Try not sucking for half a season every year. You know there's problems when Boras can't find you a job.

I typically think that Scott Boras is the best agent in baseball, but I think that if your going to be one of his lower tier clients then its probably not a great fit. He seems to almost use his lower clients to make himself more money by improving the situations for his premier clients. His style of seeming to wait until his best clients sign before moving on to his lower guys and even with his higher guys playing a longer waiting game than most other agents severely hurts guys like Damon and Lopez's options when he waited so long to the point where there aren't enough possible suitors because they already spend large portions of their budget or already filled their spots on their team. Id imagine that if Boras didn't also represent Holliday or if Damon had a different agent then he would have signed for more money than he will likely have to settle for now.

Boras surely has assistants who can negotiate too, I would think. Or if not negotiate, at least call around to see if teams are interested. Wikipedia says he has 75 employees so I doubt he's running an operation where only one player can try to get a contract at a time. I think he just thinks that waiting teams out is the best strategy.

I don't know who Hudson's agent is, but he just signed last week and he's better than Lopez. Teams don't seem to be all that interested in second basemen.

I feel that Boras would rather loose the battle (individual player signings) than the war (screwing the MLB teams out of as much money as humanly possible). His hardline negotiations end up hurting individuals in some cases, when just getting them on a team to play baseball would be better for them.

I've never seen a major leaguer appear to give less effort than Lopez did when he was on the Nationals.

I've never seen a major leaguer appear to give less effort than Lopez did when he was on the Nationals.

That's just how he always looks, period.

I feel that Boras would rather loose the battle (individual player signings) than the war (screwing the MLB teams out of as much money as humanly possible). His hardline negotiations end up hurting individuals in some cases, when just getting them on a team to play baseball would be better for them.

The activity on Boras' clients this winter doesn't really support this. Boras gets attention for his high-profile clients, but most of his other work quietly gets passed over. Perhaps I'm not remembering, but I don't recall anyone lauding Boras for getting contracts for players like Andruw Jones, Scott Schoeneweis or Xavier Nady.

If he were so interested in "screwing the MLB teams," among other things he would do is go to arbitration more often. If Edwin Jackson and the Diamondbacks go to a hearing next week, it will be the first time since 2008 a Boras client didn't settle before going to arbitration. And here's the activity on Boras clients this winter.

Boras-Client Signings
Rick Ankiel: 1 year, $3.25MM
Jeff Baker: 1 year, $975K (avoided arb)
Adrian Beltre: 1 year, $10MM
Alex Cora: 1 year, $2MM
Stephen Drew: 1 year, $3.4MM (avoided arb)
Carlos Gomez: 1 year, $1.15MM (avoided arb)
Mike Gonzalez: 2 years, $12MM
Matt Holliday: 7 years, $120MM
Andruw Jones: 1 year, $500K
Gerald Laird: 1 year, $3.95MM (avoided arb)
Zach Miner: 1 year, $950K (avoided arb)
Xavier Nady: 1 year, $3.3MM
Ivan Rodriguez: 2 years, $6MM
Scott Schoeneweis: Minor League deal, $800K in Majors
Bobby Seay: 1 year, $2.475 (avoided arb)
Ryan Spilborghs: 2 years, $3.2MM (avoided arb)
Jeff Weaver: Minor League deal, $800K in Majors

Edwin Jackson: Filed for arbitration, hearing on 02/17 — Team: $4.6MM, Jackson: $6.25MM

Unsigned Boras Clients
Garret Anderson: Has there been any interest from any teams?
Hank Blalock: Same as Anderson.
Joe Crede: Same as Blalock.
Johnny Damon: He's turned down the only two offers he is known to have received prior to this week, both from the Yankees.
Felipe Lopez: Only one team, St. Louis, has been rumored to have expressed interest. That was in December.
Julian Tavarez: Has there been any interest from any teams? If so, why?
Ron Villone: Same as Tavarez.
Jarrod Washburn: As was reported this week, he has admitted to rejecting "some offers."

