Luvofthegame
09-04-2006, 03:13 PM
By Tim Sullivan
UNION-TRIBUNE
September 3, 2006
Dave Roberts is in the right place at the right time, but he's been left to wonder what he's done wrong.
The Padres' regular left fielder is having a career season in his hometown during a contract year. He was hitting .312 at gametime last night, with 40 stolen bases in 44 attempts. He started the night two triples short of Tony Gwynn's club record and one month away from completing an error-free season.
“He's playing some great ball,” manager Bruce Bochy said Friday night. “Inspiring baseball.”
Yet upper management's response to Roberts' inspiration has been mostly mute. There's been no bargaining. There's been no begging. The Friars' front office has barely acknowledged that Roberts has reached free agency's on-deck circle.
“There's been no dialogue,” Roberts said, plainly disappointed. “All I've heard was Ben Johnson will be in the outfield. That's the only thing I've heard. So do the math.”
The math may be more complex than Roberts imagines, though, with polynomial equations involving multiple variables and many balls in the air. Padres General Manager Kevin Towers says signing Roberts could be contingent on finding a power hitter who plays some other position. He doesn't yet know how the pieces might fall into place.
“We need to find more power for this club going forward,” Towers said. “I think our biggest dilemma is: Where are we going to put that power bat? Left field is typically a power-player position. If we're able to do that at third base, then he (Roberts) makes a lot of sense.”
Towers likes Roberts hitting leadoff, but not so much that he is prepared to make a commitment that could limit his maneuverability in coming months. Power-hitting left fielders are traditionally more plentiful than, say, power-hitting third basemen. Thus Towers wants to keep his options open with Roberts until he finds out what alternatives are available in the marketplace.
Roberts, 34, has no trouble following Towers' rationale, but he probably shouldn't have to hear it from a reporter. Baseball executives are not obliged to share their strategic plans with employees, of course, and maintaining a certain amount of mystery can be critical in negotiations. Yet if the Padres are going to depend on key players to accept the San Diego discount, they should be careful to package it in the nicest way possible.
What Roberts is experiencing, though, is the same anxiety-inducing silence that befell outfielder Brian Giles and closer Trevor Hoffman throughout the 2005 season. Both Giles and Hoffman eventually agreed to stay with the Padres, but both did so grudgingly.
Giles didn't receive a formal offer from the Padres last year until he was preparing for the playoffs. His deal came together only after a serious flirtation with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Hoffman, in turn, said he felt “betrayed” by the Padres, and made his frustration manifest by cleaning out his locker at Petco Park.
Both sides employ gamesmanship in making these multimillion-dollar deals – players and agents often affect outrage that promptly disappears when the dollars are right – but it shouldn't compromise management's position to provide a player some sense of where he stands before the bargaining begins in earnest.
This is particularly true of the Padres. If you can't be competitive on dollars, you had better do a good job with dialogue.
Towers says he prefers not to negotiate during a pennant race and wants to keep his players' focus on the field. In theory, at least, this is entirely defensible. Yet as a practical matter, the business of baseball is far too public to create a competitive vacuum. Players are subject to ceaseless speculation – within the clubhouse, in print, on the air, over the Internet, atop the barstool – and they are made aware of almost all of it.
The adults among them, and Dave Roberts is one, continue to play hard and hope for the best. They look for signals. They listen to sound bites. They long for answers.
“Me being from here, I couldn't have had a better two years as far as a dream-come-true type of thing,” Roberts said. “This is where I've always wanted to be. Would (being) approached by now have made me happy? I'd be lying if I said no.
“But that isn't the case, and I'm plenty prepared to (explore) the prospects of free agency, to see what's out there. I have no problem with doing that, either. Because I'd like to think I'm an asset to a ballclub. If it's not here, I'd like to feel I can help another team.”
Were the Padres inclined to negotiate now, they would likely be able to lock up Roberts at a reduced rate. They are leaning, instead, toward letting Roberts test the marketplace while they search for a slugger.
“We certainly realize if we don't bring Roberts back we'd be void of a true leadoff kind of guy,” Towers said. “(That) is very important, and he's certainly had one of the best seasons of his career. But to be successful, we've got find a power bat somewhere.
“My hope is we can acquire power and keep Dave Roberts as well. That's the perfect world.”
Towers' stated preference is to find a thumper who plays third base. That search will likely start with Seattle's Adrian Beltre, but it might end in Asia. Towers said he was also interested in a Japanese third baseman he was not ready to name.
The most obvious candidates are Akinori Iwamura of the Yakult Swallows and Shuichi Murata of the Yokohama BayStars. (Iwamura is the more established star, but Murata hits right-handed.) Then there's the ever-available Jose Fernandez, a much-traveled Dominican mercenary now employed by the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
“I keep getting better offers from other places,” Fernandez told a reporter this summer. “So you've just got to take advantage of that as quickly and as often as you possibly can.”
Words to live by. Perhaps Dave Roberts should heed them.
“With the kind of year he's had, he's going to attract a lot of interest from a lot of clubs other than just us,” Towers said of Roberts. “It's probably a little more stressful if you're a player not knowing (whether) there will be interest.”
If there's no reason for Roberts to feel stressed, perhaps someone with the Padres should tell him so.
