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Contract Negotiation Performance Analysis

Are you Sabermetrics Savy?

Sabermetrics...use it!
As an agent, you need to sell your player at the price he/she deserves. In-depth statistical performance analysis has been the latest fad in Major League Baseball. Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics has been using it for years, and Paul Depodesta was using it…until he got fired from the Los Angeles Dodgers. I predict that it will also grow substantially in the other 3 big sports and will infiltrate Basketball first. Anyway, in baseball, the term Sabermetrics is used to describe this new statistical following. SABR = Society of American Baseball Research. In the past, arbitration hearings, free-agent signings, etc. have mostly been argued on the basis of basic statistics such as batting average, ERA, quality wins, slugging percentage, etc. But those numbers may become a small part of negotiations with the new bargaining chip that Sabermetrics provides.

The beauty of working in today’s world is that everything is online and available for free…now you can even get Sports Agent info for free! 🙂 If you take a trip to ESPN’s MLB stats website, you can sort a player’s stats on different Sabermetrical terms. A glossary for all of the terms can be found here

It would be foolish to let this kind of information slide by when at the negotiation table. You should use any valuable information that you can get into your hands when trying to get your client the absolute best deal. For instance, with the knowledge that Derrek Lee had the highest RC27 this past year with a 10.02 score (which estimates how many runs per game a team made up of nine Derrek Lee’s would score), it could be argued that he is the best player in the league and deserves a top dollar salary for his numbers. In the baseball world, we no longer have only a few tools to argue with. Instead, Sabermetrics has added new, innovative performance analysis methods for us to show our clients off with.

performance analysis, sabermetrics, sports agent, baseball, RC27

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.