Part I

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Cool Papa continues with interesting remarks on Boras' intentions ...

One thing to keep in mind is that Boras is probably not motivated simply by a desire to make the most money for himself. He seems to genuinely hate the teams and be driven to make signing his clients a truly painful experience.

Hm.

Gauging Boras' intentions is a legitimate, and required, part of Zduriencik's job description.  This isn't (necessarily) "gossip" or personal attack by CPB.  A negotiator has to know where his counterpart's head is at.

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PRO:  I agree that, in many cases, the ROI just doesn't make sense.  If that's what Boras is doing, always choosing the FA path -- then it's got to be wrong sometimes, just on the "tipping point" principle if nothing else.

Using Game Theory as an analogy, it's almost impossible for one particular strategy to be right in ALL variations.

But here especially -- a fragile-armed young pitcher two years away from free agency -- Boras is gambling a whale of a lot.

It seems logical that Boras takes some of his arb clients to free agency out of belligerency, rather than because of math.

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CON:  If you've read a few Boras interviews, you'll notice that he sounds exactly like Don Fehr.

Both Fehr and Boras come off -- logically and emotionally -- as men who sincerely believe that they are fighting in Just Causes.

Just like American progressives want more taxes on the rich so that the less-privileged get more of the pie, Don Fehr and Scott Boras seem to sincerely and deeply resent the "unfairness" suffered by MLB players. 

Fehr and Boras just don't think that the players get enough of the pie, at least to listen to them.  (Or, at minimum, Fehr and Boras feel it would be criminal for players to get any less of the pie than they have now.)   And this comes across in their emotions, their body language, all that stuff.

All of which CPB also asserts ...

Boras is likely similar. He probably thinks that the players deserve a far larger cut of the revenue stream and that the teams are essentially messing over the players so he is not going to accommodate them in anyway.

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Is Boras vindictive about the contract negotations?  Had never thought of it that way, but it's a fascinating paradigm.

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One minor point here:

(This is why I could not fathom why anyone thought that Bavasi could work out more favorable deals with Boras clients because of some relationship the two might have even if such a thing were even ethical, which I don't think it is.)

Not cheaper, no, but the "carrot" that Boras holds out is that if offers are similar, he'll steer clients toward his friends.

We probably forget, in 2005, how unlikely it seemed for Beltre to come to Seattle.

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I like the discussion of whether it is possible to sign Jackson to a reasonable contract extension.

If it were impossible, then the 30 MLB GM's would be the first to know that -- and they wouldn't even ask.

If it were impossible to sign an arb-eligible (3, 4, 5 years completed) Boras client to an extension, then would we ever see clubs talking about trying it, as the Brewers just signalled they're going to try with Prince Fielder?

Would anybody even call about an Edwin Jackson, if it were common knowledge that all Boras clients go to free agency, don't bother asking?

Hm.

It doesn't make a lot of sense, but then again, I can't think of any Boras clients who sold their clubs FA years.