UNION-TRIBUNE
September 3, 2006
Dave Roberts is in the right place at the right time, but he's been left to wonder what he's done wrong.
The Padres' regular left fielder is having a career season in his hometown during a contract year. He was hitting .312 at gametime last night, with 40 stolen bases in 44 attempts. He started the night two triples short of Tony Gwynn's club record and one month away from completing an error-free season.
“He's playing some great ball,” manager Bruce Bochy said Friday night. “Inspiring baseball.”
Yet upper management's response to Roberts' inspiration has been mostly mute. There's been no bargaining. There's been no begging. The Friars' front office has barely acknowledged that Roberts has reached free agency's on-deck circle.
“There's been no dialogue,” Roberts said, plainly disappointed. “All I've heard was Ben Johnson will be in the outfield. That's the only thing I've heard. So do the math.”
The math may be more complex than Roberts imagines, though, with polynomial equations involving multiple variables and many balls in the air. Padres General Manager Kevin Towers says signing Roberts could be contingent on finding a power hitter who plays some other position. He doesn't yet know how the pieces might fall into place.
“We need to find more power for this club going forward,” Towers said. “I think our biggest dilemma is: Where are we going to put that power bat? Left field is typically a power-player position. If we're able to do that at third base, then he (Roberts) makes a lot of sense.”
Towers likes Roberts hitting leadoff, but not so much that he is prepared to make a commitment that could limit his maneuverability in coming months. Power-hitting left fielders are traditionally more plentiful than, say, power-hitting third basemen. Thus Towers wants to keep his options open with Roberts until he finds out what alternatives are available in the marketplace.
Roberts, 34, has no trouble following Towers' rationale, but he probably shouldn't have to hear it from a reporter. Baseball executives are not obliged to share their strategic plans with employees, of course, and maintaining a certain amount of mystery can be critical in negotiations. Yet if the Padres are going to depend on key players to accept the San Diego discount, they should be careful to package it in the nicest way possible.
What Roberts is experiencing, though, is the same anxiety-inducing silence that befell outfielder Brian Giles and closer Trevor Hoffman throughout the 2005 season. Both Giles and Hoffman eventually agreed to stay with the Padres, but both did so grudgingly.
Giles didn't receive a formal offer from the Padres last year until he was preparing for the playoffs. His deal came together only after a serious flirtation with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Hoffman, in turn, said he felt “betrayed” by the Padres, and made his frustration manifest by cleaning out his locker at Petco Park.
Both sides employ gamesmanship in making these multimillion-dollar deals – players and agents often affect outrage that promptly disappears when the dollars are right – but it shouldn't compromise management's position to provide a player some sense of where he stands before the bargaining begins in earnest.
This is particularly true of the Padres. If you can't be competitive on dollars, you had better do a good job with dialogue.
Towers says he prefers not to negotiate during a pennant race and wants to keep his players' focus on the field. In theory, at least, this is entirely defensible. Yet as a practical matter, the business of baseball is far too public to create a competitive vacuum. Players are subject to ceaseless speculation – within the clubhouse, in print, on the air, over the Internet, atop the barstool – and they are made aware of almost all of it.
The adults among them, and Dave Roberts is one, continue to play hard and hope for the best. They look for signals. They listen to sound bites. They long for answers.
“Me being from here, I couldn't have had a better two years as far as a dream-come-true type of thing,” Roberts said. “This is where I've always wanted to be. Would (being) approached by now have made me happy? I'd be lying if I said no.
“But that isn't the case, and I'm plenty prepared to (explore) the prospects of free agency, to see what's out there. I have no problem with doing that, either. Because I'd like to think I'm an asset to a ballclub. If it's not here, I'd like to feel I can help another team.”
Were the Padres inclined to negotiate now, they would likely be able to lock up Roberts at a reduced rate. They are leaning, instead, toward letting Roberts test the marketplace while they search for a slugger.
“We certainly realize if we don't bring Roberts back we'd be void of a true leadoff kind of guy,” Towers said. “(That) is very important, and he's certainly had one of the best seasons of his career. But to be successful, we've got find a power bat somewhere.
“My hope is we can acquire power and keep Dave Roberts as well. That's the perfect world.”
Towers' stated preference is to find a thumper who plays third base. That search will likely start with Seattle's Adrian Beltre, but it might end in Asia. Towers said he was also interested in a Japanese third baseman he was not ready to name.
The most obvious candidates are Akinori Iwamura of the Yakult Swallows and Shuichi Murata of the Yokohama BayStars. (Iwamura is the more established star, but Murata hits right-handed.) Then there's the ever-available Jose Fernandez, a much-traveled Dominican mercenary now employed by the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
“I keep getting better offers from other places,” Fernandez told a reporter this summer. “So you've just got to take advantage of that as quickly and as often as you possibly can.”
Words to live by. Perhaps Dave Roberts should heed them.
“With the kind of year he's had, he's going to attract a lot of interest from a lot of clubs other than just us,” Towers said of Roberts. “It's probably a little more stressful if you're a player not knowing (whether) there will be interest.”
If there's no reason for Roberts to feel stressed, perhaps someone with the Padres should tell him so.