Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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You can hear audio of an extended chat the Kamenetsky brothers (of the Times) held with Dodger outfielder Matt Kemp. I realized that in the past two years, I had hardly ever heard Kemp speak, so even though nothing earthshattering was said, I found it a nice get-acquainted experience.
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Scott Proctor and the Dodgers agreed to a 2008 contract, at a salary, according to Diamond Leung of the Press-Enterprise, of $1,150,000.
Contracts are only not guaranteed in the NFL, where you can cut a player without having to pay the rest of the contract. You will get a hit to your hard salary cap based on pro-rating the signing bonus but you will not be responsible for paying out the contract.
The Brian Grant situation occurred a few seasons ago, when the NBA had a one time/one player cut oppurtunity where you could cut and come to a financial settlement (or payout the rest of the contract) and that player's salary would not count against your salary cap and more likely, your luxury tax bill. Now, you still had to pay the player what he was owed but lets say you have a situation like Grant, you could not have his salary potentially push you into the dollar for dollar luxury tax.
Baseball does not have a salary cap so right now, there is no incentive to buy out a contract, you generally just Designate For Assignment (DFA) his contract and if you don't trade him, you end up paying out the rest of the conttract and the player becomes a free agent.
This all being said, the Dodgers are on the hook for rest of the money owed to Juan Pierre, they can pay out over the next 4 years or cut him and pay it out over the next 4 years.
Um...Yay!
Hey, Brock, I was scrolling through some chats and saw you asked (thoughtfully) about how my classes were going. The answer is quite well, thank you. I'm rapidly falling in love with the job, thanks for asking. I'm still struggling trying to get on to googlemail to check on my account but when I do, expect a message and a request for a firm commitment to get together.
You da' man.
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Regarding the Kemp chat, the man has mastered the art of answering a question without causing controversy. I like that.
His comments about going to China, however, reveal something that I like: he wishes to broaden his experiences and doesn't find someplace like China to be threatening. That's a great way to view the world, and can help him.
I'm also glad he said nothing about last year's breakdown, or about the speculation that he'd be traded.
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