POTD Scott Boras - Is he hurting Prince Fielder?
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ARod dumped Boras for endorsement purposes
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=== Epiphany, Dept. ===
And we'd have re-titled it with one word-slot change and one punctuation change, "Scott Boras IS Hurting Prince Fielder!," except for one thing: Prince Fielder hasn't yet signed a disappointing contract.
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=== Prince Fielder ===
Jack Zduriencik has been kind enough to avoid calling Prince a fat man. (Granted, I imagine this might be good business, too...)
But it is one thing for Meryl Streep to blush and say, aw shucks, I'm just happy to be here. It's another thing for Streep to protest that she's the prettiest woman in Hollywood and hey, why am *I* not the one on the cover of Cosmo? She's just asking for somebody to analyze her facial structure.
It's one thing for Prince Fielder to say, look, I'm a team guy and I want to help somebody win. It's another thing for him to say, hey, why are ARod and Pujols getting $250M and I'm not? He's just asking for somebody to ask him what exactly his pant size is, and by the way Scott, what EXACTLY will Prince's UZR be in 2015?
It says here that National League teams are genuinely put off by the idea of Mo Vaughn playing 1B for them in three years. Boras realizes this, no doubt, but has to carry on with the Brave Face now.
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=== Gerry Spence "How To Argue And Win Every Time," Dept. ===
If we're not mistaken, Gerry Spence has never lost a criminal lawsuit. He's blinkin' good at what he does, pal.
Spence's first rule is: concede the other side's strong points. Your own argument will come out looking unavoidable after it has absorbed the other side's best shots.
Scott Boras is the anti-Spence. Boras doesn't concede Fielder's flaws. He just produces shiny books comparing Prince to Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx. And who else has EVER done what Prince has? Ever, ever?
The result is that both we, and the GM's, wave the entire Boras argument off. It says here that the market for Prince Fielder is lukewarm and will stay lukewarm.
Scott Boras has, embarrassingly, put his client in the position of apologizing. Prince Fielder simply does not hit the bar that Scott Boras set for him. Prince Fielder is a cleanup hitter. That's all. He's not a Hall of Famer and he certainly is not Jimmie Foxx (who had OPS+ of 182-205 in six different seasons).
Now baseball spends January staring at the gap between Jimmie Foxx and Prince Fielder, and it's a large gap. So is the gap between Prince and Albert Pujols, and Scott Boras has called attention to that gap.
Fielder would have been better off with a different agent, a nicer guy, an agent more like himself. This was the wrong baseball player to spend the winter boasting about himself.
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=== State of the Zduriencik ===
Yesterday, Baker tweeted Zduriencik's latest comment: "As time goes on, players are going to have to make decisions."
Capt. Jack, bless his captainly little heart, is staring across the poker table at Boras, refusing to flinch. .... Tick. Tick. Tick. .... Nope, still just glaring.
Tell me you don't love the man. You and I are getting clenched up, you and I want resolution, but Capt. Jack with millions at stake is as cool as the other side of the pillow.
Logically: Capt. Jack will win this battle, and the M's will sign Prince Fielder at excellent terms. Leaving money to add on after. In real life: who knows. It's harrowing. :- ) But it's nice when the offseason is as tense as the regular season. Whoops, more tense than the regular season, if you live in Seattle.