POTD: Scott Boras

So Boras pegs Millwood's value at 5/$60m ... and now it begins to look like Millwood might not even get the 4/$44m that the Seattle Mariners did in fact offer him. Much hooting and hollering by us M's fans at Boras' miscalculation, but Mariners Wheelhouse counters strongly with this fine analysis at SportSpot: I'm just not as anti-Boras as most folks here are.Boras' job is to represent his clients' interests, and he does that very well. No GMs are being forced against their will to sign contracts with Boras players - every deal Boras negotiates is a deal willingly entered into by the team. No player is forced take on Boras as his agent against his own will. From reports that I have seen, when Boras conducts contract negotiations, he is usually better prepared than the team he is negotiating with. His staff has completed an analysis of the team's financial position and available revenues, what the team's needs are, the team's available options to fill those needs, and the probable impacts of those options on the team's performance and profitability. Of course the team has done that also, but Boras' analysis is usually more detailed and more complete than are most team's analyses. Then he uses his salesmanship to spin the data in his clients' favor.Boras' organization also continually monitors his players while they are under contract, working with team staffs on conditioning programs, providing support services such as counseling, reviewing video and analyzing performance, and other matters to maintain and enhance his players' performance and value. Boras doesn't generate his edge because he is nefarious and evil. ...Boras is successful because he is better prepared, more organized, and harder working than amost every other agent and team. If you combine talent and brains with hard work, discipline, preparation, focus, and organization, you're going to be successful at what you do. It's really not Boras' fault if he is better at what he does than the guys with whom he is negotiating are at their jobs. Let's say that he does end up overshooting on Millwood this season; we chalk that up as a miscalculation by him. Even so, his overall record of successes and failures would far outstrip every other GM in baseball and every other player agent around. A lot of times we get angry with Boras simply for the fact that he is a very aggressive negotiator. On Millwood in particular, Boras' position had a lot of merit, that he might be worth more than Burnett. Peronsally don't blame him at all for pegging Millwood's eventual value at 5/$60m. Lost Words Dept. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Wheels agreed with me that ... 'aggressive negotiators' can sometimes cross the line into the territory of greed. Greed is a word that has been made obsolete in America, at least as it applies to the underdog. Many sports commentators, including almost all of them at BP, apply "greed" to owners but never apply the word "greed" to a player or agent. To BP, a ballplayer cannot be too greedy. We recall one memorable diatribe in Alex Rodriguez' favor, "proving" that the margin between $210,000,000 and $252,000,000 might make a huge difference in his life. :-) "Who are we to tell him he can't have the extra $40m if he has plans for it?" This is a reflection of BP's liberal orientation towards always justifying the side in a dispute that has the least money. The liberal analysis is simple: It identifies the side that is less rich, less male, and less white, and notches every debate-point up in the favor of the "little guy's" side, in this case that being Kevin Millwood's side. It defends the poor, the female, and the minority position, regardless of ideology. The conservative mindset, by contrast, is not tethered to the side that is more white, or more male, or richer. A conservative is free to take the side of the player or the owner, the Japanese ballplayer or the American, the side of Condolezza Rice or of Alan Keyes, the side of Iraq or the USA or Afghanistan, depending on which side it thinks is in the right in that particular case. Read BP a while, and count the number of times they side with a player/agent, as opposed to siding with Bud Selig & Co. :-) Greed is a word that has been made obsolete in America, but it is still in the dictionary. It means "An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves." Greed can take the form of demanding $60m, rather than $50m, if you are being offered the $50m by the people who have been your home (not so in Millwood's case). Ken Griffey Jr. was an example of a player who did not focus, unsmilingly, on the last dollar in his contract. He factored people into the equation when he signed his contract with the Reds. Who's Serving Who?, Dept. There are times when Boras seems to hardball negotiations for the purpose of making a point that benefits his own organization ... 1) He wants a 5/$60m trophy contract for the purpose of recruiting clients next year ... 2) Or he demands that extra 10% of 'ridiculous' money despite a people situation that should be taken into account (such as Boras' friendship with Bavasi) ... 3) Or he holds out a high school player for a year, so that the next time around, teams will blink first in a holdout situation with him. I get the feeling that Boras sometimes smooth-talks a Jared Weaver or Luke Hochevar type into sitting out a year, in part to secure his own credibility at the bargaining table. ============================= Of course the players who hire Boras are well aware of what they're getting. The ultimate responsibility lies with the player ... but that doesn't change the fact that sometimes Boras steps over the line into sheer unvarnished greed. ============================== All that said, Boras is there to maximize his client's money, and he's good at it, and that in itself is nothing to hate him for. . So Were The M's Still In It For Millwood? Late news: the Rangers signed Millwood for precisely the same terms offered by the M's a month ago: 4 years, 5th year option/vested. As bedirthanaverage has pointed out, the Mariners could still have cleared $10m in 2006 salary if they wanted to, if they had "the right player." Bavasi's statements that the M's are "about done" reflects his disgust with the way that Boras has handled negotiations. If Scott Boras had come back to the M's humbled, setting up a contract for, say, $8m/$12m/$10m/$10m, the Mariners would not be averse to juggling numbers and locking Millwood in. But Scott Boras is not known for humility. :-) The Mariners could, and would, have still signed Kevin Millwood if Scott Boras were the one to pick up the phone and re-ignite Mariner discussions from a new baseline. We set the odds against Boras doing that at10:1, because he is proud and greedy. But he could if he wanted. That's what I was listening for: a softer overture from Boras. But was not holding my breath. As it turned out, Boras took the M's offer ... from Texas. My $0.02, Dr D