Quick question/survey hopefully i wont cause riots in the street like my last forum.......

Could Busby have just cost the Rangers a couple mil to retain CJ, or will this all just blow over. Has this incident soured you on the Ceej? (look its not flippin the ball to Wash, but it was definately a crappy attitude and poor sportsmanship)... Or should we just say all around it was just a bad day for Rangers baseball from CJ, to Elvis, to Feliz, to that gawdawful Kinsler throw to 1st.

Should we just hit the reset button or will this Busby thing linger with CJ. My one worry is this... CJ lets things bother him, and he lets things linger. If calls arent going away you can tell it f***s with his game. So is he just like that in game, or is he the same outside of the game, and this Buzz incident is gonna leave a sour taste in his mouth. Just wondering what yall think....

I said that last night in the chat...

CJ lets calls get to his head WAY too easily. He doesn't have that "pitch by pitch" mentality that the great ones have. I'm not a fan whatsoever of the way he presents himself on the mound and off. He just acts like he is way bigger than the game, and I dont like it.

I just finished writing this in The Clubhouse - before I saw this forum post pop up:

Meh. I think this is much ado about nothing. CJ didn't really say anything wrong, and although Busby did look disgusted (which is more funny than anything), he didn't really "rant" or say anything that crazy either - he just got a little animated. I hope Texas can sign CJ in the offseason - we need him, even with his sometimes puzzling attitude.

It really does seem like C.J. has a giant ego. Don't get me wrong, he is one of my favorite pitchers, but he is not a #1 starter. He will never be Cliff Lee. Busby was right about C.J. and he should just admit that he really sucked last night. I could tell in the first inning that this was not going to be his night.

P.S.: We need another starting pitcher (Kershaw?).

Natural I remembered you saying that thus why I put that in. just for you!

WWJDD - i too hope they resign CJ. I was done with CJ after the ball flip to Wash. But the team and mgmt stuck with him, and not only that he proved his worth and earned his right to the rotation (a VERY rare thing in baseball these days, typically youre drafted to be a RP or a SP, and thats that, its very rare to see someone go from RP to SP not that it doesnt happen just saying it was quite an acheivment on his behalf) and thus re-earned my respect. I will disagree with you a little in that CJ was a little diva-ish last night, and i dont think he's earned that right yet. He's close to being an ace, but he's not there yet. I know that the missed calls bother him, and i also dont think he likes YT catching him. I've noticed a propensity towards Naps.

I'll equate it this way, i'll repeat that CJ is almost an ace, but he's not there yet. So he shouldnt expect to get every borderline call like Cliff Lee or Halladay, Verlander, etc. Its the equivelant of why Kevin Durant was bitching in the WCF about not getting close foul calls. Your a star kid. But youre not Kobe, youre not Lebron, youre not a superstar yet. You have to earn that, then you get those calls. Same thing for CJ. Up your play, become an Ace, earn the calls.

CJ for MVP :P

I happen to like how CJ internalizes everything and how it makes him work in preparation for his next game. Emotions get to everyone after a loss like last night. Actually, I'm not a big fan of the after the game in everyone's face interviews that start out with something to the effect of "well you sucked bad tonight- how do you feel about it?" We know how we all feel about it. We all know what happened. CJ will watch film on this, work hard, and get back to throwing strikes- which just wasn't happening last night.

To answer your question though, Busby cost the club a few million. Calls do get CJ, a lot. They get to us too though.

This is coming from a huge CJ fan, proud supporter of his charity, and dad of a couple of kids CJ has gone out of his way a couple of times to make HUGE positive impressions on. I'm completely biased about CJ, not to the Ben and Skin extent (grow the show) but probably close.

I'm also hopeful to not cause any riots today...

I guess I am in the minority - I don't have a problem with CJ, his attitude, or his comments yesterday. People say things they regret or come out wrong all the time. We are really nitpicking here with the best starter we have had in a long time (rentals not included). I also don't agree with the notion that CJ will never be Cliff Lee...why not? He has come a long way as a pitcher and seems to still be getting better/smarter. I'm not saying I expect it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him contend for a CY Young sometime in the next few years.

It was a bad game. I fully expect CJ to bounce back in his next outing and I don't think this has any impact on his signing. And while he didn't own it in the interview, he owned it on twitter (probably after reflecting on the interview and Busby's comments) and he said he stunk.

Let's move on to more important items...like the need to put Mikey Baseball at SS because Elvis is aweful!

