That doesn’t jibe with what Peter Gammons said.  It can’t be true.

i don’t get the point of the NY Times piece. 

the Red Sox are too important to ever end up on the losing side of a bidding war?

that’s how it works sometimes.

you have to make the highest bid to win a bidding war.  why be bitter at Teixeira when you made an inferior offer?

It’s all about being the stalking horse.

the Red Sox are too important to ever end up on the losing side of a bidding war?

I think the piece was more trying to point out that the trip to Texas may have been all for naught given the dinner with Mrs. Tex six days earlier.

Evidently it was the genius of the Red Sox to trick the Yankees into signing a player they really needed.  It’s like John Stewart’s appraisal of Rudolph Giuliani’s electoral strategy: “We’ll let the other candidates think they’re winning by letting them win.”

How many times has a team carried two former ROYs at the same position?

Off the top of my head, didn’t the Yanks have both Justice and Canseco at DH in 2000? Or was Justice just an outfielder back then?

But yeah, you’re right, it is quite an oddity!

Forget about position.  The Yankees need to sign Baldelli and trade for Jody Gerut.  Then they’ll have AL’s the top 5 rookies from 2003 (Berroa-Matsui-Baldelli-Gerut-Texeira).

Shorter Teixeira: I might have signed with Boston but my wife wouldn’t let me. Wuss.

Come on dude.  Teixeira has never won anything in his life.  The Sox don’t want a non-gritty player like that.  He doesn’t even know, as Lil Dustin Pedroia has since birth, that “It’s all about championships.”

It’s pretty interesting to see how so much is being made of Teixeira’s wife’s preference for him to play in NY rather than Boston - as if that preference alone was enough to imply bad faith negotiations.

It was reported over and over that CC’s wife wanted to stay on the west coast and amazingly CC wound up in NY despite his wife’s initial preferences.  How is that possible?

More than ever, we don’t want him. I mean, he gets one tough question and immediately throws his wife under the bus. Nice.

Serious for a moment: if I’m some 20-something woman from Georgia and my spouse asks me if I want to move to Boston, my response would be “what?” If he asked me to move to New York, I bet I could think of a reason to get excited. Beantown is pretty great, but there’s no reason to expect her to appreciate it. And New York has its downsides, but pretty much all of them can be bought off. I’ve always thought NY would be a great place to live if you were super-rich.

he gets one tough question and immediately throws his wife under the bus

More like he threw her at Brian Cashman.  Sort of a reverse of that Woody Harrelson/Robert Redford/Demi Moore thing.

I’ve always thought NY would be a great place to live if you were super-rich.

Absolutely.  I’m biased of course, but I’ve always thought that NYC is the only place to live if you’re super-rich.  After all, if you’re super-rich, you can take lots of trips to lots of other places.

I’ve always <strike>thought</strike> known that NYC <strike>would be</strike> is a great place to live <strike>if you were super-rich</strike>, period.

Fixed!

More like he threw her at Brian Cashman.  Sort of a reverse of that Woody Harrelson/Robert Redford/Demi Moore thing.

Is it really reverse, though?  After all, Cashman did just fork over $180M.  The least Tex can do is let Brian have a little fun…

Absolutely.  I’m biased of course, but I’ve always thought that NYC is the only place to live if you’re super-rich.  After all, if you’re super-rich, you can take lots of trips to lots of other places.

Right, you can helicopter out, rather than struggling to get over the GW Bridge with the riffraff.

I said reverse because AFAIK it was Teixeira’s idea to get his wife “involved” in the “negotiations,” not Cashman’s.

I’ve always thought known that NYC would be is a great place to live if you were super-rich, period.

Yeah, once you get over feeling like you’ve stumbled onto the set of Taxi Driver.

It’s pretty interesting to see how so much is being made of Teixeira’s wife’s preference for him to play in NY rather than Boston - as if that preference alone was enough to imply bad faith negotiations.

It’s not.  They both preferred to be with the Yankees but the Yankees didn’t have an offer on the table until the last day.  That means that when Theo, Henry and Co. went to Texas to see him he had no offer from the Yankees to prefer.  If they decided they didn’t want to spend the money after C.C. and A.J. then Teix would be in Boston right now.  This idea that he wouldn’t sign with Boston is completely made up and Teix and Boras said as much yesterday.

