though I’d think that the first three priorities would be winning/money in some order, stability, and location, all things being equal, it would be easy to see a guy pick his current team because he likes the atmosphere, or pick another team because the other players were very welcoming or texted him and told him how much they wanted him to come, etc.

I know that in the NBA at least, free agents always talk about getting recruited by current players on a prospective team, and that can make a big difference when the money is equal (which it often is in the NBA)

Did this exact post get put up a couple months back? Because this is uncomfortable.

But yes, I would guess any baseball player would have some attraction to what he feels is a “fun” team. But what is that? How many players are really different from last year to this year, and do you thing they really make a difference?

Last year Ichiro was a “clubhouse cancer” (as he was many other years)…now he’s tickle-me Elmo. I think it comes down to expectations and performance.

If you’re playing for the Yankees and you play .500…well, that sucks. The city attacks you, the owner is on your case, and life is shit. If you’re playing for the Royals and you get to .500 it’s a great year. Obviously you want to play for a good team and succeed, but only to a degree…you want a playoff berth, but not stupid expectations.

Some might be more inclined to want to be with a ‘fun’ clubhouse to the point that they would accept less money / less prestige / etc. But others would find the clubhouse atmosphere to be pointless (perhaps they hate everyone, perhaps they want to win above all else, perhaps they just want the biggest paycheck).

My cynical self says that more players would care about money or winning than whether or not a clubhouse is fun. And clubhouses change. No one who cared about clubhouse antics would have given the M’s a discount after 2008’s debacle. But add a few players, take some away, and the atmosphere is completely different. What happens in 2010 if Griffey and Sweeney and a few others aren’t there and replaced by less amusing players? I would wonder if a player would take that into consideration as well.

than get paid more and work with jerks.

Course with millions involved my tone might change. It’s hard to say, really. But I’m sure a positive clubhouse is much harder to wave goodbye to.

Attracting players on the premise that : 1) Seattle pays FAIRLY well. 2) Great bunch of guys. 3) A commitment to win. The Angels have pulled this off for a decade.

But I don’t think a player who is making a decision between $60 million and $80 million makes that decision based on money at all. What difference does that make? Once you get to that point, it doesn’t make a sniff of difference in your quality of life. My life would be different if I had an extra 10% of salary. At that level, there is no real difference.

The reason players (or actors, or corporate executives) want more and more money is that a salary represents prestige and respect. We’re psychologically predisposed to compare ourselves to our peers and to base our self-worth on those comparisons. A player making $2,000,000 a year (unless he’s particularly well grounded) doesn’t compare himself to the regular people in the stands making a tiny fraction as much; he compares himself to the other guy in a similar role making $4,000,000.

A person making over $10,000,000 a year could take half his money and burn it, and it would make almost no difference to his life; in fact, that is what many athletes do, to all intents and purposes. What they want is to be able to say to themselves, I make more than that guy.

to know that chemistry is unpredictable. Would it factor into someone’s decision in late March to sign a one year deal? Maybe. Would it factor into someone’s decision to sign a four year deal in December? Probably not. Players have seen how fast clubhouse environments change, and unless the good atmosphere is produced by a few key guys who were likely to stick around (eg Ichiro and not Sweeney), I can’t see them or their agents (who also have a financial interest in this) letting that become a dispositive consideration.

But this is Felix’s first chance to make some money at what he does so I think any concessions he’ll make will be minimal.

is that “team chemistry”/atmosphere probably has some influence on players Jack Z can bring in that are struggling with other clubs on how they do here. A player like say, Snell, probably is going to be helped not just by the difference in coaching but also the difference in atmosphere. I believe in life, really everything we experience and accomplish is affected by our attitudes and belief systems. We tend to be more able to do what we honestly believe we can do especially when our surrounding environment is supportive of that confidence and optimism. Of course, a player like that might feel great in the new clubhouse emotionally and still struggle with their baseball skills, but I just think they’re much less likely to find a way to turn it around without that positive reinforcement.

that this “intangible” could help us achieve the kind of WAR improvement we need with the limited cash flow that we’ve got. If it’s not true that we’re in a great position to take underachieving players and help them improve their game and feel better and more confident, we’re much more … well, screwed.

….but talent makes a much bigger difference.

I can see going after chemistry when you’re considering folks who are roughly equal to each other in talent…but consider the talent first, chemistry second.

It can help you to sign a player who was deciding between two different clubs, and make him take your contract over some other (probably equal contract). ALternately, you might get a small discount on a contract because the player would prefer to play for you, so you save a little money.

After all, you would probably choose to work in a place that you really loved working, and really liked your coworkers, over a place where you were neutral or negative towards those things. And you might even take a little less money to do it.

If we get a discount on Felix of only 5%, a small percentage, then thats still a million a year, which means it more than pays for Griffey and Sweeneys salaries for 2008.