The Latest with Furcal: Decision to come tomorrow?

I say we welcome him with optimism and open arms. Once he realizes he is well accepted, and moves into his lush San Francisco Pad, perhaps he will have a change of heart?
Certainly an opposite type of welcoming won’t do much to change his mind on playing with the Oakland Athletics.

Small crowds, sure, but friggin diehards

Good clubhouse atmosphere

GM who knows how to build winning teams

What’s not to like?

that he didn’t want to play in NY. Do you think the fans will hold it against him? Of course not. They’ll only turn against him if he doesn’t produce.

Which is how we should view Furcal, should he sign with Oakland.

Get it done Billy. Furcal would be such a nice addition and I’m sure he’ll mesh perfectly well with the atmosphere that is the A’s clubhouse. The excitement of all the players should be huge come ST with all these new acquisitions and the FO obvious desire to contend NOW.

Show him to the dotted line.

does anybody think Furcal’s decision will influence the Angels? i.e. if the A’s sign Furcal, does that put pressure on the Halo’s to get Teixeira?

(Not that I really think it’d make a difference in the long run, I highly doubt Rafael Furcal peruses Athletics Nation from time to time..)

That said, and I kinda brought this up in the other thread, but if I were ever going to have concerns about a player’s lack of motivation, a)getting paid b)coming off an injury and c)not really wanting to be here would certainly be the factors to lead me to do so.

Again, there’s no reason to shun him or something silly like that, but I’d feel a lot easier about the team investing $40 million in him if it at least looked like he wanted to come here a little.

Furcal doesn’t know anything about A’s baseball. He has barely ever played with or against our guys. So, his only opinions come from other major leaguers who i’m sure all don’t have the nicest things to say about Oakland. Of course not, we aren’t San Francisco, New York, Chicago, we’re not a huge city that usually is well known for being an exciting atmosphere. What Oakland Athletics baseball holds true is something you don’t see until you are a part of the organization. It’s full of awesome die hard fans, and arguably the best clubhouse atmosphere, a tradition since Charlie Finley. That’s where any player will find the true value of A’s baseball, and if Furcal decides not to choose oakland because he thinks it is a lesser area, he is the one who will be missing out on what Oakland Athletics baseball really is

When Furcal came in for a visit with the wife and ended leaving without a contract my first thought was that Beane is just wasting his time. The A’s are a young team with major injury problems- there best player is a new trade acquisition without a contract after this season and no guarantee of re-signing. At this point I hope Billy walks away, 3 weeks of this B.S. is long enough and the last thing I want is a guy who has a history of injury problems who doesn’t really want to play here. Clearly this signing has the potential to blow up in Beane’s face and for 4 years at that.

In the beginning, I was for it. However, since then, numerous factors have piled up against making Furcal a good signing.

Before it was just the health concern.

Now on top of that there is the economy, which is worsening by the day. This will not only impact teams bottom lines but also make it harder and more expensive to borrow money and take out lines of credit if they start operating in the red – credit markets are frozen right now making money expensive. Read Gammons’ latest article: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3767323&name=gammons_peter. This thing is big and it’s going to negatively affect the A’s future revenue.

Add on top of that that we had to increase our offer to more than we planned on and the fact that he doesn’t want to play here. That’s a lot more reason to not sign him.

Recap: 1) big health concerns, 2) economy → more payroll constraints, 3) he doesn’t want to be here, 4) we had to increase our offer / stretch to get him.

Just as an anecdote:

A few years ago I was at a Dodgers/Padres game in San Diego, and after the game about 50 or so people stood along the street watching Dodgers players walk to their bus. Player after player walked by. A few waved and smiled, none stopped. Then Furcal came out of the stadium and immediately went to the fans and signed autographs and took pictures with kids until finally the bus was about to pull away and they yelled for him to get on the bus.

He seemed genuinely happy being with the fans, and he probably would have signed autographs for as long as it took to please the fans who waited outside to see him.

Could any of his (alleged) qualms about the A’s be to do with the recent history of their medical staff ?

As long as he produces out on the field. I mean if I was him, I might be reluctant too considering the A’s have been doing mostly nothing but dumping salary over the last year or so. I guarantee he’s trying to decide whether uprooting and moving to Oakland is worth the extra money. You’ve got to admire the fact that he isn’t just jumping at the biggest offer.

to boo him so mercilessly that it actually affects his performance on the field. Then I think we should boo his performance.

