Chico Harlan obviously never negotiated a serious deal:

But why delay all this until the last hours? Maybe I just don’t understand enough about negotiations, or about the value of scare tactics/pressure in brokering deals — but to me, nothing about the blueprint for amateur draftee contract talks makes sense. When you have 70 days to work something out, why save the vast majority of the work for, say, the last two weeks, or even the last six hours? It would be like having two months to travel across the country on a road trip, only to decide on the final day remaining, ‘Well, I’m heading off to California now, and hopefully my car goes 300 mph.’

Neither side sat on their hands. Each side has a number. The Nationals have a number they won’t go over. Strasburg has a number he won’t go under. Each side wants to get the other as close to their best number as they can. Last season, the numbers for the Nationals and their first pick didn’t cross, and no amount of time would have solved that. Waiting as long as possible gets both sides closer to their best deal.

Update: Those numbers may change over time, too. The Nationals appear to be a better team right now than when they drafted Strasburg. He may require less money to pitch for a good team than a bad team, since he’s more likely to put up a good record with a better team. That (I’m sorry to say) still counts when he becomes a free agent.