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MLB Players Performance Analysis Sports Agents

Clocking In Some Overtime Work For Naught?

Clemens squirting OswaltRandy and Alan Hendricks have a very solid baseball agency in Hendricks Sports Management. While they seem to not publicly list their client sheet on their website, they definitely do not hold back from promoting the fact that Roger Clemens is a Hendricks client. And after Clemens has been bashed by his longtime trainer, Brian McNamee, the Hendricks brothers have not backed away from fully representing their most prized client. Instead of letting Clemens’ personal attorney and public relations manager clear up Roger’s name, Randy Hendricks and a couple of associates at the agency have realized their fiduciary duty and done something to help their client in a situation where his name could be tarnished for life.

Earlier this week, the group released an 18,000 word statistical report (click here for the report) in an effort to show that with gained experience and knowledge, Clemens was able to improve his game, and that his strong performance was in no way caused by taking performance enhancers. ESPN relates the report, which contains 38 charts, to a salary arbitration case.

I have two general observations after reading the report.

  1. The Hendricks team put together an impressive package in a short amount of time. Nice reaction speed.
  2. However, this report does absolutely nothing to make me think that Clemens is any more innocent than before I downloaded it. It shows that it is possible to be productive as a 40 year old (especially with lower pitch counts), but does not tell me why this means that Clemens’ performance is not related to taking performance enhancers. Just because it is possible to be a stellar 40 year old pitcher (I did not need a report to tell me this) without taking steroids does not mean that Clemens necessarily falls into that category.

I am not quite sure what this report proved other than that Clemens performed really well in his career. But didn’t we all know this anyway?

By Darren Heitner

Darren Adam Heitner, Esq., is a preeminent sports attorney and the founder of Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., a Fort Lauderdale-based law firm specializing in sports law, contract negotiations, intellectual property, and arbitration. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2010 and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude, from the University of Florida in 2007, where he was named Valedictorian of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Admitted to practice in the state bars of Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia, as well as multiple federal courts, Darren also serves as a certified arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.

As an adjunct professor, Darren imparts his expertise through teaching Sports Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) at the University of Miami School of Law in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law LL.M. program. His scholarly contributions include authoring several books published by the American Bar Association, such as How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, and numerous articles in prominent publications like Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Above the Law. His thought leadership in NIL has earned him recognition as one of the foremost experts by The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, and On3, and he has been lauded as a “power player in NIL deals” by Action Network and a “top sports trademark attorney” by Sportico.

Darren’s passion for sports law led him to establish Sports Agent Blog on December 31, 2005, initially titled “I Want To Be A Sports Agent.” The platform, created as a New Year’s resolution, has grown into a cornerstone of the sports agency community, offering in-depth analysis of industry trends, legal disputes, and agent-player dynamics. His commitment to the field is further evidenced by his representation of numerous athletes and sports agents, as well as his prior role as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington, where he developed and taught a course on Sport Agency Management from 2011 to 2014.

Darren’s contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors, including the University of Florida’s 40 Under 40 Award, the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, and designation as the best lawyer in Fort Lauderdale by Fort Lauderdale Magazine. He remains an active voice in the sports law community, sharing insights through his weekly NIL newsletter and his X posts, engaging a broad audience on legal developments in sports.

3 replies on “Clocking In Some Overtime Work For Naught?”

When an Agent comes out with something like this, it immediately loses its credibility. Very few people in the public feel agents are honest, especially when making public statements, let alone a statistical analysis on one of their own clients.

What Hendricks Sports SHOULD had done was hire an independent third party to run the exact same analysis on their client. This way, it has at least some credibility. Just a thought.

I don’t doubt the veracity of the numbers. Anyone can look those up so I wouldn’t see the incentive to lie.

But what I don’t get is what this proves, if anything. Like Darren said, so what if he performed well later in his career, along with guys like Schilling and Johnson. But doesn’t that fact just increase the likelihood that he was “supplementing” on the side to keep his body going?

An agent rarely loses credibilty when standing up for a client. Whether they do the anaylis themselves or PAY a 3rd party it doesn’t matter. Hendricks PAYING somebody is really no more credible than doing it themselves.

Hendricks did this for the publicity of their firm. At this point, they have made just about all the money they can make off of Clemens. He is not playing anymore and his marketability is at an all time low. This was done as a marketing opportunity to help recruit new clients on the high school, college and professional levels. They were allowed to show everbody in detail how well they can research numbers when planning for arbitration or a contract extension.

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