Scott Boras: Is He a Good Baseball Agent or is He Power Hungry?

Scott Boras is the most high profiled and most controversial sports agent in all of sports and with good reason. He represents the most baseball players out of any agent or company and his policies and antics for getting huge contracts for players are quite unique. It is safe to say that there isn't any baseball or sports agent out there like Scott Boras.

Boras' rise to fame came quickly as he rose to the top of his class at McGeorge School of Law. However, before Boras went to law school he played second base for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. Boras retired only after a few seasons that were ended quickly because of knee surgery and Boras never made it past AA. In law school Scott Boras specialized in medical litigation.

Boras' rise to sports agent came even quicker as he started representing his former baseball teammates from the minor leagues who then continued on into the major leagues. His first contract was with his former teammate Bill Caudill who he signed to a five year deal worth 7.5 million dollars despite the player having a history of medical injuries. Needless to say, the baseball player retired only a few years into his deal.

Boras created the Scott Boras Corporation and runs a staff of around 100 agents who all work for him. Boras has so many baseball player clients because he is so successful at bringing in the big contract. He is a tireless worker who never stops. He has his staff members run statistics and ball park figures for contracts that best fit for that player to work with. He doesn't let the baseball market dictate how much his client is worth; he dictates the market.

Scott Boras gets teams that want a player to compete against themselves for the rights to sign a player. Case in point: Barry Bonds. No team in baseball this off-season wanted Barry Bonds. However he was still able to get a 1 year deal worth 16 million because he agent was so good at convincing the Giants that there was a multitude of teams in baseball who were willing to pay more money to sign Bonds.

My second example: Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez signed the richest contract in baseball history of 10 years worth 250 million dollars which is 25 million dollars per year which is an insane amount of money to be paying a person. A-rod is good, even great, a Hall of Fame player, but he is not worth that much. Scott Boras got teams into a bidding war and drove up the price until he reached his desired price. Rangers owner Tom Hicks didn't even know what hit him and how much money he was spending until it was too late. Poor guy, you almost feel sorry for him.

Scott Boras encourages players to refuse to sign with teams unless Boras gets the baseball team to sign for his desired amount. For example, many young players who get drafted and are represented by Boras, Scott Boras encourages them to go back to school and re-enter the draft if the player does not get his desired price contract. In fact, in many years in the baseball draft, a pick who is Scott Boras' client will often make more money in the contract than the players drafted in front of him and higher in the draft.

An amusing thing about Scott Boras is that he often publicly states that he gave a team a discount for a player because they signed with a team for significantly less money. Yea right, like that's ever going to happen. Case in point: Ken Griffey Jr. He signed with the Reds for slightly less, and I mean $9 million dollars less for a total contract worth over $100 in total to sign with the team he grew up with. If you call that a bargain, go for it.

Now we see Scott Boras meddling in the affairs of the Japanese pitcher Matsuzaka and his desire to play in the United States for the Boston Red Sox who had the highest bid for the pitcher worth 51 million for the rights to sign him. Matsuzaka wants to face harder hitters because he has dominated Japanese pitching. The Boston Red Sox need another pitcher to contend with the Yankees trade of Andy Pettite. Yet, the pitcher has not been signed and ESPN reports have the two sides deadlocked in a deal. Why? Because Scott Boras is the agent. Scott Boras has even publicly stated that the pitcher has no problem going back to Japan and coming to baseball next year as a free agent. Boras wants the Red Sox to give Matsuzaka a $100 million dollar deal but Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein isn't buying. And why should he? If he gives out a $100 million dollar contract, it will as if he spent $150 million dollars and I don't even think the Red Sox have that kind of money lying around. Rest assured Red Sox nation, this deal won't be decided until minutes before the deadline to sign Matsuzaka is up. Everyone wants this deal to get done. Heck, even Matsuzaka's former Japanese team wants to trade him and have already set up a budget of how they are going to apportion that 51 million that the Red Sox are giving them. They are all set to put in new facilities into their baseball stadium in Japan. All the Japanese players want to see the deal get done and root for their hometown hero. Yet once again, Scott Boras is holding up the negotiations. If this deal doesn't get done, it will be a travesty.

Many of Scott Boras' clients are still on the free agent market such as Barry Zito who the Mets want to sign but are leery of bidding against other teams. Omar Minaya has been tricked before into giving players more money than they deserve and refuses to make that same mistake. Other General Managers simply won't deal with Scott Boras and his clients. Case in point: Athletics General Manager Billy Beane. Beane, for anyone who hasn't read his book "Moneyball" is one of the smartest General Managers in all of sports. Year after year he manages to take a small payroll around 40-50 million dollars which is 1/4 the size of the Yankees payroll and consistently make the playoffs almost every year. Beane does this by refusing to sign long term and big contracts to players and refuses to negotiate with Scott Boras. In the baseball drafts, he refuses to sign players represented by Scott Boras because Beane knows that Boras will hold his client out from signing or make sure that the player is signed to a deal worth much more that what the player deserves.

Whatever you may think of Scott Boras, I personally think he is a pompous jerk, you've got to admit, he gets the job done. I am a Yankees fan and all I know is that we have signed some of the richest contracts with players in baseball history.

The irony: Their all represented by Scott Boras.