I am a penniless graduate student and I think New York is fantastic.  As luck would have it, I spent my undergraduate years just outside Boston and while that city is fine, it hardly stacks up to Gotham.  That’s one reason why so many Sox fans live here, after all.

I think most places can be pretty sweet to live in if you were super-rich.

Yeah, once you get over feeling like you’ve stumbled onto the set of Taxi Driver.

In New York, we refer to that as grit, and it’s viewed as a differentiating and endearing quality. Our inability to clean up is what sets us apart from other cities. Outsiders are scared of it. Hipsters pay a premium for it. Tastemakers lament the loss of it.

So besides Angel Berroa, they also signed John Rodriguez, presumably to take Shelly’s place in AAA as organizational depth.

I think if I were the kind of person that wanted to live *in* the big city, I’d pick NYC.  Of the big cities I’ve visited - true not too many but still - I think it’s the most fun.  If I had to live *near* a big city, I’d probably pick Philly.  But that’s more because I don’t feel like switching states, and the fact I have several friends who live in the Philly suburbs than any affinity to that city.

Personally, I’m quite content that “going into the city” means Scranton for me…though I do love getting to NYC for a day here and there.

Well said George.

I think there’s an institutional imbalance in Baseball, whose pool of spouses is heavily southern. You ask a southern Belle where she wants to live, and once she finds out that “next door to my parents” is not a major league destination, she’s probably going to say New York or LA.

But I don’t blame them. Nobody I know back home has anything nice to say about the South. Not since they caned out senator.

“our”

The story that seems under-reported is Teixeira’s enduring rancor at Boston for sabotaging his first draft entry.  I doubt that Teixeira was setting up the Sox for revenge all along, but the way things played out, it seems to have been a three for one: the most money, a thumb in the eye for Boston, and a happy wife with visions of 5th Avenue dancing in her head.  Although maybe the first of those carried a little more weight than the others.

So besides Angel Berroa, they also signed John Rodriguez, presumably to take Shelly’s place in AAA as organizational depth.

Yeah, they appear to be loading up on players with some ML expierience in AAA (also signing Jason Jones).  And it makes perfect sense.  You pretty much know what you’re going to get with these guys (roughly replacement-level or a little above), with some of them having a little more upside (like Berroa).  I don’t think there’s anything that would prevent a younger player from moving up the ladder, but gives some more depth to cover for short periods of time at the big-league level.

I totally forgot the Teixeira and ARod played together in Texas (2003). I thought they missed each other, but it was Teixiera’s first year and ARod’s last.

If they decided they didn’t want to spend the money after C.C. and A.J. then Teix would be in Boston right now.  This idea that he wouldn’t sign with Boston is completely made up and Teix and Boras said as much yesterday.

I agree.  Perhaps I wasn’t being clear enough.  By interesting I meant from the perspective of the media spin that’s being put on Leigh Teixeira’s preference.  It’s ridiculous to think that just because Tex’s wife preferred NY that this implies that Tex was negotiating in bad faith.  Which is what Gammons and others seem to have concluded from the press conference yesterday and have been squawking about since.

The idea that a player and his family have a rank order of places they would ideally like to play in and live in being tantamount to bad faith negotiations is absurd.  That’s why I was raising the contrast with CC’s wife.  It just points out that the notion that the player’s wife’s preference is deterministic is ludicrous, particularly when as you point out - Tex didn’t even have an offer on the table from the yankees at that time.

the most money, a thumb in the eye for Boston, and a happy wife with visions of 5th Avenue dancing in her head

It’s been a mish-mash to be sure.  I think Tex always *preferred* to play for the Yankees.  I think his wife telling him to was the icing on top.  I don’t think we was going to play for a discount - though I’ve seen/heard some unsubstantiated reports that Washington’s final bid was a little higher - but if the Yankees had a competitive offer, he wanted it. 

I don’t know if Boston could have done anything to still get him besides topping the Yankees’ offer substantially, but I don’t think Boston was being played, nor do I think they were playing the Yankees.  Honestly, this is a case of everyone getting what they wanted.  Tex got his money AND got to go to the club he wanted, and Yankees got the player they wanted w/o (severely) overpaying.

I think the piece was more trying to point out that the trip to Texas may have been all for naught given the dinner with Mrs. Tex six days earlier.

sure, but the quote in the first piece is that Mark asked his wife what she would prefer if “EVERYTHING’S EQUAL”.

meaning that if the Sox wanted him, they were going to have to make everything NOT EQUAL.  that means having the largest bid on the table. 

they were not willing to do that.  so i don’t really see the story here.

