a classless move

I disagree... $16 million dollars is a lot to pay; this is why the insurance policies are taken out.

dude bad contracts are a part of baseball. mo vaughn, chan ho park, jason giambi. you just gotta deal with it, not try to weasel out of it, especially when it is one of your franchises' true franchise players (who actually took less money to stay there, now look what he gets).

The article I read says that Bagwell gets paid $17million
whether he plays or not. The Astros' filing will allow them
to get a large portion of that amount in compensation from an insurance co. But, since Bagwell is declared
officially disabled (as the article says Dr. Andrews said),
is he legally bound not to play for another team?

moving to the texas rangers or angels???

IMHO, it is classless because Bagwell agreed to the backloaded contract to help the Astros. And now the Astros basically want the discount, but want to weasel out of the balloon year.

And they want to force him into retirement when he still wants to play. One of their all time great players.

Sue,

Bagwell is under contract to the Astros. He can't move to another team unless the contract becomes void for some reason.

He can't throw the ball. That's kind of important in the game, especially in the NL. I always liked Bags, but you gotta know when it's time to hang 'em up.

Nate is right. Bagwell wants $16m to be a pinch hitter. The team needs to look out for the team, not its 50-year old former star who just wants another pile of money.

My understanding is that Bagwell hasn't been able to throw for at least the last couple of years. But he has still been a reasonable defensive 1b. There's a lot more catching at 1b than throwing. First basemen do not need to throw very often. If Jeff can bat then he should be OK.

If Bagwell can play I'm sure the Astros management will be happy to play him. If he can't then they surely should want to collect on their insurance policy.

"he cant throw the ball"

He plays 1B. How much throwing does he gotta do?

"He plays 1B. How much throwing does he gotta do?"

A decent amount actually, 3-6-3 double plays, throwing the ball back to the pitcher when checking on the runner. It`s hard to blame either side on this, Bagwell just wants to play, but the Astros can`t afford to take the risk financially.

re: Astros file an insurance claim

How about a claim on their employment discrimination insurance for not having any players of color when they went to the World Series last year??? That was an all-white team, y'all. I realize it's the South, but hey, Joe Morgan almost led them to a win over the 80' Phillies....

--arthur john kyriazis
--philly