And Armstrong didn't want everything the way he wanted it? Why does Pietrangelo get exclusively blamed for his list of wants? If you're going to blame one, why not blame both? Why does Armstrong seemingly get a complete pass for pushing off Petro's request to talk extension by citing future uncertainty, then extending 3 other players - one in the middle of considerable uncertainty - and leaving Petro hanging out to dry the entire time?
I'm not saying anyone has to blame Armstrong for any of this. I'm not saying anyone has to be blamed. Armstrong made the decisions he did, for whatever reasons he had, and those decisions weren't accidental. I'm just asking why, when trying to figure out how this situation got to where it is, some people want to lob all the rocks and arrows at Pietrangelo as if Armstrong had some grand master plan that would have worked, except for AP and his meddling agents (and probably their stupid dog, too).
Perhaps. Depends on what each side wanted and how far they gave up. I do recall seeing JR saying that one agent he talked to pointed to the Blues position of "agree on term and AAV, and then we'll talk about the other stuff" as being totally backwards from how contracts typically get done. Doesn't mean they couldn't have gotten a deal done, but clearly there were two different approaches to how each side was going about it.
