9-News: 36.107 – Monday Massacre!

[RonCo]

News that everyone was expecting but no one wanted to hear came today in the form of Lawrence Columbus LaLoosh, Lucas McNeill, and Carlos Garcia all submitting paperwork to opt out of their contracts with Yellow Springs.

“We received notice,” said GM Ron Collins in a terse comment.

While it seems obvious Garcia was gone from day one of the season, the club had been holding scant hope that either LaLoosh or McNeill would be silly enough to stick with their home team. That dubious bubble popped for good today. Now all three players have a brief window in which the team can negotiate extensions, but the facts of the case are pretty clear. Rumors are that both superstars are looking for contracts like or better than those that David Noboru and Emilio Morales signed with Jacksonville and Omaha.

“We’re doing what we can,” Collins said. “Both of these guys say they are interested in returning if the dollars can be worked out. We have dollars. So there’s reasonable expectation to think both of these guys could be with us next year.”

Fans and most pundits aren’t so sure. “Right now the Nine are like a tall ship that just hit an iceberg,” said ESPN analyst Gayle Combs. “It’s taking water from multiple holes, and there are only so many dollars around to fill them. It’s time to make some hard decisions.” To add to this, McNeill's pop-star wife Mikki Manning was thought to have reached out to a real estate broker knowledgeable about selling houses in the Ohio area.

[indiansfan]

This could dramatically change the identity of your team. Bet you get one of them back

[RonCo]

It most definitely would. We'll see what happens. A lot depends on how deep FA is and what kind of deep pockets exist elsewhere. I'm not planning on over-paying them, but I'm not sure what "overpaying" means right now.

Angsty times, though.