If you go into every negotiation willing to cave in on unreasonable demands, then you might as well not negotiate since everyone will know you don't mean it.
At the same time, you also have to acknowledge that a player asking for market value isn't unreasonable. If the reports of Gonzalez wanting Tex money are accurate, then that's a fair deal (especially in light of the Werth signing).
I'm a believer in paying players based on what they are worth to you, not based on what someone else got or what the Yankees were willing to pay. Otherwise, the agents for every pitcher will start negotiations with Barry Zito's contract.
Market value is what other teams are willing to pay for him, not what the Yankees paid for Tex.
Yea, thats great and all in theroy, but when every other team is paying FA's more (witness nats contract to werth) you are no longer talking about "all the other teams overpay, and we aren't getting caught in that" you are talking about "we don't want to pay the value the market has established as the baseline for these players, because we want it both ways"
The second option is unacceptable if you expect me to pay the highest ticket prices in baseball.
The whole "red sox area a golden goos franchise" is based on a simple unspoken social contract.
You pay a high salary budget to players to get a winning team on the field and I pay you obnoxiously high ticket prices and concession prices to watch said team without complaint, and watch a bunch of games on TV because I know your trying to provide me with a high quality product.
When you try to get by on the cheap and fill the stadium anyway, ala sox since failing to get Tex, then my end of the social contract breaks down, and you see fake ace ticket "sell outs" and dropping ratings as they have been.
It's a symbiotic relationship, and they aren't holding up their end.
