SCOTT BORAS NEEDS TO SHUT UP

by Brian P. Foley, The College Baseball Blog

Scott Boras needs to learn to shut his mouth about A-Rod opting out of his contract. As we all know, A-Rod decided to opt out of his contract in the middle of Game 4 of the World Series. We were distracted for an entire inning as Joe Buck and Tim McCarver discussed the news when the story of the night should have been the Boston Red Sox winning their second title in four years.

Boras is doing his best job at getting the maximum contract for his MLB players but is hurting many high school and college players during the MLB draft time. There is a few examples of this in the 2007 MLB Draft with Matt Wieters of Georgia Tech dropping to the fifth overall pick while being one of the top three talents in the country. It did not stop here as Wieters and Boras took negotiations till the 11th hour as they signed the contract nine minutes before the deadline to sign players. If the deal did not get done he would of went back into the 2008 draft and the Orioles would have lost compensation too. The full article from MLB is available here.

At least Wieters has the ability to go back to college and become a better player, but Boras pulls this stuff with high school kids regularly. Matt Harvey of Fitch HS in Connecticut was set up to become a first round pick out of high school but dropped in the draft because of his advisor who was Mr. Boras. Harvey was drafted 108th overall by the LA Angels of Anaheim but was not able to sign as Boras was demanding first round pick for Harvey even though he was picked in the third round. Harvey is now a freshman pitcher for the North Carolina Tar Heels for the next three seasons as he is not eligible for the draft until after his junior season.

I think MLB needs to figure out a way to control Boras' influence on players, scouts, and potential prospects as he is hurting the game at its roots and is not the cleanest guy in the league.