When it comes to Scott Boras, there are two groups of people: those who hate his living guts and those represented by him.
Few baseball general managers will come out and publicly say how they really feel, but suggesting a seething hatred exists might be a bit of an understatement.
Boras is the man behind Alex Rodriguez's infamous $252 million deal, signed with Melvin, then the Rangers GM. He also landed $126 million over seven years for Barry Zito, $52 million over six years for Daisuke Matsuzaka -- after the Red Sox paid over $50 million to Dice-K's Japanese league team just for the right to negotiate a contract.
The Washington Nationals, with the first pick in the 2009 draft, selected Stephen Strasburg and, thanks to Boras, the young right-hander set a record with a $15.1 million contract. What do the Nats get out of the deal? The chance to wait an entire year to see the phenom again -- he will miss all of 2011 recovering from "Tommy John" surgery.
In January, Boras got the Cardinals to shell out a seven-year, $120 million extension for Matt Holliday.
The list goes on.
This week, he managed to get Washington to sign former Phillies' right-fielder Jayson Werth to a seven-year, $126 million contract.
Brewers fans especially aren't too pleased with Boras these days since he represents Prince Fielder, who is likely to skip town when he becomes a free agent after this season.
Having Boras as his agent makes teams even more unwilling to deal for the first baseman as Boras encourages his clients to avoid signing extensions and taking their talents to the open market.
Many teams have stopped drafting Boras clients all together while others refuse to deal with the agent when making deals or searching for free agents. You can't blame them; nobody knows how to wreck a budget more than Boras and sometimes, it's hard to figure out who works for who -- Boras for his clients, or the other way around.
Unfortunately, Boras and his clients are merely operating within the realm of baseball's current economic system. Still, the way his deals impact the overall free agent market makes fans' hatred totally and completely justified.
