Leigh Steinberg is amazing. He talks with his clients -- gets them to work within their community, to give back to the cities that give his clients their jobs. All the while, he gets them the deals they deserve. He negotiates hard, and he represents his clients very well. I mean, there are some who say he was the inspiration for Jerry Maguire. For crying out loud, he was even named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Boy Scouts. Let's make this paragraph shorter: Leigh Steinberg is not a bad guy.
Scott Boras is. His draft clients are viewed as poisonous. His other clients are seen as immovable, almost unsignable. You know you're in trouble when the richest franchise in all of sports, the New York Yankees, says they don't want to deal with you, and indicates to YOUR client that it would be much easier if you were not involved with the negotiations. He's become a pariah, fallen victim to the ostracon. He is joining the leper colony. I'll stop with all that now.
His problem? He's not really looking out for anyone. He's looking out for his own bottom line. Not only that, but he's doing it while giving the impression that he's looking out for his clients. Sure, he's getting them more money, but at what cost? Boras is the reason that smaller market teams are fading. Because of him, his clients keep upping the market value of marquee free agents, making it harder for small teams to sign star players, making them fill their rosters with the cream of either yesterday's crop or today's trash heap. Even then, teams like the Royals end up paying 55 million dollars over five years for an injury prone pitcher with a career 4.65 ERA (Gil Meche). Sure, it worked out okay, but how many more years like that can Meche put up? How the hell, please tell me, did Boras get JD Drew (JD DREW!) a 70 million dollar contract for five years? He had one stellar season (2004 Atlanta) and two decent seasons (2001 and 2006) -- only played two full seasons in his entire career and was already 31 years old. Why not just pay 2 million more a year and nab Carlos Lee (thanks again Scott)? Three more for Alfonso Soriano?
I'm sorry for the rant, but I find it difficult to live in a world where JD Drew, who doesn't play if he has a hangnail, is making 14 million dollars a year. That's 200K less than Albert Pujols. That's 27 year old Albert Pujols. Albert Pujols who has missed 44 games in his 7 year career. That's just over 6 games a year. 30+ home runs, over 100 RBI all seven times. Career .332 hitter. Someone tell me THAT'S fair. Anyone? Yeah -- that's what I figured.
As is often the case, baseball could learn a thing or two from the Yankees. While other teams skipped over Scott Boras client Rick Porcello in the draft in order to avoid dealing with Boras (Porcello ended up with the Tigers), the Yankees spoke to their superstar and said "Yeah, we want you back, A-Rod. We really do. It's just that guy you keep bringing with you. He's kind of a dick." Yeah. Scott Boras, you are the guy at the party who keeps hanging around well after he's worn out his welcome. You're the one who tries to play Pictionary at a rave and do shrooms at afternoon tea. Nobody wants you around anymore, Scott. You have your money. Find some new friends.
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3 comments:
Injury proned Meche? Dumb ass, Meche had surgeries back in 2000 and had not had injury after that. Stop posting your stupid ignorant post.
First of all, Meche DID have surgeries back in 2000, that's true. He missed the entire 2001 and 2002 seasons. Also, in 2004, he missed 2 months with a stint on the DL, and another month in 2005.
Sounds like he had some injuries after all. Check your sources.
if meche isn't injury-prone, then the first guy isn't make-stupid-comments-without-checking-my-facts-prone.
meche missed two full seasons and big chunks of two others. injury-prone is fairly accurate. and far nicer than "that lucky pile of mediocrity"
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