No offseason is truly quiet at the Boras Corporation, which usually represents a top free agent or two and always prepares for arbitration cases and extensions. But to this point, the 2011-12 offseason has been relatively slow for the Newport Beach-based agency — at least in terms of actual deals. As MLBTR's Transaction Tracker shows, the Boras Corp. has found modest two-year contracts for Bruce Chen and Willie Bloomquist and one-year deals for Andrew Brackman and Gerald Laird.
It won’t be quiet for much longer. Four of the top five remaining free agents on MLBTR’s top 50 list — Prince Fielder (2), Edwin Jackson (6), Ryan Madson (14) and Carlos Pena (16) — are Boras clients. In total, five of the 17 unsigned free agents from MLBTR’s top 50 list are Boras clients, including the top three. Johnny Damon (39), and unranked free agents such as Ivan Rodriguez, Andruw Jones, J.D. Drew, Magglio Ordonez, Ryan Spilborghs, Jason Varitek, Rick Ankiel, Mike Gonzalez and Kevin Millwood join Fielder, Jackson, Madson and Pena on Boras’ list of unsigned clients.
The Boras Corp. hasn’t brokered a deal in recent weeks, but Boras has grabbed headlines on MLBTR and elsewhere by invoking names such as Bonds, Foxx and Gehrig while discussing Fielder and comparing Jackson to Yu Darvish. Though we can debate the validity of the comparisons, there’s no denying Boras now represents the best hitter available, the best starter available, the best closer available and a host of complementary players. Boras has waited the market out for this long, but with Spring Training in the not-so-distant future, it seems inevitable that the quiet offseason will soon pick up and many of Boras’ clients will agree to deals by the end of January.
It would be funny if Boras failed to find signers for his top clients and they held a joint press conference to fire him. Yeah…won’t happen…but
Good luck teams. Be prepared to wayy overpay if you sign any of these guys.
Scott Boras’ morning ritual
I live in the American Gardens Building on West 81st Street on the 11th
floor. My name is Scott Boras. I’m 47 years old. I believe in taking
care of myself, and a balanced diet and a rigorous exercise routine. In
the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I’ll put on an ice pack
while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now. After I remove
the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a
water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the
face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial masque
which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I
always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because
alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer,
then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective
lotion. There is an idea of a Scott Boras. Some kind of abstraction.
But there is no real me. Only an entity. Something illusory. And though
I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh
gripping yours, and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably
comparable, I simply am not there.
You know a little too much on all of this facial stuff and releaving puffiness.
Madison, for one, is in a tough spot. With the BoSox out of the running for a closer, i think Madison will have no choice but to sign a 1 year deal and wait for the next year hoping that the market will be better then this year. I can’t see a team paying a premium for his services on a multi-years deal…
angels!
I think the 4/$44m offer from the Philly’s didnt’ happen and was just a leak by borASS….it pissed them off so much they immediately sign Pap….I can see Madson signing a 3/$24m-$28m contract….
for what ever reason I’m not allowed to sign in via Yahoo b/c some “conflict”
Scott Shu = Shu13
I’d guess a one year deal to be the closer somewhere and re-enter FA next off season. The market for closer may be totally different next year…
it’s going to be very quiet for Fielder if they don’t come down to reality and realize that no team out there is able to pay what they’re asking that needs Fielder, it’s like paying $100 for a pair of shoes you don’t need, either you can’t afford them yet you pay for them anyway even though they’re superly over priced or you have tons of extra money lying around that you don’t care they’re overpriced but you already have a dozen pair of shoes and no space in your closet for another pair. hopefully no team will be willing to pay for something they truly can’t afford whether they need him or not, they should force him to lower his expectations, lower his asking price before they sign him. this whole overpricing thing is ruining baseball, look what they did with albert…
Did Andrew Brackman sign with the Reds? Or what is the news on this?
He did sign with the Reds in reality, but the deal isn’t official for some reason. Jocketty claims he doesn’t know what the holdup is. He has said this for the past month.
