Tempering the tampering

In regards to Steady B's comment in the last post:

While it is very conceivable that the Sox tampered with Drew, I think he would have excercised that option regardless. When your agent is Scott Boras and the insane money that Carlos Lee and Alfonso Soriano are getting, I don't care if Drew said he had leprosy and beat up a hooker, he'd get at least that $33 million back in this market. He was the best outfielder on the market in a year that will hurt a lot of franchises moving forward, so I'm convinced he would have opted out even if the Sox and Yanks had their outfields set.

I more was making the comment about the owner being dumb. If Henry or Steinbrenner started saying "Yeah, we're thinking of trading for Pujols and Santana in a deal", even if there is truth to the negotiations it still screws with the mentality of a player on another team (and that was just a hypothetical comment). If Lowell or Tavarez suddenly get upset because they were included, not just talked about but already set to be traded, well, that is kind of shitty (though may or may not be tampering). If making players on another team aware of the fact that they were not enough to get a deal done but were already put in another uniform by management, there might be some fallout with guys that you were to have gone to war with for the next six months.

Whether it is tampering or not, it is just bad policy. It is one thing to hear your name bandied around associated with a trade rumor that is ultimately speculation. It is another for an owner to come out and say, "Yeah, we had this guy, that guy, and the other guy agreed on, it was just that last piece that didn't fit."

Bah. Now I'm worked up.