This is my first post on Sports Agent Blog after getting my start at Entertainment Agent Blog.  Being from outside the Philadelphia area, I’m heartbroken the Phillies lost to the Yankees.  But now that the season is over, the Phillies should reflect on their season and think about who will be returning next year.  The Phils got Cliff Lee along with Ben Francisco on July 29^th, in a trade for SS Jason Donald, P Jason Knapp, P Carlos Carrasco, and C Lou Marson in no doubt the best bargain of the season.  Without question, the trade paid immediate dividends for the Phils and at a bargain price.

The Phils didn’t give up that much in return for Lee.  None of the prospects did much of anything this year.  Carrasco went 0-4 for the Indians with an ERA close to 9.00.  Lou Marson batted .250 in 14 games, Knapp went 0-0 with an ERA of 5.40 in the minors and struggled with injuries, and Donald batted .257 with one R.B.I.  In 10 games for the Indians AAA affiliate. While some of these prospects may make it to the Majors, none of them have really shown potential to be everyday players.  On the other hand, Lee had a stellar second half with the Phillies and arguably one of the best postseasons in recent memory, all for a bargain price of their share of the $5.75 million he was due this year.

What makes the deal even sweeter for Philadelphia is that Lee also has an $8 million club option for 2010.  That means the Phillies could have at least one more year with Lee before he becomes a free agent.  The club option is relatively cheap for someone who went 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA in the regular season and 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA in the postseason.  Management would be stupid to not pick up the option.  Letting Lee become a free agent will almost assuredly mean that he can command big money in the free agent market.

I think it is inevitable that the Phils will pick up the club option for next season.  The real concern for management is locking him into a long-term deal with the club.  If he performs next year like he did during the later part of this season and postseason, there is no telling what kind of price he is likely to demand in free agency.  He could demand a contract similar to what C.C. Sabbathia received from the Yankees.  There are only a handful of teams able to dish out that kind of cash.  If it comes to that, I hope the Phillies are one of them.

Don’t tell Creative Artists Agency (CAA) that the company is #2 to anyone in any sport.  They just don’t want to hear it.  Even in baseball, where Scott Boras is known as the king of the diamond.

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated reported earlier this week that in a phone interview with CAA baseball agent, Joe Urbon, the agent stated that Jason Bay is “the most complete player on the market.”  Quite a bold statement by Mr. Urbon, who was well aware that some guy named Matt Holliday is also a free-agent going into the 2010 season.  Should Bay be given the edge because he had to compete in a very tough AL East while Holliday went from a mediocre AL West to a soft NL Central?  It is true that Holliday did struggle quite a bit in the AL.  He only hit 1 homerun in the first month of the 2009 season

Boras’ response: “Holliday is the only young complete free agent player available.”  I added the emphasis.  Interesting sly tactic by Mr. Boras, who subtly noted that his client, Holliday is 29-years-old, while Bay is 31-years-old.  You better believe that this factor, alone, drives up Holliday’s price.

I think it is smart for Urbon to make comparisons between Bay and Holliday.  It will only drive up the price of his client.  Let’s just hope that this is not an Urbon vs. Boras competition that stems from past experiences like the notorious case of Tacoby Bellsbury!

In Game 1, Cliff Lee went a full 9 innings to pick up a complete game win.  He gave up 1 unearned run and fanned 10 batters, while walking none!  Then, yesterday in Game 2, the Yankees were desperate for a big game from Burnett.  And he delivered.  Burnett went 7 innings, giving up only 1 earned run, fanned 9, and walked 2.  Braunecker is definitely happy with both pitcher’s strike-out/walk ratio.

So now Braunecker can relax for a few days…until Lee takes the hill again.  Next time, Darek won’t have to worry about Lee actually making it to the game he is scheduled to pitch.  NY traffic can really make things difficult.

Darren Rovell has a very interesting piece on his blog that describes the development of Jack Marucci’s bat company, which has its products used by some of Major League Baseball’s best hitters.  Marucci’s clientele includes Pujols, Howard, Ibanez, and Teixeira…hitters who come to mind when you think of “power swing”.  I agree that it is interesting that Marucci has not paid any players to use his bats or endorse his product.  There is no stronger endorsement than a person using a product out of pure choice, with no monetary consideration involved in the equation.  It is also very rare that a professional would do this, and actually pay for the product (or have his team pay for it), instead of getting free product at a minimum (and possibly being paid to use the product, if it is a prominent player).

