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 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.