I can't imagine this will play into his contract negotiations in any way. I think that will be all about $$$. It's not like if the rangers outbid anyone, CJ will pass up millions because one time (in like 5 seasons here) their post game show announcer said something negative about him.

sorry, meant to say if the rangers outbid everyone*

i dont think it will effect whether it he wants to come here or not, but if he's gonna be a a diva he might just want a couple mil more if he feel's he's gonna have to deal with such scrutiny from time to time. savvy? sports stars with egos (not accusing him of that) have done worse so i'm just throwing that out there. I do think its very clear though that CJ himself think a whole lot more about himself as a pitcher than the rest of the public does. kinda makes you wonder if we created this. maybe we shoulda threw Colby out there as our "number 1" and it mightve curbed his sense of self satisfaction. i dunno.

he busts his ass and is a hard worker. from what ive heard he has the work ethic of Tom Brady, always watching film, and always studying. So i completely agree, what says he cant be cliff lee. he learned all he could from him...danielsan! And speaking of, Brady's been known to be a little diva ish at times... (granted he's earned it with 4 rings) so maybe it comes with the territory

I highly doubt making him the "number 2" when he is clearly the best SP on the team would have helped; if anything that would have really insulted him, much more than the interview last night would have. The Busby "incident," if you can call it that, is nothing compared to the scrutiny he would face in NY or Boston, so I really don't think this will have any effect on anything related to CJ's contract.

I actually love CJ's attitude, his quirkiness, his expectation that he should be brilliant every time out. All the great golfers, when they shank one into the rough, look at their club as if it MUST be the club's fault (they themselves would never miss a shot that badly if not for a club malfunction)!

However, as for Free Agency, I think CJ will do what 85-90% of Free Agents do and go to the highest bidder. And that will probably be the Yankees.

This is one of those situations that will probably melt away in this blast furnance summer after a couple of days.
Is C.J. a bit of a prima donna? Yep. Is he also a talented lefty with a positive upside? Yep. Does he get a bit off center when things don't go his way? Yep again.
The image of him flipping the ball to Wash on the mound a couple of years ago is still fresh in my mind, but after a couple of days that blew over when Wash made it clear he was the manager and a pitcher will do what he tells him to do.
I would like to think that while he is a bit self-centered, C.J. and his agent won't let Steve Busby's comments be the deciding factor in where he winds up next year. After all, C.J. could be dealing with the New Yawk media for heaven's sakes.
As far as Busby is concerned, I truly appreciate his willingness to say what needs to be said. About a month ago when Derek Holland lost focus and blew that game against the Mets, Busby correctly pointed out that Holland lost focus when an umpire blew a call at second. Instead of pouting, Busby said, Holland should have gathered himself and worked harder to keep his team in the game.
Busby, before he blew out his shoulder, was a quality major league pitcher with two no-hitters to his credit and was a constant headache to Ranger teams.
In short, he knows what he's talking about and I like to listen to what he has to say.
This was a good threat started by our friend Dcaggie06.

I any pitcher (not just CJ) refuses to re-sign with a team because they are subject to the occasional scrutiny from the post-game show, then we can at least rest assure he's not going to sign with the Yankees. You don't know a thing about scrutiny until you talk to AJ Burnett, Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes.

Also, it's the job of the post-game show to analyze what happened in the game. If teams were worried these shows would adversely affect them with their stars these shows would not exist, or at least would have very little access to the team (travel, etc) if the team had no say over whether the show exists or not.

Sorry, meant to say "thread'' not "threat.''
As far as I know, ol' Dc hasn't threatened anyone!

you know RangersBU87 and D might be on to something. If he got that ruffled by steve busby (and he did) he might seriously need to reconsider even remotely going to Bos, NY, Chi, Philly, LA; any place like that. he'd get eat alive. Hell Nolan might fire Busby if it ensures CJ resigns. (that was a joke)

Dc,
I totally forgot about Nolan in all this. I wonder what he thinks about CJ's comments. I bet he was unimpressed. I seriously doubt Busby's comments cost the Rangers extra money in retaining CJ, but on the flip side, CJ may have shaved some money off what the Rangers would have been willing to give him. I can see something like this sticking in Nolan's craw to the extent he's unwilling to shell out ace type money for CJ, though he could still get a ton of money from someone else. Not saying that'll happen, but they've already balked at going beyond their comfort zone to get a big time pitcher (extra year for Lee), and Nolan let Lewin go, even though most people thought he did an excellent job, because he wasn't "baseball" enough. Obviously your best pitcher is different than your PBP guy, but Nolan's shown he's willing to let his own opinions come before good business sense (whether or not you like Lewin, replacing a proven guy with someone totally unprepared and ill-equipped to do the job is poor judgment). If the Rangers get in a bidding war over CJ, they may now be less inclined to go all in for a guy some of them may have questions about. These comments may have shrunk their "comfort zone" as far as what they are willing to dish out to retain CJ.