Let us start the proceedings on this new blog with a treatise on the merits of banishing Scott Boras from our beloved game of baseball. Pete Rose was banned for life for less egregious crimes than Boras commits on a daily basis. So, Bud Selig, I beg you to weigh the merits of forcing Boras' graceful exit.
First and foremost, Boras, through an avowedly shrewd series of maneuvers has, over the last several years, managed to trap in his thrall some of the most important and sought-after players in the game today. That's the business of baseball, and Boras has been very good at capitalizing on it. The problem is, he has become so powerful that he now controls ALL of the game's greatest superstars. He now has a monopoly on the marketplace. Just in this year's free agent class, he controls the destiny of Daisuke Matsuzaka (a name we will return to in mere moments) and Barry Zito, as well as the recently signed Greg Maddux and J.D. Drew among a host of others. For the latter two he has secured ridiculous contracts (though I do not begrudge Maddux for getting a well-deserved payday despite the fact he has been over the hill for about three years now). Because he is in complete control of the market, Boras was able to bend the Red Sox (a team who now have 4 frontline, capable of starting outfielders for three positions) over a barrel and give J.D. Drew a 5-year, $70 million contract. Don't get me wrong Drew is a very capable 5-hitter with a good glove, but he is injury-prone (averages about 115 games a season) and no one is quite sure how he will handle the immense pressure of playing in baseball's holiest city. Nonetheless, because Boras controls nearly every other commodity that the Red Sox would desire at that position, he was able to sidle up to Theo and the Trio and name his price.
Which brings us to the Matsuzaka conundrum. The Red Sox have ponied up $51.1 million just to TALK to the Japanese supposed-superstar-to-be and now Boras isn't playing nice. He has repeatedly leaked stories to the media (along with the Godfather, Don Larry Lucchino) about how far apart the two sides are, trying to build a wave of public sentiment in Boston that will force Epstein and Lucchino's hand and pay frontline starter prices for unproven talent. Topping that of course, he is also leaking stories all over ESPN about how Texas is preparing to offer Barry Zito an unconscionable $105 million over six years and that Matsuzaka's talent far exceeds that of Zito. Boras, thus, is creating an artificial marketplace. What he is doing is tantamount to insider trading. Agents should be allowed to get the best deals for their clients, but what Boras is doing is forcing the Kansas City Royals, for example, to shell out $55 million over five years to secure the services of Gil "Ga" Meche, or the Cubs to give Ted Lilly $40 million over four years. Ted Lilly can't pitch his way out of a wet paper bag, let alone even stand up to National League competition. But, again, because of Boras' control of the market and underhanded tactics used to exploit it, this is the situation in which we find ourselves. How much longer until we return to the bloated, never-ending contracts of the A-Rod and Manny era? How much longer until Ian Bladergroen, one of Boras' prospect holdings is holding out from contract talks until a team offers him 7 years and $148 million to be a 6-hitter with a .280 average?
So the question remains, how does baseball stop Boras? The answer is rather simple in theory yet extremely complicated in practice. (See what I did there...it's the name of the blog...Oh, never mind.) The 30 General Managers must (including Brian Cashman) resolve in the next off-season to stop negotiating with this terror. Next year's free agent class is much deeper than this year's and you can bet that Boras will be lining up his talent pool at the winter meetings for a dog and pony show about how you too can secure the services of Chan Ho Park for 5 years for a scant $189 million or some ridiculous thing. No, the GMs must take a stand and force Boras' clients into a semi-holdout predicament. These guys are not that stupid. If they are told repeatedly that they will not play if they represented by a blackballed entity, they'll jump ship quickly, diversify the agent pool and the market again and reset the marketplace to be much more fair and equitable. Then Boras, millions in hand, can retire to a life of ignominy.
It'll never happen, of course. But boy would I love to see the stupid look on his face if it did.
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2 comments:
Unfortunately, blackballing someone by consensus like that is considered collusion, and is illegal under the rules laid out by MLB and the players association.
Boras operates independently of both MLB and the Players Org., and players can either utilize his services or go with someone else, it is up to them.
I detest Boras, but he is, unquestionably, the best at what he does. I think that if teams all decided to utilize their farm systems to a much greater extent, in 5 years the talent pool could expand greatly in the Triple-A level and dealing with Boras could be curtailed in favor of promoting younger players.
Your next entry better not be about baseball or I'm going to stop reading. Seriously.
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