming back to the Braves he follows the money like the rest of them. It will be interesting to see who has a better season Yunel Escobar or Furcal. I think this could be the season Escobar breaks through.
NIteowl049 - December 22, 2008
I hope Esco breaks through and Furcal just craps the bed….he deserves it, not that he did anything terrible, but the fact that his agents are crap and he associates with them. I really enjoy how both Tellem/Kinzar and now Furcal all state the same thing, “we didn’t break a contract,” yet no one will say anything about the term sheet. A-holes!
jwrocks - December 22, 2008
Escobar is already a better player than Furcal, both defensively and offensively.
VictorW - December 24, 2008
Let’s move on from this. I hope Furcal gets injured. Of course he’ll deny anything now that he’s signed with someone. Dodgers can have a piece of shit like that. At least with A.J. he took time to decide and Peavy is just controlled by a moronic GM. Furcal did it behind our backs. Screw him.
mrrich95 - December 22, 2008
Hey...way to be a douche bag and hope that somebody gets hurt!
Stay classy!
mvandonsel - December 22, 2008
I'm just happy that we're better than himhis reps.
No need to wish harm on him.
Euruproktos - December 23, 2008
Did anyone actually expect
him to come out and say my agents are assholes and I am going to be going to the Braves because of how poorly they treated Atlanta?
someguy917 - December 22, 2008
He could have just not commented instead of being a douche
VictorW - December 24, 2008
Re-sign Chris Resop
and have him give Furcal some 100mph chin music.
Then release him again.
TradeAndruw - December 22, 2008
Nice, but
Resop doesn’t even have enough control to give him chin music.
JFP - December 23, 2008
Maybe if Ozzie Guillen were the manager, that could happen.
royhobbs - December 23, 2008
Braves were used.
He never wanted to come back to the Braves he always wanted to go back with the Dodgers and only the Dodgers. When it looked like the Dodgers were not interested he played up to the Braves to get a offer just to make the Dodgers think he was leaving. The agent works for the player they were doing exactly what they were instructed. Furcal is the bad guy here..
Fear The Turtle - December 23, 2008
Agree Furcal Should Get Some Blame
I agree with Fear The Turtle that Furcal manipulated the Braves to get a better contract from the Dodgers. I may be mistaken but seems like he had said recently he would like to return to the Braves. If he did then that was just a ploy to get more money. He may have also been using the A’s and any other teams his agents dealt with.
NIteowl049 - December 23, 2008
Braves were used.
The money he took from the Dodgers was basicly the same ofered by the Braves and less than Oakland had offered so he obviously wanted to stay with the Dodgers. I’m not real sure why the front office has got so upset this deal on its own didn’t make alot of sense my guess is that they had another deal in place for pitching. They seem awfuly eager to deal Escobar this winter. I wonder why… is something is going on behind the scenes. One more thing does it seem like John Schuerholz walked all over Frank Wren with his comments on this deal? If I was Wren I would feel like I was cut off at the knees by the comments made by John Schuerholz .
Fear The Turtle - December 23, 2008
I don't know where you're getting that...
…it seemed to me that he was extremely supportive of Wren. How do you get that he was “walked all over” and “cut off at the knees”? Please explain.
Also, the front office is mad not so much at not getting Furcal, but in the way things were carried out.
sddbaker - December 23, 2008
I don't think "cut off at the knees" is entirely accurate
But I see what he’s getting at. In those situations, you expect to hear from the franchise’s GM or owner(s). Can you think of another time where the team’s president was the one to make comments like those? Granted, JS isn’t just another franchise president, he was our GM for a long time, which people know. So I understand why he said what he said, but part of me wonders if it might have been better for those musings to come from FW.
FrankyWren - December 23, 2008
Why?
That doesn’t make sense to me. Having the team President state that the Braves will no longer deal with the Wasserman Group carries much more weight than that same statement coming from a GM. I would bet money that if the Braves had an individual for an owner he would have been the one to make that statement, but considering the Braves are corporate owned the President is exactly who it should have come from in my mind.
scstrato - December 23, 2008
Well agree to disagree
But in the meantime … can you give me another example where a President has said something like that? Even if the team was owned by a corporation? I couldn’t find another instance. Maybe you can.
FrankyWren - December 23, 2008
is there a hidden database that lists quotes from baseball team presidents shitting on agents?
bigjoe - December 23, 2008
Chicago White Sox
They will not deal with any Scott Boras client. The edict came from Owner Jerry Reinsdorf though, not the President or GM – which is my point, it carries more weight coming from the higher ups.
scstrato - December 24, 2008
Escobar a Tellem Client
If the Braves were already trying to trade Escobar they may intensify their efforts to trade him since they know they will have to eventually deal with the Arne Tellem agency since Escobar is one of their clients.
NIteowl049 - December 23, 2008
Don't believe everything you read
Yunel Escobar is not listed under the Wasserman Group client list.
scstrato - December 23, 2008
Even if this was true, which it isn’t, why would the efforts to trade him intensify? He’s under team control until 2014.
Smoltz's Beard - December 23, 2008
Actually
I spent the afternoon digging through google searches to try and find out exactly who represents Yunie. Unfortunately none of the articles that I found mentioned an agent specifically, although they did say he went through two or three before he was signed/drafted. Then I went to old reliable, Cot’s, and found this little tidbit:
Yunel Escobar ss
* 1 year/$0.4025M (2008)
o re-signed by Atlanta 2/29/08
* 1 year (2007), contract purchased 6/1/07
* drafted 2005 (2-75)
* $0.475M signing bonus
* agent: Wasserman Media Group
* ML service: 0.121
I have no idea if this is accurate but if it is it doesn’t bode well for us when Yunie hits ARB.
scstrato - December 23, 2008
I spent the afternoon digging through google searches to try and find out exactly who represents Yunie.
Nerd Alert!!! Just kidding!! I hope that is wrong, I would hate to see Yunel go.
mvandonsel - December 23, 2008
/facepalm
So I’m a bit obsessive …
scstrato - December 23, 2008
there was a MASSIVE list of their clients that was released when this shit hit the fan, and he wasn’t on it. ALEX escobar was however.
bigjoe - December 23, 2008
That’s what I was referring to in my original post, I thought for sure they were confusing Alex (since he’s not exactly well known) with Yunie. But Cot’s is usually pretty reliable.
scstrato - December 23, 2008
G.M. Wren
He had allready came out and made a statement about the Furcal mess. For JS to come out later and make such a public statement seems a little odd to me. For him to say they will never do buisness with this agency again should have came from Wren. If JS is going to publicaly tell our GM who he can do buisness with is completly out of line. That never happened when he was the GM. I believe JS will build a competitive team a team we can all be proud of. Of course that is just one persons oppinion.
Fear The Turtle - December 23, 2008
Disagree
Who cares who made what statement first. JS is the president of the organization, you do realize he is higher up than Frank Wren right? As I said earlier, a public statement from the team President will always carry more weight than a public statement from a GM.
Thats ridiculous. What do you think a president is supposed to do? He dictates to his underlings, he calls the shots, he IS the BOSS. Are you seriously saying a BOSS doesn’t have the right to tell his employees who they are allowed to do business with?
scstrato - December 23, 2008
…yipes. just yipes
bigjoe - December 23, 2008
Not so fast
Behind closed doors YES publicly HECK NO!
Fear The Turtle - December 23, 2008
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