Just catching up on things that happened yesterday, and ran across this USA Today article from Bob Nightengale that doesn't even have, like, pie charts or anything.
In said article, "Super-Agent" (which is like a super-hero, only your special power is a lack of conscience and moral fiber) Scott Boras is complaining. What's he complaining about this time? Kyle Lohse doesn't have a job. And in order for Kyle Lohse to get a job, some team is going to have to give up a 1st-Round draft pick. And when a team gives up a 1st-Round draft pick, the money they could have paid that pick is removed from their overall bonus pool.
So of course Scott Boras is upset. Gone are the days when teams will just pay whatever they want for a player. The Astros - and seven other teams - passed on Mark Appel in the 2012 draft because Appel (who is, or at least was last year, advised by - oh yeah - Scott Boras) was going to take up too much of their draft money. When Mark Appel didn't get paid, Boras didn't get paid. And then, BORAS...MAD.
The next logical step, of course, is to complain about the whole system of agents - I mean players - getting their money. And it doesn't stop at free agency. Regard, from Super-Agent Boras:
"The integrity of the game has been compromised,'' Boras tells USA TODAY Sports. "What baseball has done, it has created a dynamic where draft dollars are affecting the major leaguers. Teams are constructing clubs to be non-competitive, like Houston and Miami, so they can position themselves where they can get more draft dollars. Clubs are trying to finish last to create more draft dollars. And this dramatically affects the wild-card and major-league standings.''
So let me get this straight. Boras is complaining that Baseball (capitalized) has created a system where the draft actually impacts the big-league club. They're not two separate universes anymore, and that makes Super-Agent Scott Boras angry enough to call out the Astros and Marlins for "trying to finish last." And when they do that, Kyle Lohse can't get paid. Thus, Scott Boras can't get paid.
Scott Boras has always been about Scott Boras. He's not driven by the integrity of the game - he's driven by the Great Commission (6%). Anytime one of his players doesn't get a big contract, Boras complains about the "integrity of the game." He last did it in November, when the Indians wouldn't give huge money to Shin-Soo Choo and he said they didn't care about winning.
And let's not forget that Boras hasn't exactly been the poster boy for championing The Cause of Integrity. How about when he criticized Jim Leyland for sitting Magglio Ordonez (who - at the time - had a .690 OPS) when there was a $15m vesting option for 2010 on the line. No...it was not financially motivated over sitting a slumping player in what was then a tight AL Central race. In 2007, Boras sent a letter to Bud Selig proposing that the World Series be nine games, with the first two games being hosted at a rotating neutral site.
You can also click that last link to read a 2007 New Yorker piece about Boras (which is appropriately titled, "The Extortionist") for a glimpse into why Boras *just might* be pissed about the changes in the draft:
I asked if he planned to travel to Orlando, where the draft was being held. He smiled. “I think the draft is here,” he said. “It’s not in Orlando. We’re in the room”—he pointed up, toward the war room—“and we’re telling teams who they can draft, who they can’t. That’s basically how the thing goes."
Hm. Boras' power has been cut, and methinks he doesn't like it.
In May 2009, Baseball investigated agents and their role in players using PEDs. Boras had a whole host of players testing positive or linked to PEDs - ten, including Astro-hopeful Rick Ankiel. (Oh yes, and Boras decided last month that he was going to open his own South Florida training facility to protect players from falling under the spell of the likes of Dr. Bosch and his remedies.)
Point being, it's laughable that Boras would complain about the integrity of the game when he's been responsible for more attacks on that very idea than just about anybody else.
Boras is the king of finding loopholes to benefit himself and his clients (generally in that order). Now when major-league teams are doing the same thing...it's apparently a problem.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
