Sometimes we as fans forget that professional sports are not just around so we have an excuse not to go to the store with the wife or something to talk about with that uncle who insists the Bears will never win again until they bring Ditka back.
The fact of the matter is professional sports are around so that the owners of the teams can make money. Sure, the owners aren’t the only ones making money when you go to the stadium or buy a jersey. Everyone from the players and coaches down to the ticket takers and security guards make money from a professional sports team. Why?
Because it’s a business.
This leads me to a basic business concept that any owner this side of Al Davis understands, buy low and sell high .
Easy right?
It’s the reason that teams scout themselves and try to find out if that highly rated prospect is overrated. In which case he’ll be traded before other teams find out his true value (hello Andy Marte). Likewise, teams want to find out if that 38th round pick out of Jefferson is going to be Mark Buehrle , or a future used car salesman .
So what am I getting at? Well, there’s been a growing sentiment among White Sox fans that Carlos Quentin should be traded because of his lack of production this season as well as his inability to stay healthy.
I can’t help but be disappointed at the lack of business knowledge of some of my fellow Sox fans.
By trading Quentin right now, you’d be selling low on a guy who in 2008 was the odds on favorite for AL MVP before he punched his bat and subsequently was out for the rest of the season.
If the Sox were to trade Quentin, what would we as fans want in return? That’s right, a guy who could put up the numbers that Quentin did less than two years ago.
Well guess what, we already have a guy who has the potential to put up those numbers, it’s Carlos Quentin!
I’m not saying that at some point in the future the White Sox shouldn’t trade Quentin, or any other player on the team. My point is that now is not the time to move him. To do so would be to lose an asset that not long ago was worth vastly more, and could reasonably be expected to reach those numbers again in the future. Not to mention, even by holding on to him, his value can’t go much lower.
We as fans might not all have MBA’s or be prepared to work on Wall Street. But we should be able to understand the concept of buying low and selling high.
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