While D'Backs Managing General Partner Jerry Colangelo
has signed players for "much more than their market value
and criticized" MLB's arbitration process; now, some owners
"are privately sniping" at him for his free spending,
according to Pedro Gomez of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. One
"prominent" MLB owner: "He has no real investment and yet
he's working fast and furiously to set the market. He
figures, 'What the hell?'" Colangelo said he has $2.5M of
his money in the D'Backs, but "several owners believe the
figure is $750,000." Gomez: "Whichever figure is correct,
it represents the smallest amount of any of the owner/
pointmen among the 30 big-league clubs." Colangelo: "I can
honestly say that the ownership of the Diamondbacks is as
strong as any in baseball. For anyone to talk about how
much they have invested is self-serving." The D'Backs'
investment group includes Bank One, Bank of America, Wells
Fargo, Viad Corp., Arizona Public Service, Circle K, America
West Airlines, and Phoenix Newspapers Inc. Colangelo, on
the team's perceived overspending on players: "We're trying
to create a new model in a positive sense, one that should
be emulated by a lot of people rather than those who are
taking shots at me" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 2/26).
