2.04.2009

Boras

I guess, in a sense, Boras does lose money when his clients do because he gets a percentage of their contract and when their contract amount is lower because of his advice, his cut is lower.

I'm generally very torn on Boras. On the one hand, he's clearly an egomaniac who lets his concern with his own reputation get in the way of what might be best for a player in a given situation. Then again, it's kind of like that thing about negotiating with terrorists. You don't do it, even though it might make sense in a given situation, because of the larger implications. Boras feels like if he softens for one player, teams are going to know that he can be softened and he won't be able to get the most for his players in the future.

In the end, I think the primary responsibility for anything that Boras does rests squarely on the player. The player chose Boras not because he thought Boras was going to get him into the best situation (i.e. a winning team or a good fan base or whatever) but rather that he'd get them the most money. For most players, that gamble has resulted in them getting some ridiculous contracts (ARod the first time around being an example). Unfortunately for Boras and his clients this time around, they all ran into the buzzsaw of th economic collapse and its evident effect on the mentality of baseball's owners. This has proven to be harsh for Manny Ramirez in particular. I can't feel too sorry for him for obvious reasons. Nor can I feel too sorry for Jason Varitek because, as upright as citizen as he is, he sucked such tremendous crap last year that crap is like "don't compare that guy to us, he really sucks." I mean, have you looked at his stats? They're disgusting. Bob Ueker could hit better than that, and the man's like 80 years old. Terrible.

1 comment:

JP said...

You mention negotiating with terrorists where Boras is not the terrorist, so I would consider this to be a bad metaphor.

Also, note that various players have fired Boras. The coolheaded Kenny Rogers fired Boras a couple of years ago. However, the guy generally sets new records for contracts, which is why he remains the agent for many leading players.