Nats offer to Strasburg is *roughly* $20 million

[ejf1025]

There used to be some loopholes, like going to play professionally in an indy league. But I think those are closed off.

The only way he becomes a free agent are:

1) Nobody drafts him

2) The team that drafts him fails to offer him a contract within 15 days of the draft, according to Rule 4(E).

3) He accrues the requisite major league service time

4) The CBA is radically restructured and the draft is eliminated or drastically changed.

I read that Boras was exploring international leagues--namely, Japan.

Here's a thought....could you have him play abroad and declare citizenship? Would he then be able to be a free agent?

[Mackus]

The way I see it, if I thought I were worth >30% more than everyone else in my profession with my level of experience, that would be the very definition of arrogant.

What if many people felt that you were in fact the very best of everybody else in your profession with your level of experience, as many people felt about Crow going into the draft last year?

I agree Crow is making a poor decision and needs to listen to different people, but your character bashing of him is ridiculous and completely over the top and uncalled for.

[Mackus]

Ever think baseball ownership will come to their senses and realize that they are being held up without a gun by the players? Bonuses have gotten far beyond ridiculous, as have players salaries. And everything has it's breaking point.

The owners screwed the players for the first 100 years of baseball's existence. The players have screwed the owners for the past 25. The players have 75 years to go to get even.

Forget who said that, and its a bit dated now, but no, I don't think the owners will get to the breaking point anytime soon. At least not while MLB is still pulling in ridiculously high profits year after year.

[Fan4Life]

The way I see it, if I thought I were worth >30% more than everyone else in my profession with my level of experience, that would be the very definition of arrogant. I'm not saying how coachable he is on the field or how he'd behave in the clubhouse, but holding out over money when what he's being offered is already at the extreme top end for an inexperienced player is not a good first impression and to me is a sign that you might want to watch out for other potential issues to pop up. If the issue is that he doesn't want to play for the Nats because he sees them as a poorly run organization I could have a little more sympathy, but if it's all about the money then like I said that's just something I have no patience for.

I have to agree here. While it certainly isn't known if this situation is a reflection of his character, when you look at players with bad character this example is easily found. It at least makes you (me) wonder, where you might not have otherwise. In some ways, anyone selecting Boris as their agent has "me first" tendencies.

[DrungoHazewood]

The owners screwed the players for the first 100 years of baseball's existence. The players have screwed the owners for the past 25. The players have 75 years to go to get even.

Forget who said that, and its a bit dated now, but no, I don't think the owners will get to the breaking point anytime soon. At least not while MLB is still pulling in ridiculously high profits year after year.

I'm not sure that the players are screwing the owners right now. Certainly not to the extent that the owners screwed the players from the 1870s-1970s. Once you account for the expenses in the minors the players' salaries are still in line with what other leagues pay out.

I think both owners and veteran players do very well in the current situation. The people who can claim to be screwed are non-premium amateur talent, run-of-the-mill minor leaguers, and baseball fans not in the immediate vicinity of a current MLB team.

[DrungoHazewood]

I read that Boras was exploring international leagues--namely, Japan.

Here's a thought....could you have him play abroad and declare citizenship? Would he then be able to be a free agent?

I think the only thing playing in Japan does is give him a high level of competition to play against until he's drafted again. I don't think that changing citizenship does anything for you once you've been drafted as a citizen of a draft-eligible country.

Maybe the next frontier for Boras is to get American amateur talent to change their citizenship pre-draft.

[RShack]

These guys and their crazy demands are outrageous. If he dosn't sign, I wouldn't want anything to do with him if he were available. Any kids that doesn't sign for that kind of money has his priorities in the wrong order.

Not only that, he'd also be a dope. So it would be the Triple Crown: young, a fat-head, and big-time stupid, all at once...

[DrungoHazewood]

Ever think baseball ownership will come to their senses and realize that they are being held up without a gun by the players? Bonuses have gotten far beyond ridiculous, as have players salaries. And everything has it's breaking point.

Yea, it's almost to the point where top amateur talent is getting 1/5th or 1/4th as much as they would on the open market. It's time to crack down, and get that back down to 1/50th or 1/100th.

[wickedwitch]

Ever think baseball ownership will come to their senses and realize that they are being held up without a gun by the players? Bonuses have gotten far beyond ridiculous, as have players salaries. And everything has it's breaking point.

Why should the money go to the owners and not the players? The Nats were the second most profitable team last season.

[Sports Guy]

He is going to sign.

[RShack]

Ever think baseball ownership will come to their senses and realize that they are being held up without a gun by the players? Bonuses have gotten far beyond ridiculous, as have players salaries. And everything has it's breaking point.

The only ones who don't deserve the money more than the players don't deserve it are the owners...

[Mashed Potatoes]

The draft and baseball's arbitration scheme is a racket and it mostly favors owners. I don't blame a guy with this kind of talent for trying to maximize the value of his initial signing bonus. Talk of outrageous demands and inflated self-opinions are a bit over the top.

Yes, it's a game, and yes, these guys haven't played professionally and strictly speaking don't "deserve" this much money. But this is how the system is set up right now. Let's at least see where the chips fall and who signs tonight and who doesn't before we start casting aspersions.

Looks like somebody's read their Baseball Prospectus today!

There are many misconceptions here, some of which I’ve covered in the past. The primary one is that the draft exists as a mechanism to enhance competitive balance. Even a cursory look at how it came about puts the lie to that; baseball had lousy competitive balance for most of the 20th century, and no one in the game cared. It wasn’t until competition via signing bonuses became more of a key component in the acquisition of amateur players that the leagues got together and came up with a system for ending that competition. Any effects on competitive balance were secondary, and arguably unintended. The draft was, and still is, designed only to take away the rights of amateur players to have teams compete for their services.

Couple that with the extended rights that teams have to the players they draft, from six to 11 years, depending on how much time the player spends in the minors and how their major league career is shaped, something over which the player has little control. As a result of those two factors, the time from draft day to the signing deadline is the only time for perhaps a decade—and perhaps ever—that a player has any kind of negotiating leverage. Once he signs with a team, that team owns him until he accumulates six full seasons of major league service time. How can you possibly blame a person for wanting to maximize his return on the only negotiation in which he’ll have any leverage for at least six years, possibly an entire decade, and in many cases ever?

[hoosiers]

It sounds like a generous offer from the Nats.

I would think anything from $14M - $17M would get it done.

I do not like the way this has been negotiated.

This current offer should have been put on the table on Day 1, IMO, and just left alone for SB/SS to sign and get some IP this year. If SB wanted to drag it out and get nothing for doing that, then that's how he'll look.

[RShack]

He is going to sign.

For that kind of money, of course he is...

[geschinger]

This current offer should have been put on the table on Day 1, IMO, and just left alone for SB/SS to sign and get some IP this year. If SB wanted to drag it out and get nothing for doing that, then that's how he'll look.

That would have put themselves into the same situation they are in now. Say the offer on Day 1 was 17m and it was something that Boras knows he'd accept he still would wait until the last minute trying to get you to panic that you'll lose him and go higher.