The Enemy Within
"Everyone wants to shoot the messenger when the message is frustrating, but I operate in the arena of truth," super agent Scott Boras once said. "My job is to carry that bulletproof vest and go through it."

There is one common denominator in all the free agent baseball talk so far and that is agent Scott Boras.

The temptation to hate the co-author of the $252 million contract is easy enough. After all, this season alone, Boras represents free agents Carlos Beltran, the most coveted of all free agents, Adrian Beltre, Jason Varitek, JD Drew, Derrick Lowe, Magglio Ordonez and Kevin Millwood. These players alone would probably total about $330 million in new contracts. When considering that most agents earn between 4%-10% on a sliding scale, that means Boras, who neither plays baseball nor pays baseball players, could stand to earn anywhere between $13.2 million to $33 million just for doing his job of milking maximum salaries at inflated rates for his overrated talent.

And let's not mistake hype for reality - as A-Rod has proven, no single player is worth bankrupting a franchise for. Someone signing Beltran, for example, will likely be looking at a 9 figure contract, a crippling contract if you're anyone but perhaps the NY Yankees. And let's be realistic, shall we? Outside of a sizzling postseason, what has Beltran achieved, other than his hype, to merit such an enormous payday? Is it .284 lifetime batting average? Is it how Beltran compares with such certain Hall of Famers as Carlos Lee, Richard Hildalgo, Phil Nevin and Preston Wilson, to name a few?

The point is not to bash Beltran, he's hired a gun to be placed at the head of owners in the name of Scott Boras and whatever wretched things one might say about Boras, he is successful in getting the most money for his clients imagineable.

The point is that Boras has nothing but a negative effect on baseball. Yes, the players hire him and the owners pay him but the players have a responsibility to play well enough to get their inflated paydays and the owners have the ultimate responsibility of generating enough revenue to be able to pay Scott Boras in the end. Scott Boras only has the obligation to make as much money for himself as possible. An argument might even be made that Scott Boras doesn't care about the players he represents, he only cares about how big a contract he can get for that player and thus, how big a cut he can get for himself.

Do you think A-Rod was happy with his $252 million contract in Texas? Do you think the fans were happy? Was the owner even happy? None were happy, which is how and why he ended up in pinstripes. Hang on, one was happy: Scott Boras, because regardless if the Rangers, the Rangers' owner, the Ranger fans or even A-Rod himself were all unhappy, he still got his cut. A rather substantial one at that. And to "earn" that money, Boras didn't have to play baseball, didn't have to pay baseball players, didn't have to pay subsequently inflated prices for tickets to watcht that player. He only had to pay himself.

So rather than get excited about potential free agents and where they might be headed perhaps the focus should be on what greedy agents do to the game of baseball, how overrated each one of his clients really are and examine who, amongst all the teams, will be dumb enough to help Boras earn another fat payday for players who aren't worth what they're paid.

The other agents, by comparison:

Adrian Beltre, lifetime .274 hitter. 48 homers last season but only 57 homers in the THREE years previous, combined. Comparable to Mike Lowell, Aramis Ramirez, functional mediocrity down the line.

JD Drew, lifetime .287 hitter. 31 homers this season. NEVER drove in 100 runs in a season, averages about 110 games played a season (meaning of course, he misses about a third of his teams games every season.

Jason Varitek, lifetime .271 hitter. Comparable to legendary players like Chris Hoiles, Mike Lieberthal, Bo Diaz. Certainly not worth the numbers Boras is asking for and although a valuable member of the Red Sox last season, perhaps just another average Joe playing for some other highest bidder next season.

Derrick Lowe? 72-59 lifetime. 3.88 lifetime ERA. Has started over 30 games the last three seasons running. Perhaps the most solid pitching prospect of the free agent market.

Kevin Millwood, 98-64 lifetime. Has averaged about 30 games started over his career, but has won a decreasing amount of games over the last three seasons: 18 to 14 to 9. Might have to do with his ERA running up from 3.24 to 4.01 to 4.85.

Magglio Ordonez, coming off knee surgery, not the best time to be a free agent, but a .307 lifetime hitter, has averaged nearly 30 homers a season. Comparable to Mike Sweeney, Cliff Floyd, Bobby Abreu, Kevin Mitchell.

Of them all, Lowe and Ordonez might be the only two who might be worth what Boras tries to get for them. The rest are overrated and will soon be overpaid as well.

Peyton Manning Bandwagon:

Following the 5 td pass performance yesterday, the elder brother of Eli Manning now needs 18 td passes in the next 7 games to break Dan Marino's single season mark. Of those next 7 games, he and the Colts will face the Bears at Chicago (8th in TD passes allowed), at Detroit in a dome (20th in TD passes allowed), home in a dome versus Tennessee (21st in TD passes allowed), at Houston Texans (now 32nd in TD passes allowed), home in a dome versus the Ravens (4th in TD passes allowed), home in a dome versus the Chargers (18th in TD passes allowed), at Denver (3rd in TD passes allowed).