Hey Houston, Sox have a problem
According to the Houston Chronicle, former White Sox catcher Toby Hall is going to have surgery on the same right shoulder he damaged nearly two years ago in spring training.
Hall signed a minor-league deal with the Astros in January, and it’s bad news for the catcher.
Here’s the good part…“It remains to be seen whether the Astros or the Chicago White Sox, where he played when he initially hurt himself two years ago, will pay for the surgery,” the Chronicle implied.
When asked to respond late Monday night, GM Kenny Williams offered this in an e-mail: “?”
Exactly.
Toby Hall is a good guy, and he tried playing through a lot of pain the past two seasons while contributing very little.
In hindsight, Hall should have had surgery right away.
But let’s get back to the present. Why would the Sox have to pay for Hall’s surgery?
The 33-year-old catcher was a free agent before signing with Houston, but he wasn’t a “Type A” or “Type B” variety, which means the Astros would have had to compensate the White Sox with draft picks (A) or a draft pick (B).
Hall was, with all due respect, a “nothing” free agent, meaning no compensation was involved.
So why would the Chronicle report the White Sox could be on the hook for Hall’s surgery?
“?” indeed.
Hey, I get it. Sux is Sox, as in the White Sox, but you switched out the vowels in the middle so Sox became Sux, as in the Sox suck! WOW! That's genius! Brilliant! How long did it take to come up with that clever bit of wordplay?? Your soooo smart....
The sux fans have always been the second class citizens when it comes to baseball fans in this city. Thats what drives them nuts. Even after they got lucky in 2005, they still where the second team in town. 2005 was probably the weakest year in many years for baseball. Compare that lucky 05 sux team to real World Series winners prior to and since 05. The sux are the worst team to win a World Series in modern times. Thats a fact! Now get over it white trash sux fans. LOL!!
Lucky or not, they got the ring. The Cubs slogan this year will be "100 years and counting".
Who Gives A Crap
Just label as Uncle Drayton throwing a hissy fit against the city of Chicago; the White Sox drubbing of them in 2005, and last year's "home game" no hitter in Milwaukee.
I'm actually enjoying this since I live in Houston.. :-)
I would imagine the White Sox would be responsible for the surgery as the injury occurred while performing job duties. I believe this falls under the workman's comp rules.
The Astros checked out Toby's shoulder before they signed him. They knew he's had a problem with the shouilder, but they went ahead and invited him to spring training. And when the White Sox decliined to pick up Toby's option for this season, they officially cut ties with him.
Had the Sox traded Hall to Houston, the Astros could have claimed "damaged goods" due to the shoulder. But he was a free agent, so Toby became Houston's problem.
Here is another way to look at it...Joe Crede just signed with the Minnesota Twins. If his back gives out again and he needs more surgery, do you think the Twins are going to ask the White Sox to pay for it?
you may know better than i do, but i read in the houston chronicle that the astros were going to "void" his contract. perhaps i'm getting too legalistic in interpreting the author's word choice, but one scenario in which a contract is void or voidable is when there has been a misrepresentation by one party or otherwise the "goods" weren't delivered according to specifications. i realize that clubs routinely give physicals to players signing major league contracts and when trading for players and so on. it seems, however, that this would be a rather unnecessary cost to incur for players signing minor league contracts, like toby hall did. do clubs really fly in all these players for physicals and exams before signing? seems like it would make more sense to do a physical or exam when the players report to camp and simply have a clause in the contract regarding injury in which the contract may be voided for certain things.
on the other hand, using the term "void" would obviously be a clever way to make it seem like there never was a valid contract and thus the white sox should pay.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/6275236.html
The Chronicle story says Hall had an MRI and then met with the team doctor, athletic trainer and assistant GM, and it says they could have rehabbed him for 30 days and used him one day a week this year, but they needed more from him than that and convinced him to have the surgery.
and that has what to do with what i wrote?