What’s Wrong with Baseball

The Pittsburgh Pirates represent everything that is wrong with baseball.  They’re a small market team that hasn’t found success in the past 20 years! The last time they had a winning season was 1992 and their largest payroll in that span was $57,760,833.  Consider that last year the Yankees paid their third baseman Alex Rodriguez and first baseman Mark Teixeira a combined $55,125,00.  The smaller market Pittsburgh Pirates are what is wrong with baseball in more than just their payroll restrictions.  The Padres, Rays, and Diamondbacks have all made the playoffs in recent years with limited payrolls.  The Pirates are where they are (first place in June, destined for a losing record come the end of September) because of poor decisions from their front office and surely a bit of bad luck.  They haven’t done a great job of developing talent outside of Andrew McCutchen and I’m not sure what their plan with recent first round selection Mark Appel is exactly.  Which leads me to exactly what is wrong with baseball: Scott Boras.

I’ve got a friend who went to Harvard-Westlake High School in California.  You know… the one that had two first round pitchers selected in this year’s draft.  We were exchanging texts as he was sitting next to Max Fried at Fried’s draft party and we couldn’t figure out why Appel was sliding.  Fried’s payday depended on the Stanford RHP’s draft stock.  Fried wound up going one spot before Appel and with one text my buddy explained why:  Scott Boras.  It is crazy how much those two words carry in today’s game.  You hear them more than revenue sharing or Bud Selig.  The SuperAgent has completely changed the game by making the absolute most out out of free agency and through the draft.

Jayson Stark at ESPN compared the upcoming battle between the Pirates and Boras with Ali-Frazier and Pacquiao-Maywether.  While that’s a bit melodramatic, the signing of Mark Appel could be the moment that baseball,stands up to Boras and says “Enough Already!”   Boras be forced to work within the confines of the slotting system established by the new Bargaining Agreement (if a team goes over slot on their pool for their first 11 picks, they forfeit their next two first round picks, $1 million, and all revenue sharing money).  The Pirates will do that,and it will mark one of the first sound business decisions they’ve made in recent years (along with getting AJ Burnett and extending McCutchen).

I’m fine with Boras getting his clients the most possible money, but I’m not fine with it handicapping franchises and happening at the expense of many minor leaguers.  The average minor leaguer doesn’t get much in terms of salary and the top loaded nature of the draft has been addressed, but not perfected.  We’re still giving kids $4-7 million dollar signing bonuses while guys like Starlin Castro are making $500,000 while dominating in the majors. It’s a messed up system in the same way that the NFL draft awards the top pick with more money than most comparable veterans.

We’ll get one thing straight: There’s nothing wrong with baseball.  It’s just fine the way it is with 90 foot bases and the pitching rubber 60 feet, 6 inches away.  Attendance is just fine.  The entertainment value is just fine.  The drama and rumors are only growing as the summer days get warmer.  But, if something were wrong with baseball, it’d be the Pittsburgh Pirates and Scott Boras.

Stat of the Day:  Omar Vizquel has been an all star as many times as Russell Martin and Luis Castillo as well as WNBA star Swin Cash.

-Sean Morash