Fat Strat wrote:
Let me ask you this, Easton, because I think that you have a reasonable stance. If you had pretty good indication that Rolen was going to possibly sit out of ST continuing to demand a trade, would you still want to "risk" playing him?
Yes. If he did sit for awhile, he's going to continue resting and rehabbing his shoulder...that won't hurt his overall value, and it might actually artificially inflate it a little bit once he returns. (If he starts poorly, you can use the excuse that it's because he's rusty). We all know Rolen's a competitor, he wants to play and even takes stupid risks to do so. He's also not dumb, he knows his value is down and the only way to build it is to play. If the Cards establish that they're going to keep him until he builds his value enough to warrant a move, I'm fairly confident that eventually Rolen will make his way to the field and do his thing. It's hard for me to imagine that a man like him would sit out an entire season, or even a significant part of one, just to force management's hand. It never reached that point in Philly, and things were hardly better there than they are here.
On the off chance that he does sit for an extended amount of time, I don't see how that's going to "compromise" our bargaining position anymore than it already is...every team out there is already convinced that we simply *must* move him because of the TLR rift. We don't have to pay any money to Rolen, and the extra time off could only improve the condition of his shoulder. It's also possible that by simply holding onto him and showing that we're not going to move him for pennies on the dollar that we might actually improve the quality of offers to us without him ever setting foot on the field. Unlikely, but showing resolve now certainly won't hurt our bargaining position in the future. This team has nothing serious going for 2008...I really don't see the harm in taking all the time we need to try and milk as much value from this situation as possible.
I actually agree with the idea that Rolen's highest value would have been after he had re-established himself as a hitter, whether that's ST or the deadline. It's always better to trade a heatlhy, productive player at his peak, than someone at his lowest value level. At the same time, if there is some truth (or a serious threat from his agent, etc.) that risk becomes a little less tolerable. It would weigh heavily over how I considered any possible offer I received for Rolen. Thus, when I see a deal come around for a player that can provide a significant impact, I would be much more inclined to take it, cut my loses with the risky player, and move on with a known commodity.
If this team was a borderline contender for 2008, I would probably agree with you. Since we're not, and we're fighting an uphill battle to be competitive in 2009 and beyond, I'm not interested in making any move that is
likely to further weaken this already weak team. We should be hellbent on milking every available resource in this organization for maximum value, and that especially includes Rolen since what he did in 2006 is basically irreplaceable on the market or from within. In my mind, we've got a lot of time before the Rolen situation *needs* to be resolved...we should try and use that time to our advantage.
