Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Congratulations, you swine!



What's the opposite of classy?

Per Tom Brown of Yahoo Sports, in comments made after his election into the baseball Hall of Fame, Whitey Herzog made the following comment referring to the Cardinals:

"They could win the division without Holliday. You can't commit suicide in baseball. Sign one contract that's bad, you're going to suffer, so you've got to be careful."

Sounds reasonable. Who can argue?

Well this guy.

Matt Holliday's agent, Scott Boras responded with the following:

"Congratulations to Whitey on an extraordinary managerial career and his Hall of Fame selection today. It's understandable that a man who was a GM 20 years ago when the revenues were $1 billion - over six times less than the $6.5 billion revenues of today - questions the modern-day contract structure. I don't think modern GMs, particularly Cashman, with a new ring on his finger, characterize signings like Mark Teixeira - who akin to Holliday has achieved near MVP status (both second in the MVP voting in their career) and taken his team to the World Series - as 'suicide'. In addition, I'm sure if Whitey asks Pujols, Carpenter and other Cardinals players, they would confirm the value of Holliday's division winning contribution. Again, we congratulate Whitey on his admittance into the Hall of Fame."

The opposite of classy?

Yeah, that.

4 comments:

Carl Crawford Cards said...

Holliday's contract will be franchise-killing to whomever signs him. Anyone remember what Boras said about Zito before the Giants signed him? How'd that turn out?

Contrary Guy said...

No offers to pay the money back either.

Field of Cards said...

By now I would think Boras is worth 100 million bucks. Has there ever been an "outsider" (not employed by MLB or the Player's Union)that has impacted baseball in such as big a way? It's amazing how powerful he has become.

Boras is brilliant. It's too bad he seems to use his skill for what often appears to be evil. Like when he had the Texas Rangers bidding against themselves for Arod. Or the Kevin Brown fiasco contract. Or the times he found obscure loopholes to void contracts.

His resume reads like Billy Martin managed: cutthroat and sneaky.

Contrary Guy said...

I am continually amazed that the "I have 10 other phantom teams interested in my client so you better increase your offer X 10" ever works. Call his bluff. Worst case scenario, you lose the player but you probably won't. If so, you go on to the next guy.

With Texas and ARod, as I recall Hicks had good reason to know that he was bidding against himself and did it anyway for whatever reason. How do these guys make their money outside of baseball?