Thursday 9 December 2010

Tiger-Cat Free Agents and My Beef With CFL GMs

First things first, the Tiger-Cats have released the list of players that will be unrestricted free agents come February 16, 2011.
  • Chris Bauman (WR)
  • Alexandre Gauthier (OL)
  • George Hudson (OL)
  • Adam Nicolson (WR)
  • Brian Ramsey (OL)
  • Jermaine Reid (DL)
  • Steve Schmidt (WR/TE/FB)
  • Geoff Tisdale (DB)
All but Tisdale are Non-Imports, but looking at them I don't think any one player is irreplaceable.

I'd like for the team to try to retain Bauman after his stellar play in the final few weeks of the season, but might he be a player that saw the contract coming and put together some solid performances to drive up his value? Might he go back to being the player Ti-Cat fans have loathed the past four seasons?

Gauthier would be nice to retain as well, but he is aging and if a cheaper alternative is out there, perhaps the team lets Gauthier seek greener pastures elsewhere.

When put in the right position, Geoff Tisdale can be a playmaker in the defensive backfield. He was one of the lone bright spots in the much-maligned Tiger-Cats Secondary.

Now for the second part: my beef with CFL GMs. For a number of absolutely ridiculous reasons, free-agents lists in the CFL are kept secret. In a report by the National Post's Mark Masters, many of the league's General Managers gave a bunch of ludicrous reasons why they prefer the lists to be kept private. The only GM interviewed who said he didn't care about the list being public or private: Hamilton's Bob O'Billovich.

Why is it that every other major sports league – NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, European Soccer – can have their free agents known well in advance, but the CFL has to hide theirs? There is no good reason not to release the names of potential free agents, and the reasons that the GMs gave were lame. We demand transparency in regards to everything else; we should demand transparency in this too. There is way too much secrecy for my liking, and this needs to change.

2 comments:

  1. Don't forget that the Cats also gave Bauman more playing time down the stretch. It was because Bruce was limping, but Chris responded (and was played in his PROPER position - he's a slotback, play him there)

    Tisdale frustrates me to no end. One series he can make the play of the game. The next he can get scorched for 6.

    I'm on the keep Gauthier bandwagon. Despite Hage's recognition as an all star, I think Alex was our best lineman.

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  2. I like Gauthier too. I read somewhere that he was credited with giving up 0 sacks in 2010.

    I honestly think that Bauman will move on if only to get a change of scenery. If he produces somewhere else, fans will bemoan the loss, but sometimes people need to go elsewhere to blossom. Look at Dave Stala here. He's arguably had his best seasons with the Tiger-Cats, but that doesn't mean that Montreal not re-signing him was a bad move for the Als. I know that Stala had injury issues in Montreal, but I think it could be apt comparison if Bauman leaves and flourishes.

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