Just watched “It’s A Wonderful Life” the other night. There’s a great scene where old man Potter offers George Bailey a job that he momentarily accepts. He shakes the old man’s hand then gets queasy and realizes he has just sold his soul. Fortunately, George Bailey had enough fortitude to tell the old man to shove it, but I imagine this is how anyone the deals with BorasCo. must feel.
MAN! Why doesn’t everyone do this if it’s SOOOOOO easy? I’ll tell you, IT’S A SCAM! I’d like to see Boras sell this ad. It would be a 80 page book comparing this ad with the greatest of all time, telling how durable it is playing 365 days of the year (top 5 in the Ad League for the past 5 years) and all.
I bet the step-sister is related to Boras.
Sorry but the “spring training is approaching argument” is somehow going to make teams increase their offers for Boras’s guys? The pressure isn’t on the teams as spring training approaches, it’s on the unsigned players who don’t have jobs. Holding out for a better market as more and more teams reach their budget limits makes no sense to me.
I hope Fielder goes unsigned, that would be AWESOME! He’s so delusional if he thinks he can get the kind of money he’s looking for.
Fielder is a great player, his stats up to this point are spectacular.
He’s just too goddamn fat for a huge contract.
Fat men need fat contracts, right? At least that’s what Boras is believing.
When Fielder FINALLY signs, this market is going to explode. Rays are interested in 2 of his clients for sure in Pena and Damon, there were some earlier rumors and Mike Gonzalez but keeping JP Howell probably ended that and last night, right after Bailey was traded to the Red Sox, we became a “dark horse” for Madson….that one I don’t see happening but it’s nice to dream sometimes.
Also, I asked this in another thread but that thread was pretty much dead and buired and I got like 1 or 2 responses.
If all 30 teams had the same funds, where does Fielder fit best? Would it be Tampa? Think about it, the holes at 1B and DH, he can fill either one, the lack of power that cost us in the playoffs, he can sure help there. The no protection Longo hit 31 bombs last year, Fielder might make him a 40 homer guy to go along with Prince’s pop, Upton’s contract year’s bat, Zobrist, Jennings and Joyce and of course the awesome pitching staff that doesn’t get the wins they deserve because of this black hole of an offense. Hey. we may even *gasp* get some fans! I may be a homer but you can’t deny he would make a ton(no pun intended) of sense for Tampa. Again, this is if all teams could afford him.
Any offense would make sense for Tampa. Even Pena’s .200 ba makes sense there. And if all teams were even and every team could afford him he would make sense everywhere as you could make him a DH. You didn’t get a lot of responses because it is a bigger what if than buying a lottery ticket and dreaming of winning it.
Last year, Rafael Soriano got his fail-contract in January. I could see something like that happening for Madson on a team like the Angels or a NL contender.
Soriano got signed by the Yankees after a drunken weekend in Atlantic City. They aren’t in the mix and neither is any other team that writes “what the hell, I’m all in” cheques.
He blew some saves in his rookie year but why is their no love for Walden? Those blown saves were again, his rookie year and he has a fantastic arm.
Too many top notch arms in the BP is never a bad thing. If they can sign Madson to a one year deal, they’ll have a closer in the 8th and a set up guy closing the 9th…
Pretty sure Boras knows what he is doing…I’d be willing to bet, 100% of the names on the above list will be making more than 99% of the folks reading this post next year. That most likely includes me…but hey, tomorrow is Mega Lotto day!!!
Pretty sure Boras knows what he is doing…I’d be willing to bet, 100% of the names on the above list will be making more than 99% of the folks reading this post next year. That most likely includes me…but hey, tomorrow is Mega Lotto day!!!
Any team that wants to sign or is interested in Fielder, should look at his age, weight and career stats & realize who he was playing for as in National League & how much protection he had there as well. By all saying all that, whoever the team is, should look at signing Fielder at no more than 5 year contract and either offer him an option year as well or see where the team & Fielder are respectively in 5 years & then go from there, when they both reach that crossroads & the end of that contract period & then analyse whether each parties are going into the right or same direction. It’s guaranteed money for Fielder & comfort for the Franchise that signs him as well !!!