Scott Boras Continues To Be Top Story On MLB Draft Day
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Some MLB Teams Avoid
Drafting Boras Clients |
The Orioles Thursday selected Georgia Tech C Matt Wieters with the No. 5 pick in MLB’s First-Year Player Draft, setting up contract negotiations between Wieters’ agent, Scott Boras, and Orioles Owner Peter Angelos. The two have had a contentious relationship since negotiating a contract for P Ben McDonald in ’89. ESPN Scouts Inc. Dir of Baseball Scouting Keith Law said it was “significant” the Orioles finally drafted a Boras player “after years of really not being willing to consider” them. ESPN’s Peter Gammons said Boras thinks Wieters "is a once-in-a-decade player. ... This will be a very interesting test case.” ESPN’s Steve Phillips said some GMs decide they are “just not going to pursue” Boras’ players because of the expected “protracted negotiation” (“MLB Draft,” ESPN2, 6/7). Law: “What was surprising was that even though (Boras) had a large number of clients, and particularly clients expected to go at the top of the draft, three of them were taken in the top ten picks by teams who don’t normally take Boras clients.” But Law said the Boras influence caused a “number of players to slide down, not because they weren’t considered good players, but because they weren’t expected to be available and they got bumped aside for some of these Boras clients” (“Baseball Tonight,” ESPN, 6/7). In Pittsburgh, Joe Starkey writes the Pirates with the No. 4 overall pick bypassed Wieters, the “best player on the board” at the time, “because they’re too cheap. It’s that simple” (Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 6/8).
HOOK SLIDE: In Newark, Matthew Futterman writes Seton Hall P Rick Porcello, the Gatorade National Player of the Year who was selected at No. 27 by the Tigers, also saw his draft position "altered by the Scott Boras effect.” White Sox Scouting Dir Duane Shaffer: “You should be able to sign the best player where you’re picking, no matter where it is. And some teams don’t have that opportunity, and that just makes it unfair. There’s no reason (Porcello) should have gone 27th in the country. If the draft was the NFL or the NBA, he probably would have never gone past the top 10” (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 6/8).
TOP TO BOTTOM: MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo noted high school P Matt Harvey, a Boras client “who partially slid because of [his] performance and largely because of signability concerns, "was not picked until the end of the third round by the Angels. Mayo: “The Boras presence was felt in some ... instances. But, interestingly, two of his clients went in the top five picks” (MLB.com, 6/7).
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