The story that seems under-reported is Teixeira’s enduring rancor at Boston for sabotaging his first draft entry.

Maybe that’s because he was asked about it specifically and said it was not a factor.

It’s ridiculous to think that just because Tex’s wife preferred NY that this implies that Tex was negotiating in bad faith.  Which is what Gammons and others seem to have concluded from the press conference yesterday and have been squawking about since.

What’s even more ridiculous is that an off-hand remark about a conversation “a couple of weeks before Christmas” is turned into a precise time-line for the netire dastardly scheme.  I mean, OMG! that’s six days before he met with Henry and Epstein!  He knew he wasn’t going to take their offer!  The Bastard!

According to Boras, Boston made an offer at that meeting and he made a counter offer.  Teixeira would have signed that contract that day if Boston had agreed to it.  I assume that they simply didn’t want to go that high, and that’s perfectly fine.  But unless somebody from the Red Sox’ side who was at the meeting is willing to go on the record disputing Boras’ assertion, Gammons et al need to STFU with all the “he was never going to sign with Boston” crap.

“I thought they missed each other”

Had to read that twice.

sometimes teams have to “overpay” a FA to make him come to their city.  the Tigers did it with Magglio and Pudge.  the Royals had to do it with Meche.  happens all the time.

that was my point, there seems to be some outrage that a player would dare demand a premium to come to Boston.  he should have fallen down on his knees and taken whatever was offered just for the privilege of playing next to Dustin Pedroia.

According to Boras, Boston made an offer at that meeting and he made a counter offer.  Teixeira would have signed that contract that day if Boston had agreed to it.  I assume that they simply didn’t want to go that high, and that’s perfectly fine.

if this is true (very big IF of course), then the Boston FO screwed up IMO. 

that doesn’t mean they should have simply acquiesced to the counter offer, but i can’t imagine a situation where they were SO far apart that simply walking away from the table was the best negotiating tactic.

we know he accepted $180M.  we know Boston’s final offer was $168M.

if i had to GUESS, i would guess that Boras’ counter offer was somewhere around $184M.  if Boston had stayed at the table and been willing to come up a little, i’d be surprised if something couldn’t have been finished. 

instead, they walked out and Henry sent an email saying they were out of the bidding. 

but again, this is all speculation.

He would have to fall down on his knees to play next to Pedroia.

that was my point, there seems to be some outrage that a player would dare demand a premium to come to Boston.  he should have fallen down on his knees and taken whatever was offered just for the privilege of playing next to Dustin Pedroia.

Completely agree. The contrived hoops that are being jumped through to avoid this cognitive dissonance are remarkable.

It’s as if Boston just cannot accept that they were out-strategized/ out-maneuvered on these negotiations.  There’s no way that the management dream team of Epsteing/ Lucchino / Henry could have completely blown what they’d described themselves in their off the record leaks as being essentially a mission critical acquisition.

Given that it couldn’t be that they just blew it - that’s just impossible - therefore the only other conclusion that can be drawn is that Tex negotiated in bad faith.

When if fact Tex didn’t approach his negotiations with Boston that much differently than CC did with the yankees.  CC made it clear that if the Yankees wanted him they would have to pay a premium.  And the yankees simply did it.  And they did it quickly to make sure CC was signed before the Angels could pull out of the Tex negotiations.

Boston on the other hand essentially said to Tex - well you don’t want the honor of playing for us for $168M then fine - go sign with one of your mystery teams.

I’d guess they were assuming there really was a team that offered more it was the Nats so they were just telling tex - either take the honor of playing for us or go play for a losing franchise.

It’s amazing that it only comes out yesterday that Boston management knew all along that the Yankees would get the last crack.  I’m sure that’s why they had John Henry fly on his private plane to Dallas - just so he could go there and then have the yankees get the last crack.

The whole intellectual edifice Boston is trying to construct here is just ridiculous.  They just lost the player and can’t admit it. 

And if they can’t admit that to themselves then that’s a bad sign for them as an organization.  But leadership in organizations lie to themselves that way all of the time.

if i had to GUESS, i would guess that Boras’ counter offer was somewhere around $184M.

You don’t have to guess, assuming you care to take Tony Massarotti’s word for it:

Multiple sources confirmed that Boras presented the Sox with a proposal in which Teixeira could have been signed for a guaranteed $176 million over eight years - precisely $22 million per season - but the deal included a pair of attainable vesting options that would have brought the value to $220 million over 10 years.