This is probabaly the last long term FA deal he will ever see. So, if I were him, I’d want to make damn sure I was signing the right deal. Money, location, ballclub’s direction, contender/noncontender etc…

However, I have no idea what’s going on in his head but if he can’t make up his mind by tomorrow then I say Billy pulls the plug.

Here’s to hoping I’m wrong…

Brother better make up his mind sooner than later. But, the clock is ticking…..

I mean, to be fair, its not as cool as LA, Toronto or others. But the fact thats its becoming so obvious now is pissing me off, if he really didnt like Oakland he should have just told us “thanks, but not thanks”. If he ends up going to LA now for less money, he´s going to have another hater in me

But Colleti seems intent on not guaranteeing that 3rd year, and because of that, it just seems absurd that someone with Furcal’s injury history would leave $15 million dollars of guaranteed money and 2 years of employment on the table and reject the A’s standing offer.

exactly

Furcal: Take it or leave it?

And Furcal is seriously considering them

I guess that a potential trade for Yunel Escobar would be back on the table at that point?

Screw him. It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t want to come here and is just using us as a bargaining chip. He’s wasting all of our time. With his back problems, I’m not sure Furcal’s a good fit anyhow. I hope Atlanta signs him…so at least we have a chance at acquiring Yunel Escobar from them.

Time for Furcal to announce his decision.

needs to be signing Matt Holliday to an extension!!!

8 years $160 milion…

i think its a slap in the face to see that he does not want to sign with the A’s
i never wanted the A’s to sign furcal but he is a sure upgrade over the struggling crosby
but now to have him say this when we are offering him more than anyone else is just crazy

I mean c’mon. Rafael Furcal?? He’s 31, bad back….doesn’t want to be in the AL. He’ll be a huge drain on the payroll ; I don’t care how much cash we have.

I was skeptical when this all started but now it’s good riddance.

this thing isn’t over, and regardless of how I feel i’m still waiting on something official.

furcal will be signed within 24- hrs

Is he a good Plan B?

Beane said he had alot of talk about trades.

I wouldn’t put it past him to make a trade for Escobar or Hardy. And there is also the thought that the Braves don’t seem to value Escobar as much as we do.

5 years younger than Wilson and more power.

Earlier today everyone was saying how much they’d hate Furcal if he accepted now because he’s been “hating” on Oakland. Then a few people put reason in our minds and said that this is how negotiations work so everyone calmed down and reconsidered. Furcal would be a welcome addition, yadda yadda yadda. Then Atlanta enters the fray and the Furcal bashing is back on.

I’ll wait to see how everything pans out before I polish my pitchfork and light my torch.

He is a witch

Dude. Stop messing with my mind.

link

Apparently it appears Peavy will remain a Padre for now, but of course like everything this offseason that could change at any moment.

So if Peavy isn’t being traded, that means that Escobar isn’t going any where (at least not in our aforementioned 3-way deal talks) and the Braves won’t have any where to put Furcal unless he accepts the move to 2B. I’m guessing that by 3:00 PM PDT tomorrow we will know one way or the other.

pretty hard here and with my other close A’s friends for awhile.

It seems to be a logical plan B, especially since Atlanta can’t seem to make up their mind about what the fuck which direction they are headed……….

Doug Melvin is willing to make a deal, especially if it’s a deal that makes sense for both sides. So, I say, “Billy….Talk to Milwaukee….pronto!”

They also have another SS in A. Escobar in the wings, right?

I don’t know that much about him, but his stats ain’t THAT great. People in this thread are saying crazy things like a package of Cahill and 4 other guys wouldn’t be enough to get him. The guy has almost no power. He better have Ozzie Smith level defense for him to be worth as much as some here are saying.

and that said troll is stalking grover. And also likes basketball. ’Tis a strange world we live in. (This is what I get for being on AN when I should be asleep.)

Once he get’s a load of 8,000 rabid fans screaming his name and that dope-ass air horn cutting through the 55 degree July night he’ll be so intoxicated by the home atmosphere he’ll hardly notice all the shots he’s hitting square on the barrel that die at the warning track.

Atlanta brings back their ss and we bring back our former prospect.