Some assume that the reason Joe Crede is not today a Giant is that Brian Sabean didn’t match or try to match the Twins’ offer. What they miss, though, is that Sabean could have done so, and Crede still might have chosen to sign elsewhere. It’s not my job to defend Sabean, since much of what he’s done in recent years is pretty indefensible, but Sabean is not the only one making the decision about where Joe Crede plays baseball.
I know that in my own career, I’ve made decisions about what job to take or not take based on money, or on my marriage, or on medical benefits for my kids, or on long-term goals, or on my daily satisfaction with the work, or on the “culture” of the office. The only person who might have grasped all these factors, or how they balanced, was my wife.
Now we hear and read a lot about similar decisions made by talented ballplayers. We speculate that this guy followed the money, or the other guy went to a team in the region where he was raised. We’ll assume that the agent actually makes the decision, or that the player picked the team because he hits well in their home park.
But at the end of the day, we have no idea what we’re talking about. That’s because the decision about where to play, like our own decisions on where to work, is an intensely personal one that considers factors we cannot know. Baseball players are like the rest of us. They have wives and families, they like big cities or small towns, warm weather or cold, golfing or surfing.
For Crede, to take one example, this was the first time in his professional life he’d been able to negotiate anything other than his salary (and he hadn’t even had that opportunity much). He was 18 when the White Sox selected him in the fifth round of the 1996 draft, and now, more than twelve years later, he’s been able to choose his employer, the city where he’ll work, and presumably, live and raise his family. He’s never had that choice or one like it before, and as to his motives in selecting the Twins, let’s face it, we’re all just guessing. Like a lot about baseball, and a lot about life, this is one where no one knows anything.
Tools of Ignorance, a Giants Baseball Blog 
April 16, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Well, your wife and you, hopefully.
Arguably?
I agree about Crede. Never thought I’d be mildly bummed to see the Twins plug a blackhole such as the one they’ve had at 3rd since Koskie took Toronto’s millions and left town, but I do wish Crede had become a Giant, instead.
I believe the Giants have pitching capable of winning 11 playoff games — I don’t know if the kids the Twins are rotating out to the mound do. Maybe they’ll rise to the occasion, but even with their struggles to start ’09, the Giants’s staff is legit, I think.