Last week, Scott Boras visited my journalism class to take part in a Q&A. Because a lot of his answers were pretty enlightening and interesting, I decided to post my notes from that two hour Q&A here. So, enjoy.
- Motto of Boras Corporation: “Serving the Athletes of Baseball”
- Baseball America: “Most influential non-player”
- Steven Strasburg
- Ever player, look at metrics: age, talent, and how they might do over time
- Few precocious players (esp pitchers) are long-lasting
- With ability, his chance of injury was higher
- True – had to have Tommy John surgery
- 50% of the pitchers will have some sort of shoulder or elbow surgery
- Decision to shut him down
- When you’re young, you were always the best, and then you get to spring training and see the best of the world
- A lot of players who were the best in their region are cut during spring training; spent all their bonus money, crying in the parking lot
- He wants to only represent the elite – the ones who will make it and will have the careers
- Have the skill, and have the medical part of it
- Medical part most athletes don’t deal with
- Making a life and having a career with your body is different than in high school and college
- The old ways were that you gave it all and do it all
- Sight and Sound test
- If you look good and you say there’s nothing wrong, then you can play
- But later on in life, you pay for it
- Seeing this with concussions, pitchers
- Legal/medical ethics now with general managers
- Doctors: there are medical protocols that you have to follow otherwise the injury risk goes up 50-60% in the players
- The value of your decisions should not be judged by the media followers
- Acceptance dynamic of bringing the game and the fans to the level of medical expertise to see why dealing with the player in that way is good
- Pushback from Strasburg?
- Employer never talked with the player
- Protocol that Boras had that he talked with the owner and GM about was enforced by the employer, not by Boras/the player
- Because Strasburg has been with the doctor and his career was saved by him, he is more likely to trust his decision
- Out of pitcher that throws 600+ innings through age of 23, only 12 pitched more than 500 innings past the age of 30.
- Doctors require a certain protocol after Tommy John surgery
- Have to have a certain number of innings, amount of rest for conditioning afterwards
- Sticking to protocol will have the maximum benefit
- Steroids (Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon)
- Much better place – league tested randomly
- When have outliers, have detectability and accountability
- In Latin community, players told a variety of things by a variety of people, who are persuaded
- Barry Bonds
- In the 90s, there was no compendium – whether or not you used steroids was up in the air
- There was no testing or governance from baseball leadership – nothing that said that if you used, you were banned from the game
- Told his players that steroids will lessen their careers because their joints, tendons, and ligaments would be worsen
- Usually players would be out of the league in 3-4 years
- Started negotiations w/ Bonds in 2000, said that he had a couple of bad contracts
- Told him to hold off, then that next year he hit 73 home runs
- Alex Rodriguez
- Rangers were bidding with themselves – the media wrote that
- It’s like playing poker with yourself – you say you won, but you also lost
- Almost 95% agents are order takers – get word from teams, then tell players
- Don’t need any legal training to be an agent
- Tends to be more of marketing
- Former player and an attorney
- There are GMs like that, so wants to try to integrate why that player will do well with the team
- Adrian Beltre – if with Rangers, would win division 2 times in a 5 year contract
- Correct
- The values of performance is based on the revenue of the game, not based on the player’s performance the previous year
- During A-Rod with team, the value of the team doubled, and got a bunch of revenue and naming rights and so on
- In 1990, MLB revenue = $1B
- In 80s = $400M
- In 1997 = $2B
- In 2000 = $3B
- In 2007 = $5B
- Now = $8.5B
- 78% of the money goes to 21% of the players
- Average career = 3 years
- Average career with Boras client = 12 years
- 70% never get out of A ball
- 30% of that 30% reach the majors for 3 years
- <10% even get to reach free agency at six years
- Knows nothing about the other sports
- Although players from those sports approach him
- Watches USC games, Pete Carroll games, and went to one LA Kings game last year during their Cup run
- Went to Uni of the Pacific with Carroll
- Takes a while to negotiate a contract
- Weeks and weeks – get offered more money
- If you sign a bad contract, you feel stupid
- 30% has nothing to do with negotiations
- It’s how the player plays the game and the psychology of it
- Have to help players through slumps and fears that they’ve lost it – even if they’re making $15M that year
- Had players call him from their garage and tell him that they can’t go to the ballpark because they’ve lost it
- When decided to get into the business full-time with representing athletes
- Raised on a farm, for him looking at the field was like being in jail
- Dad told him “You’re going to do more with what’s above your shoulders than below.” He could have talked to a few girls on campus, I don’t know.
