James Laurinaitis

[BengalChris]

(02-29-2016, 02:16 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Is this your first time in a "we should sign ____ " thread? Pretty much any free agent gets this type of treatment.

You can pretty much follow these guidelines:

- If free agent is young and good? Too expensive.
- Old and good? He's washed up.
- Young, good and cheap? He's either a cancer or he's injured too much.
- If he played at Ohio State? Expect bias for and against.

Again, I'm not advocating Laurinaitus, but I don't think he's nearly as bad or washed up as some claim. He's one month older than Maualuga and 3 years younger than AJ Hawk.

There's a bit of an edge to this one though and non-sensical stat twisting. Of course, that's par for the course, I guess.

The Bengals will be interested in him if he comes at a bargain bin price, since he's proven and won't count against the team when it comes to compensatory picks next year. I expect there's more than one team out there in need of a MLB who will pay better than our bargain bin offer. He'd be a depth signing, not a starter, so that would figure in our offer.

I do expect that the team will at least explore the possibility once we find out where we are with our free agents, if he's still available at that point in time. It's a little early to the team with so many free agents needing attention at present.