I’d say they’d have to be out of their minds not to go to 8/$176M after offering 8/$168M.  But if the vesting options really were so easily attainable, then I certainly couldn’t blame them for passing on 10/$220M.

BTW, here’s the link to the Massarotti story if you’re interested:

http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/massarotti/2009/01/the_final_chapter_on_teixeira.html

The whole intellectual edifice Boston is trying to construct here is just ridiculous.  They just lost the player and can’t admit it.

What? They went as high as they were willing to go on an offer and he said no, taking a higher offer with his preferred team. Really, all this cloak-and-dagger nonsense is just that. It had very little to do with strategy or personality or what have you. The Sox went as high as they could, and basically figured out that the other team was the Yankees, so they bailed. Even if they made a completely ridiculous offer they still probably weren’t going to get him.

When the Yankees win a free agent bidding war, it seems like the explanation is always very simple: they pay more, and people take them seriously as a franchise. It’s not like having to weigh a larger offer from Texas.

And BTW, if Massarotti is claiming that there’s some intrigue here, he’s full of shit.

It’s also pretty hard to argue bad faith on Teixeira’s part if you take Henry at his word:

<blcokquote>Henry said he found it curious they were told “that we were the low bidders and Boston wasn’t high” on Teixeira’s list.

“At one point, I asked Scott, given their feelings, why we shouldn’t pull out,” Henry said in an e-mail message. “His answer was, `Maybe you should.’ And we did.”</blockquote>

That sure sounds like Boras was stringing Henry along, doesn’t it?

OK, that’s enough sarcasm for a little while.

Gammons et al need to STFU with all the “he was never going to sign with Boston” crap.

Basically agree. At some point he would have signed with Boston. But only if they offered cRaZy money. There’s nothing wrong with letting the Sox make another offer even if you’re mostly sure the answer is no. Again, this isn’t a spy novel, just the normal way people do business.

Even if they made a completely ridiculous offer they still probably weren’t going to get him.

That’s the only part I disagree with.  I think if Massarotti’s sources are right about Boras’ counter, and they’d agreed to it, he would have signed.  But like I said, I don’t blame them one bit for saying no to 10/$220M.

if Massarotti is claiming that there’s some intrigue here, he’s full of shit.

Actually, I think he’s claiming the opposite, that there was no intrigue at all (on Boras’ part, that is).  He’s just trying to churn the fanbase with a semi-plausible argument that the Sox could have had Teixeira for a few (million) dollars more.

Even if they made a completely ridiculous offer they still probably weren’t going to get him.

that depends entirely on the validity of Boras’ statement that they came to that meeting ready to sign a contract.

i’m not saying i believe it or that it’s true.

if it is true, i think they screwed up by letting the meeting end without Mark Teixeira being a member of the Red Sox.

if it’s BS, as you seem to think, and i don’t necessarily disagree with, then they probably didn’t screw up.

we’ll probably never know. 

history will remember it one of two ways and that will depend entirely on how well Teixeira plays over the next 8 years….

That’s the only part I disagree with.  I think if Massarotti’s sources are right about Boras’ counter, and they’d agreed to it, he would have signed.  But like I said, I don’t blame them one bit for saying no to 10/$220M.

This is only maybe true if they say take it now or else. If Boras is allowed to call Cashman, knowing Leigh’s preference, Tex still probably goes to NY.

What? They went as high as they were willing to go on an offer and he said no, taking a higher offer with his preferred team. Really, all this cloak-and-dagger nonsense is just that.

That’s perfectly reasonable.  But that’s not what’s being said. 

Why is it that so many people are no claiming that Boston simply had no chance.  Gammons on ESPN essentially said that Tex was negotiating in bad faith - that he had no intention of playing for Boston and that is why he went to the yankees.

This is what Masserrotti wrote yesterday:

1. Did the Red Sox really have a chance?
Presumably, the Sox will say no and Teixeira will say yes. We may never know the real truth. Red Sox officials clearly feel as though they were used by both Boras and Teixeira, meaning that the player’s signing with New York was a forgone conclusion. For Teixeira to admit this publicly would be terribly foolish, particularly when Boras must continue to negotiate deals for future clients.

This issue of the Red Sox “not having a chance” suddenly seems to sprung out of nowhere.

Gammons yesterday said that Tex was acting like a “stalking horse” and deceiving the Sox.