- Thought it was unfair that slot bonuses would stay the same from 1965 to 1982 even though revenues went up
- When started, chose two players – they ended up being drafted first and second overall
- In a sports career, you move around
- Liking sports is not a reason to be in sports – you have to be good at sports
- Some are master marketers
- If you’re in sport as a business, your spouse has to be understanding – like being an OBGYN
- The media for Scott Boras is a minimum 3 hours a day
- He’d love to eliminate sports talk radio
- Any memorable phone calls w/ angry owner/GM
- Negotiated a contract for three years with George Steinbrunner
- Bernie Williams – hit 20HR, .300, 100RBI, gold glove, CF
- But George didn’t want to pay him like he hit 40 home runs (but Boras said he was more valuable)
- In a game, Bernie Williams was picked off of first twice – George called in the middle, said that “Is this the guy that you want to play a record salary?”
- Later in the game, he hit a three run homer
- Called George the next day: “The pitcher gets more tired the more times he throws to first, so he was just setting up that hanging curveball to hit later”
- Tigers owner called Boras wondering why they couldn’t win
- Boras had three players that could perform in Detroit, but he needed all three
- So paid them a ton of money, and they were in the WS a few years later
- But the owner was ostracized for paying more than what others thought he should
- Bryce Harper
- Best power hitter at his age that Boras has seen in his life
- Had to pass a GED without ever taking the courses – was a 4.0 student
- Was in college at 17
- Go to college
- Players should get an education
- College coaches wear you out
- There was a manager from Virginia and Boras thought that he was illiterate
- Had to learn to communicate with the guy
- Taught him how to stay inside on the slide
- You’re a dartboard in sports
- But it doesn’t matter if you’re prepared
- “I don’t know, I’ll check”
- How easy is it for women to get into sports
- Players have to stop looking at you as a woman and at you as someone with knowledge of the game
- What keeps women out of the game is the lack of understanding of the game
- Gender should not be the limitation, the limitation should be the understanding of the game
- You have to be you, and have to speak that language in your way to get them to understand that you have that insight
- How to identify excellent players
- There are a few great players
- When you see something extraordinary/natural – like Bryce Harper
- Was 14 years old – only other player that was like that was Alex Rodriguez
- “They don’t play baseball in Europe, so that was the first time I’ve ever been there”
- The great ones in sport have such a difficult time
- They’re treated differently when they’re young, and then once your gift is gone, the people are disinterested
- You may hold the balloon, but it has no air in it
- The air used to come from the outside, but now it has to come from you
- New CBA with caps on signing bonuses
- “This may be a shock, but I wasn’t particularly for that idea”
- Doesn’t just affect the elite players
- Strasburg would have gotten half, Harper would have gotten a quarter of what they’re worth
- System has not accounted for the ebbs and flows of the draft talent
- If you want to have boundaries, set a limit for a team over five years, rather than a single year
- Clear of conflict
- Never wants to be in business with the player off the field, because wants to represent them with a clear conscious
- Not there to be the player’s friend or to be their yes man, but to help with their goals and to execute
- “Your client is the show, you’re not the show”
- Considered being a GM
- Asked 4-5 times about being part of ownership and do those things
- One time had a company that wanted to buy his company
- Everything that he has in his life came because of baseball
- So what could he do that will have the greatest contribution to the game
- Putting together a WS team is not as challenging as making a player’s career go right
- Age doesn’t matter – when you’re 19, I work for you
- Hometown discounts
- “I’m going to have to get a cream out of my bag because I get a rash whenever I hear the term hometown discount”
- Jered Weaver wanted to stay with the Angels – “wanted to buy real estate”
- Role is to give the client the best information he can, and let them make decisions
- Motivation
- Motivates players through slumps
- A player can go 3-for-4, and just remember the out
- Deals are never about money, they’re about value
- You’re going to deal with teams multiple times
- “It’s not about who you are, it’s about the people playing for you.”
