It's noontime on the East coast and the Phillies and Ryan Howard are in court.
It's called an arbitration hearing for any of you who are unaware of the goings-ons between the Phillies slugger and the people who write his paycheck.
They are in court over what amounts to $3 million. This is a rather routine process between players and teams nowadays. Howard wants $10 million, but his employer wants to pay him $7 million.
And, both sides are said to be light years apart on a contract. The Phillies would gladly like to offer him something in the range of Chase Utley's 7-year $85 million contract he inked last year, but Howard's team wants none of that. They want that Alfonso Soriano money, like 8 years and $135 million.
No, I'm not joking. They are $50 million apart. The problem is Howard is now 28 years old and if he were to ink a long-term deal he'd be 35 by the end of it.
I'm ok with them signing him to a long-term deal, but don't know if they are. They should sign him to a long-term deal and it's simple why. They screwed him out of two seasons by making that foolish decision to sign Jim Thome back in 2003. That turned out to be a potential franchise killer.
Thankfully Ed Wade didn't leave a mark in the form of a big turd stain on this franchise by trading Ryan Howard and riding out the Thome era.
Thankfully Dave Montgomery succumbed to the pressure of fans walking away and fired Ed Wade.
Hopefully he comes to his senses and realizes the error of the ghost of Phillies past in the form of Ed Wade and does right by Howard.
For those of you who want up to the minute coverage, Scott Lauber of The News Journal in Wilmington Delaware is outside the courtroom and doing a live blog.
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The Eagles are interested in Fitzgerald
Any other day, I'd say this is the top story, but The Rhino is in an arbitration hearing with the Phillies as I write this.
G Cobb stated today on WIP's morning show that the Eagles are interested in Larry Fitzgerald.
Apparently they are listening to Donny Mac, B West, and Dawkins and going after playmakers.
It's going to take a 1st rounder to get Fitz though. And, if the Eagles do that I think they need to trade next year's #1 pick for another first rounder this year so they can land either a pass rusher or defensive back/return man.
That's if they don't sign my guy Nnamdi Asomugha, the great cornerback on Oakland. If he gets franchised by tomorrow's 4:00 PM deadline I'd be happy to see them get Asante Samuel though.
It's gonna cost them and Lito will be even more pissed considering he's chirping about being underpaid.
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Flyers streak continues and Sixers' ends
Last night was a tale of two streaks of two teams headed in seemingly opposite directions.
The Flyers took a 7-game losing streak into Ottawa last night and promptly lost, thereby extending this awful streak to 8 games.
And, the Sixers also headed north and lost to the lowly Timberwolves, thereby breaking their 6-game winning streak.
Don't worry though. The Sixers face the Knick tonight, the panacea for all your losing woes. No way I see them losing to the Bricks.
The same can't be said for the Flyers though. I could see this streak heading into the double digits. With Danny Briere resembling Pee Wee Herman out there and disappearing like Mr. Invisible the Flyers are deader than a piece of roadkill.
1 comment:
I certainly hope the Eagles make a trade for Fitzgerald. Especially if the rumors are true and the Eagles are ready to throw a dump truck worth of money at Randy "I quit when challenged" Moss. He would be like putting a bandaid on a shark bite. Sure he will help, but he's getting older and has never once taken a team to a championship. We should bring in a young stud rather than an aging one.
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