So I agree with you by Occam’s razor and finances it seems reasonable to conclude this was simply a negotiation and the yankees offered more and Tex had them higher on his list. 

But that’s not what the spin has been.  All of a sudden the Sox had no chance and John Henry knew all along that the yanks would be given the “last crack” etc.

But like I said, I don’t blame them one bit for saying no to 10/$220M

It’s that “easily attainable” that is a problem.  By what standard?  If he has to play one game in year 8 to trigger year 9 (and year 9 to trigger year 10), then yeah, that is easily attainable.  If he needs to get 600PA in season 8, that’s pretty easy for 29 yr old Tex, not so much for 36 yr old Tex. 

Regardless, Boston just walking away and then sending emails saying, “we’re out of it” seems like a negotiating strategy to me.  I don’t know if there was some number above 8/170 (I think that number was in the article MC referenced) that Boston was comfortable with, so I can’t say Boston “failed”.  But I also think it is doing Cashman a disservice to just say he handed Boras a check and said, “fill in the amount”.

But I also think it is doing Cashman a disservice to just say he handed Boras a check and said, “fill in the amount”.

And I’m not claiming that you are saying (exactly) that SSF, but a lot of stuff I have read in the media and people commenting on blogs the last couple of weeks give Cashman no credit for anything, and claim his job is essentially to just hand out large checks.

But like I said, I don’t blame them one bit for saying no to 10/$220M.

But they didn’t simply say no.  They didn’t make a counter offer. Their issue was the option years.  They didn’t even attempt to negotiate down those option years which would have been the logical next step.

This is what Masserotti wrote about that 10/220 offer:

While it is unclear whether the Sox could have negotiated down those options, indications are that they dismissed the proposal.

That’s the thing - they seem to have just “dismissed” the offer.

In general you only dismiss a proposal rather than making a counter offer or continuing to negotiate if you think the other guy is bluffing and you feel confident you have the best offer.

So I’m not sure if one can conclude that 8/170 was the Sox financial limit.  It may have been that was their perception of what the best offer Tex likely had on that table.

It may have been simply their way of calling a bluff - Henry’s very public reaction to that meeting in Texas sure seemed that way.

But that’s not what the spin has been.  All of a sudden the Sox had no chance and John Henry knew all along that the yanks would be given the “last crack” etc.

Well, OK, but the Sox are a PR operation. They never say what they feel, they say what they think helps them. Ever since Theo came back, they have plugged the leaks in a manner that would make Ari Fleischer proud. For all we know, they’re acting wounded, playing the ref (Boras) for the next deal. I would.

They didn’t make a counter offer.

Making a counter offer is an implicit rejection of the previous offer.  Yeah, they didn’t try to negotiate those options down, or make them less “easily attainable” or anything else.  But I wasn’t going for an exhaustive analysis of the entire process, just trying to refute the “bad faith” BS.

For all we know, they’re acting wounded, playing the ref (Boras) for the next deal. I would

No Boras has the clear advantage in all future negotiations with the Red Sox.  This is the second time they assumed they had the best offer and Boras was bluffing and this is the 2nd time they were wrong.  Not only were they wrong both times but both times it was the Yankees that landed the player. 

Next time do you think the Sox are as likely to dismiss Boras as bluffing?  That puts Boras in a better position to actually bluff.

And just to finish off the thought on the “bad faith,” Boras is quoted as saying that when he makes a counter-proposal, the team knows that the player will sign that contract if the team agrees.  To make a counter offer, have it accepted, and then turn around and say, “we’ll get back to you” so that you can shop those numbers to other teams would be bad faith.  It’s not bad faith if you really are willing to sign on the dotted line right then and there, even if the demands are such that you know the other side won’t accept them and you’re real intent is to solicit another counter-offer that you can shop around.  IOW, you can shop what they offer if it’s still less than what you asked for, but not if it’s what you’ve already told them you’d take.

Well, OK, but the Sox are a PR operation. They never say what they feel, they say what they think helps them.

Sure, they are - as are all teams. The yankees as well.  And the sox do a very, very good job of it (as masserrotti pointed out today).

That’s basically what I was saying.  The Sox are saying things which help them.  In this case they are now saying that they had no practical chance of signing Tex and that he essentially negotiated in bad faith. They haven’t said it directly but that’s the direction of their spin, their leaks and much of the commentary.

