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Scott Boras Wants To Eat Your Children

And also sign more baseball players and increase his revenue. Daisuke Matsuzaka, MVP of the World Baseball Classic, has decided that he will leave the Seibu Lions in Japan and test the MLB waters with his agent Scott Boras helping him along the way [Boras to represent Japanese pitching star Matsuzaka].

This guy has performed in a 17-inning game where he made 250 pitches. He picked up a save the next day. Bob Bavasi of JapanBall.com says that he has heard numbers as high as $70 million for the contract to sign Matsuzaka [MLB Trade Rumors: Interview: Bob Bavasi]. The prediction is that the team that signs Matsuzaka will have to pay the Seibu Lions anywhere from $17 million to $28 million as a posting fee alone.

Matsuzaka Watch gives a nice little timeline to follow in the near future for phenom Matsuzaka:

1. Matsuzaka will be posted in the first part of November.
2. Teams will have 40 days to submit secret bids to Bud Selig’s office.
3. Selig and company will hold those bids in trust, before finally delivering the winner to Seibu.
4. That will happen in mid-December.
5. Teams will have 30 days to negotiate with Matsuzaka and Boras, before losing his rights.
6. If that happens, he MUST go back and pitch in Japan in 2007.

Here are Matsuzaka’s stats in Japan:

Year Team W L SV ERA G IP SO
1999 Seibu Lions 16 5 0 2.60 25 180.0 151
2000 Seibu Lions 14 7 0 3.97 27 167.6 144
2001 Seibu Lions 15 15 0 3.60 33 240.3 214
2002 Seibu Lions 6 2 0 3.68 14 73.3 78
2003 Seibu Lions 16 7 0 2.83 29 194.0 215
2004 Seibu Lions 10 6 0 2.90 23 146.0 127
2005 Seibu Lions 14 13 0 2.30 28 215.0 226
2006 Seibu Lions 17 5 0 2.13 25 186.1 200

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.

4 replies on “Scott Boras Wants To Eat Your Children”

[…] So what if major league execs decided to ignore all of the recent trends.  Well then we would have the 2007 free-agent climate, where the $3.7 billion mark of six years ago will be left in the dust.  Sounds good to you and me, unless of course, major league teams end up throwing away all their money in posting fees within the next couple of years (if I had $51 million dollars sitting around, I would give it to the Seibu Lions as well).  And don’t try to get your hands on any players from Japan, because Scott Boras is already busy eating your children.  Plus, we are really screwed if Hugo Chavez decides to restrict Venezuelan players from participating in major league baseball [Game over? Politics may pitch baseball into a crisis]. But overall, there should be no complaints from baseball agents.  Selig says the league is doing fine, a new labor deal was signed ahead of time, and players continue to boost their salaries.  Individual teams may be making mistakes.  Here is the big ethical/longterm decision: Will you exploit these mistakes and get your client an overpaid contract where a team may lose trust in your business or will you get fair value for your players and build relationships with upper management? […]

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