And for all the talk about what has happened with Johnny Damon, there have been a number of left fielders available and only so many teams with openings. In addition to Damon, there was Matt Halliday, Mike Cameron (sort of), Randy Winn, Andruw Jones (sort of), Ryan Freel, Gary Sheffield, Endy Chavez, Rocco Baldelli (sort of), Johnny Gomes, Fernando Tatis (sort of) and Marlon Anderson.

And for all the talk about what has happened with Johnny Damon, there have been a number of left fielders available and only so many teams with openings. In addition to Damon, there was Matt Halliday, Mike Cameron (sort of), Randy Winn, Andruw Jones (sort of), Ryan Freel, Gary Sheffield, Endy Chavez, Rocco Baldelli (sort of), Johnny Gomes, Fernando Tatis (sort of) and Marlon Anderson.

If Marlon Anderson is a serious impediment to your attempt to get your star outfield client a new contract, you suck as an agent and you should probably find a new like of work.

Lopez is a dumb baserunner, has brain freeze in the field and every GM in the world knows Lopez will drop off by 20 percent this season. Unless you have a huge gap why invite the aggravation?

Lopez always struck me as a guy with alot of raw talent but who didn't have the desire to be truely great. He looked like he was on his way to star status with Cin a few years back but then they packaged him with Kearns in the trade which at the time looked one-sided but given how FLop and Kearns played in Washington it worked out as a lose-lose trade.

That said, since leaving the poor hitting coaches in Washington F Lopez has actually been a very nice player (.325 BA with walks and a modicum of power). He had the highest BA in baseball from the date left Washington in 2008 to the end of the season and last year he put up a season only clearly exceeded at 2B by Utley, Cano, and Zobrist. His defense at SS was godawful but he's a little better than average at 2B and I'm kind of suprised he didn't at least get offered a similar deal to what O Hudson did by Min. There are alot of teams out there with worse 2Bmen than Lopez who could have paid him that amount of money.

I'm not saying 2009 was his true talent level, but its alot higher than what he did in Washington so I suspect he's grossly underated at this point.

[8] But for Omar Minaya foolishly (IMO) signing and way overpaying Ollie Perez before 2009, Boras would have faced this grumbling last year and maybe Damon would have overruled him and taken the Yankees' first offer this off-season.

Ivan Rodriguez: 2 years, $6MM

I need to hire Boras as my agent.

Teams don't seem to be all that interested in second basemen.

They rarely are -- it's never been a highly paid position. I was surprised the other day though when someone posted a list of Chone projections at 2B and there were something like 32 2B projected as average or better (including Lopez I believe right around average -- ZiPS would seem to put Lopez somewhere between Castillo and average). Now a number of these were AAAA all-stars that teams will probably never give a real shot to but I was pretty stunned by that. To the extent that teams come to a similar conclusion as Chone, why bother paying real money for Lopez (or maybe even Hudson)?

Is average = replacement for 2B?

Lopez strikes me as a better version of Alexi Casilla. Casilla is a good baserunner but makes mental errors in the field, has less range and is more of a streaky hitter.

[13]

Teams don't seem to be all that interested in second basemen.
They rarely are -- it's never been a highly paid position.

Don't tell Omar Minaya.

Chone projections at 2B ... (including Lopez I believe right around average -- ZiPS would seem to put Lopez somewhere between Castillo and average).

Maybe the Mets should sign him, and he and Castillo and could split time at 2B.

Boras surely has assistants who can negotiate too, I would think. Or if not negotiate, at least call around to see if teams are interested.

Maybe that's Lopez's problem with Boras. He wants his undivided attention.

I'm kind of suprised the Angels and Rockies haven't tried to bargain basement F Lopez. He'd probably put up a pretty sick line in Colorado and could move to 3B, SS, LF if something went wrong there. The Angels could get him as a poor man's Chone Figgans....I mean he can play anywhere like Chone and looks like he might be establishing himself as a high OBP INF type.