The alternative to Tex negotiating in bad faith aren’t very pretty for the sox.  Either they were simply out maneuvered for a player they themselves admitted to targeting for years or they failed to match an offer that was roughly 5% higher in guaranteed dollars.

Neither one of those reasons is nearly as appealing as blaming the counterparty - if he negotiates in bad faith then the Sox bear no responsibility at all for losing a player that they’d been extremely public about wanting.  All of those leaks about how badly they wanted Tex and for how long they’d been eying him weren’t coincidences.

When you’re that public about your desire for a player and don’t get him it’s hard to walk that back.  Thus the spin.

IOW, you can shop what they offer if it’s still less than what you asked for, but not if it’s what you’ve already told them you’d take.

That would be kind of like if you were at a car-dealer and they offered you the car at the best value.  You say, “okay, we’ll be back in an hour to finish the paper-work”.  You get back and they say, “sorry, someone else liked the car and offered more”.  You’d certainly never shop there again, and at the least you’d spread the word around.  I’m sure some car salesmen still do that, but I think most realize it’s bad for business.

The alternative to Tex negotiating in bad faith aren’t very pretty for the sox.  Either they were simply out maneuvered for a player they themselves admitted to targeting for years or they failed to match an offer that was roughly 5% higher in guaranteed dollars.

I wouldn’t put it that way—I’d say they were negotiating a 75% hopeless situation, which isn’t bad faith, just bad luck. But I sense we’re in agreement on this stuff, so I’ll leave it at that.

Boras is quoted as saying that when he makes a counter-proposal, the team knows that the player will sign that contract if the team agrees.

OK, sounds fair. Then the counter-proposal surely wasn’t just 5% more. It must have been unacceptable. Who knows???

Next time do you think the Sox are as likely to dismiss Boras as bluffing?  That puts Boras in a better position to actually bluff.

Actually, they called Boras’ bluff on Varitek, and they were right. When it’s a premier player like Teixeira or Damon, I think the Sox can guess that there are other offers; versus an aging catcher with a VORP around zero, they can safely assume he’s bluffing.

Yeah, I was shocked Varitek didn’t accept arbitration.

OK, sounds fair. Then the counter-proposal surely wasn’t just 5% more. It must have been unacceptable. Who knows???

I think the last part is the biggest one.  And we may never know.  The counter may not have been unacceptable, just not one Boston thought they’d *have* to pay.  Going back to the car-analogy…you may be willing to pay $20K for a particular car.  If you offer $18K and the dealer counters with $20K, that doesn’t mean you’ll jump on it; you may instead counter with $19K.  Dealer may not go any lower (or provide other incentives) so eventually you have to decide if you are losing face by taking the offer.

But as you said, we really DON’T know what happened; even if the rumor of 2 option years is correct, the #‘s could be off by several million $‘s, either way.  I’m inclined to think that Henry overplayed his hand, and Cashman played his well.  That doesn’t mean the Sox could have gotten Tex or that Cashman “beat” the Sox.  And that’s just opinion gathered from incomplete data.

The counter may not have been unacceptable, just not one Boston thought they’d *have* to pay.

Gordon Edes had a very interesting take on all of this that was different than Masserotti’s in the details of the negotiations.

Edes said that the Sox also had an offer with two vesting years in it that would have totalled 10/212M but Tex/Boras didn’t agree to the conditions of the vesting options.  Tex expected Boston to continue to negotiate on AAV due to the problems with the vesting options but instead Boston just pulled out:

It is commonly understood that Boston made an offer of eight years for about $170 million. What is not widely known is that the Red Sox also had on the table two vesting option years which would have realized Boras’ goal to land a 10-year deal for his client.

Teixeira thought the Red Sox were at least prepared to mull it over. Instead, they balked, Henry sending out an email to the media that the Red Sox would not be a factor. The Henry protest was construed as a bluff, and it was. Boston kept talking to Boras, though in the end, they did not make substantive changes to their offer.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ge-teixeirareconstruct010609&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Yeah, I don’t think anyone really blames the Red Sox for trying to put their spin on the negotiations - the only real complaints are about the media going ALONG with said spin - like Gammons actually changing his take on the situation from a reasonable enough one (with just a little “the Red Sox really don’t NEED Tex” sprinkled in) to suddenly “the Red Sox intentionally tried to raise the price of Tex’s contract just to hurt the Yankees, who they knew all along would sign Tex” which is just complete and utter BS.