I miss Manny. At least he was entertaining, aside from his attitude and HGH issues.

WalkingSnake: Crewmannumber6: While he's serving his suspension can the A's fill his roster spot or would they have one less bench player the entire time?

They can fill his spot, similar to an injured player.

Well, if he had a major league deal, they'd require permission from the commish to remove him from the roster (by placing him on the restricted list). I mean, think about it: if I get ejected for 10 games for getting in a fight, they're not generally allowed to call someone up to replace me.

But he signed a minor league deal, so he's not even on the 40 man roster to begin with. No commish dispensation needed.

culebra: All that's risked is a minor league contract and 500k

It's actually a prorated 500k. Since he cannot play in the first 50 games, the maximum value is something like 350K. Gammons says it'll be worth 306K, but that math seems a little off.

culebra: In the meantime, the Pirates just traded two (forgettable) prospects and 13 million dollars for the privilege of pulling their hair out every time AJ Burnett takes the hill. Now that's some bad GMing.

It's not really a bad move. The only real problem is that the pirates aren't going to do anything the next two seasons one way or another, so why spend the money on Burnett?

But there's plenty of evidence that Burnett will be quite a bit better in Pittsburgh, and 7.5/yr isn't a bad deal for him. I mean, he's better than Bruce Chen, who just signed for 2/9. He's better than Chris Capuano, who signed for 2/10. And he's better than Aaron Harang, who signed for 2/12.

Meanwhile, the prospects really are nothing. The pitcher has some decent numbers, but he put them up playing in leagues he was probably too old for. The OF's ceiling is something like Reggie Willits or Gregor Blanco, except without the speed.

DeWayne Mann: so why spend the money on Burnett?

Of course, I'm demonstrating "old thinking" here. In the past (aka, last season), that money could be spent on the draft or on international players. With the new CBA, that's less true.

So in that case, the Burnett deal is a little better than I had suggested. if he does have a better season this year, they could flip him for better prospects than they gave up, or if they keep him through next season, they could take a chance with the new FA compensation system.

jake3988: Well I know in Hockey that if you sign a two-way contract, you get paid a certain amount if you play in the minors and a certain (much larger) amount if you play in the majors.

But regardless, in this case, it's probably due to the fact that the minors don't play 162 games. I think they play 125 or 130 or something. Playing a prorated 130-50 games is 307k, which is damn close to 306k.

I think you're getting close. The AAA/AA season is 142 games. There is some evidence that the deal is considered a 500K minor league deal, rather than a 500K split deal (which pays minor league minimum until he's placed on the 40man roster, at which point his salary becomes 500K), because the deal is also listed as non-guaranteed. Minor league deals are rarely (if ever) guaranteed, while major league deals are almost always guaranteed to some degree.

But 500K prorated to 142, minus 50 games still results in a 325K salary.

Surprisingly, at the moment, Cot's is no help. All they say is:

signed by Oakland as a free agent 2/20/12 (minor-league contract)
salary of $0.5M in majors

Most likely, it's just gonna be something stupid. Taxes or something. Not terribly concerned, just found it weird.

Crap. Once again, I'm using OLD THINKING.

Two new CBA rules that seem to apply:

1. The major league minimum for veterans is $480,000. So Manny is only getting a raise of $20,000 (prorated) over the minimum. Except...
2. ...Any veteran signed to a minor league contract and who doesn't make the opening day roster (presumably the 25 man) gets paid an extra $100,000* (and they get an opt-out date of June 1).

Far as I can tell, this makes even LESS sense now. By my math, Manny should be getting paid $450K, not $306K.

At this point, I'm assuming the deal is just being reported wrong. Not sure what part is wrong, but something appears to be.


*As an aside, this rule is insane, and I have no clue how it made it into the CBA. It means it's actually cheaper to sign a veteran to a major-league minimum contract, than to sign him to a minor league contract and then call him up within the first month or so. It also means it's less likely that veterans will get minor league deals. And if you DO sign a veteran to a minor league deal, you should cut him 6 days before opening day, in which case you pay him NOTHING. If you do it 5 days before, it counts as "not making the opening day roster" and the bonus stands.

This is all penny pinching, of course. No major league team REALLY cares about $100K. But it still really dumb.

The Bestest: culebra: DeWayne Mann: It's not really a bad move.

You're right. For some reason I had it in my head that he only had 1 year left. 6.5 million per year isn't bad, and Burnett should be able to offer an equivalent amount of production.

Very good deal for the Pirates. I'm not saying Cashman made a desperate move, but it was pretty clear he was done in NY, and he had to get -something- for him, even if that something was (as I put it a few days ago) "a tub of Dubble Bubble and a photo of Sid Bream" AND they had to pay the Pirates the bulk of AJ's salary to boot. Conversely, as mentioned, the Pirates are getting a lot more talent than they're paying for, and you have to imagine AJ does better now that he's not in the NY spotlight. His mechanics are sound; most of his problems were mental.

The weird thing is, the Yankees almost took the pitcher they got in the Rule 5 draft, but decided he didn't have the mental makeup for the majors. He's had a few weird incidents, including getting suspended for making out with a fan in the bullpen. But they apparently really like him.

And one of AJ's other problems was that fence out in right field. His HR rate should drop just because he got away from it.