Let's Make a Deal...Just Not a Fair One

Barry Zito.

Andruw Jones.

J.D. Drew.

I could ask you what these three Major Leaguers have in common, but that would just insult your intelligence. Clearly, all three were ridiculously overpaid in their respective free agent offseasons. But hey, it happens right? Wrong. There is a growing trend in professional baseball that is pushing the limits of spending past the "He got paid how much?!" boundary to the "What the hell was that owner smoking?!" boundary. One man is spearheading this trend. He is the man-who-must-not-be-named in Major League front offices. He inspires greed in the most charitable of men. He makes Donald Trump look like Bono (I know, that one's a stretch...work with me). His name: Scott Boras. Oh, did you hear it? That was the collective sphincters of GM's throughout the league tightening. Scott Boras. There it was again. You know that feeling you get on an airplane when all of a sudden for no reason the plane drops about 5,000 feet and your testicles jump into your small intestines? That's the feeling Mike Rizzo and Stan Kasten have had for the last month leading up to tomorrow's midnight deadline.

Let me set the scene for you. You're the President of the worst team in baseball. Last year, your team lost 102 games and this year you're at the bottom again. You failed to sign the #8 overall pick in the draft a year ago but have hit the jackpot this year in selecting arguably the greatest prospect ever: Stephen Strasburg. Things begin to look up. Fans are showing up to games in homemade Nationals' Strasburg jerseys. Your team's offense ranks among the best in the National League, and thanks in large part to your hard-working marketing and promotions department, fans are happy to come to the two year old, state of the art ballpark. There's only one problem: you have yet to come to terms with said prospect. And oh by the way, the deadline to sign this phenom is midnight TONIGHT!

Well it sounds simple enough. Just offer the kid the highest ever signing bonus for an amatuer, topping Mark Prior's record setting $10.5 million deal. Add about 10% on to that, plus an extra $2 mill just for shits and giggs, and bam, we have a deal. Ask any rising college senior how they'd feel about receiving roughly $13 million and getting to play baseball for a living. I'm pretty sure 99.999% would say "wait, what?" and then probably "Hell Yes!". So what's the problem? Scott Boras. Strasburg, Boras contends, should receive the same negotiating fee the Red Sox paid to talk to Daisuke Matsuzaka. Yeah, $50 million for a college senior, that sounds fair. Because clearly the heavy hitters on teams like BYU, the University of Utah, and the Air Force Academy are as talented as the major league rosters Strasburg will face in the near future. Don't get me wrong, right now he's got amazing stuff, but who knows what could happen? Some of the #1 picks in the last 15 years never lived up to expectations, so who's to say Strasburg is a lock? See Matt Anderson ('97), Bryan Bullington ('02), and Kris Benson ('96). Excluding Benson's wife, none of these three has produced anything worthwhile to the MLB in their pro careers.

So with 24 hours to go, somehow the Nationals and he-who-must-not-be-named will have to come to an agreement on the fate of Stephen Strasburg. Rumors are swirling about various offers in the $15 to $20 million range, which to me should be enough. But ultimately, i put the solution to this debacle squarley in the hands of the 21 year old Strasburg. If that means telling Boras to back the f*#k off and putting on your big boy shoes, then so be it. Take a page out of the Matt Stafford playbook and embrace the city that selected you. I think the final offer will be $20 million. If that doesn't get Strasburg to the front of the Nationals rotation, then the people of Washington D.C. should be glad they didn't end up with a greedy, immature, ball player unwilling to prove his worth.