The Scores Report - The National Sports Blog » Scott Boras sucks

Report: White Sox pull offer for Damon

Anthony Stalter — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:30:09 +0000

According to ESPN Chicago’s Bruce Levine, the White Sox have pulled their offer for Johnny Damon, leading many to believe that the Tigers are now the clear favorites to land the free agent outfielder.

“It became clear to us in our recent negotiations that the money that we were offering was not going to be good enough for Johnny at this time,” White Sox general manager Kenny Williams told ESPNChicago.com. “At this particular point, we feel it’s necessary to withdraw our offer.”

The White Sox made a $6 million offer for Damon, according to major league sources.

Asked if the White Sox would get back into the running for Damon at some point, Williams said: “As you can see by the way that we kept going after this situation, we are very much interested in the player. All I can say is that I reiterate at this time that this offer for now is off the table.”

Only in Scott Boras’ world is Johnny Damon worth $6 million. The White Sox made the right decision here by pulling the offer on the table and not getting into a potential bidding war with the Tigers over a 36-year-old player that can’t play the field and isn’t likely to hit 20-plus home runs (or even 15-plus home runs) outside of Yankee Stadium.

Boras and Damon should come to the realization that it’s either Detroit or come down on their demands.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Johnny Damon must think he’s Manny Ramirez

Anthony Stalter — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:30:27 +0000

If Johnny Damon’s mission was to become the most annoying man in baseball this offseason, then he’s already succeeded.

Damon is half a player. As he proved last year in New York, he can still swing a pretty good stick and he still has enough speed in his 36-year-old legs to be dangerous on the base paths. But he’s a liability in the outfield and his arm strength often resembles that of a T-baller. There’s also no guarantee that he’ll be a good hitter outside of Yankee Stadium, so writing that he’s even half a player might be too generous.

How has this guy managed to turn the back half of the MLB offseason into the Johnny Damon hour? He’s the last big name on the market and I use the words “big name” loosely. He’s received offers from the Braves and Tigers, yet he still remains unsigned. Why?

Damon is doing his best Manny Ramirez impression this offseason. Instead of coming to terms with his value and signing a fair deal, he has decided to drag out contract negations as long as possible. Spring training is ready to kick off and he’s still deciding on where and how much to sign for.

Of course, this entire situation reeks of Scott Boras, who is also Manny’s agent. Boras battled with the Dodgers last year over Manny’s contract before finally caving in and settling for a two-year deal. Considering he’s about to do the same thing with Damon, it’s clear that Boras hasn’t learned his lesson yet. Damon was never going to get a multi-year contract for over $10 million like Boras wanted after last season. Yet Boras continues to overvalue his clients and drum up a false market for them by publicly stating tons of teams are interested in his free agents when the truth of the matter is they’re not.

I’ve got a newsflash for both Damon and Boras: Johnny ain’t that good. He should stop with all of the, “I’m a difference maker” nonsense and take whatever deal Detroit currently has on the table. That’s not only advice, but it’s a plea too because I’m sick of reading about when he’s going to sign.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Is Scott Boras screwing himself in the end?

Anthony Stalter — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:40:51 +0000

For years, Scott Boras has been known as an agent who gets his clients the absolute best deal possible financially. His clients – Barry Zito, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, etc – have walked away from past contract negotiations with fat bank accounts and big smiles on their faces.

But in playing hardball yet again with another club (the Los Angeles Dodgers) in order to get Manny Ramirez a long-term deal, Boras could be screwing himself in the long run.

From ESPN.com’s Peter Gammons:

Scott Boras has put the heat on Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, and there has been no love lost. The L.A. scouting department has been told it will not draft Boras clients come June.

That may hold true for a number of teams. With the economy in its current state, the Yankees, Red Sox and perhaps two or three other teams may be willing to ignore the commissioner’s office’s attempts to fix draft prices. Boras and other agents may determine that high school players would be better off coming out in 2012 when the economy should be more stable.

Boras represents outfielder Donavan Tate, Baseball America’s top high school positional prospect, and could decide that Tate will be better served playing quarterback and baseball at North Carolina and allowing MLB and the NFL to set his price in 2012. Without the Dodgers and Tigers in the bidding, there may be very few teams other than the Yankees and Red Sox that may even contemplate Boras’ price on a high school player.

Boras has cashed in for years on clubs’ dimes, but in doing so it appears that he has alienated himself in the process. Teams like the Dodgers are finally fighting back against bully agents like Boras, who might lose clients soon if he doesn’t change his negotiating tactics. He relies on two or more teams being interested in his clients and then he wages a war between the two clubs, who are often more than willing to drive up the price so that even if they don’t eventually acquire said player, the team they’re fighting against will have to pay top dollar.

But in the recent case of Manny Ramirez, Boras has one team that’s officially interested (the Dodgers) and one team that might-kind-of-sort-of be interested (the Giants). And unless the Giants pony up and officially offer a long-term deal soon, the Dodgers will continue their refusal to budge on their one-year, $25 million offer. And worse yet, now the Dodgers are instructing their scouts that no Boras client will be drafted and apparently other clubs are doing the same.

Boras is losing the Manny-contract battle and soon yet, he might be losing more than that.