Not everyone has a product that players may willingly purchase, however.  With that statement in mind, I thought that this was a particularly telling part of Rovell’s piece:

As for whether big hits by players using his bats help out sales?

“We see it,” Marucci said. “Someone watches Jason Werth hit a home run last night. They see our logo in the paper or during the replay -– HD has helped us a ton -– and they find us.”

So while Marucci does not pay for this beneficial publicity, the quoted passage says a lot about endorsements, in general.  Players and fans have no idea whether Jayson Werth is paid to use the Marucci bat when he steps up to the plate, but they are paying attention to the equipment that successful players are using.  This should be of use to companies deciding whether it is worth it to supply free equipment to players and their agencies of record, in exchange for the use of such equipment in the hope that someone will notice it and possibly make a related purchase, or at least spread word about the company.  For the higher-end players, free equipment may not be enough, and actual payments to the player may be justified by the increase of exposure, especially in an era where practically everyone has an HD TV.

If you haven’t heard about the scuffle, here is a semi-brief recap:

Around three months ago, when the Phillies played the Florida Marlins in Miami, Ryan Howard hit his 200^th homerun, making him the fastest player to ever reach that milestone in MLB history.  Twelve year-old Miami resident, Jennifer Valdivia, was fortunate enough to beat her older brother and everyone else to the homerun ball hit into the stands.  This was Jennifer’s first ever MLB game.  She attended the game with her 17 year old brother and grandmother- who does not speak any English.  Shortly after gathering the ball, the Phillies sent someone from management to seek out Jennifer in order to procure the ball for Howard.  Individuals from the Phillies ended up taking only twelve year old Jennifer and her seventeen year old brother to the clubhouse to “talk” about a trade for the homerun ball (emphasis added).  After some tough negotiating, the Phillies made an agreement with Jennifer that had her receiving a signed Ryan Howard ball after the game, in exchange for the ball she had caught in the stands.  Once Jennifer had returned home and told her mother about the deal with the Phillies, the family sought out attorney and memorabilia enthusiast Norm Kent.   Only days later, Kent filed a complaint and within hours, the Phillies called Jennifer and returned the ball the same day.

After first hearing this story, I had the same initial thought as Mark Conrad from Sports Law Blog. The foremost thing on my mind was the first couple of weeks of Contracts class where we discussed contracting with minors or infants.  I remembered the duel edged sword that minors can have when forming a contract.  The rules of “infancy” state when a minor forms a contract, he/she can rescind that contract at any time without approval by the other side.  That is why contracting with a minor can be a very silly thing, like in this situation.

My response to this situation is one of disbelief.  Who in the Phillies organization would make a deal with a twelve year old girl regarding a supposed piece of MLB history (if you categorize “the fastest to” as a legitimate baseball record) without her parents or someone who is NOT a minor present?  If the Phillies brought the grandmother into the clubhouse with the girl, they probably would have the ball now.

How could this individual not feel like he was doing something wrong, or taking advantage of this child by making such a deal?  Although there are two sides to every story, the Phillies quickly recognized the ramifications and bad press that keeping the baseball would cause and made the right decision by giving it back.

The Minnesota Twins have signed Miguel Angel Sano, a 16-year old Dominican shortstop who is rumored to be one of the best (if not, the best) teenage prospects in Latin America. According to Sano’s agent Rob Plummer, the Twins have signed him for a $3.15 million bonus; however, this is based upon Sano acquiring a visa from the U.S. Consulate in the DR.

Sano is second on the list of the highest paid players from Latin America — first is Michel Ynoa who was signed by the Oakland Athletics last year for $4.25 million.

So, with this signing, a big question arises: Will teams be investing more time and effort into scouting foreign players than domestic? What does this mean for the American sport of baseball?

Recently, Darren Heitner wrote a piece about Orlando Hudson and his unique contract. It is reported that Hudson has already pocketed $7.63 million this year, which  includes his $3.38 million base salary. Hudson has a contract clause that will earn him $10,000 from PA#576-632.

Well, Hudson is in for a deep loss of around $370,000 now that he has been benched. Hudson finished with 595 PA’s before being benched, putting him in the hole for 37 PA’s.

For those players who continue to play in the offseason, some will play in their organization’s Fall Instructional League.  There are also players who have been invited to play in one of the prestigious Fall/Winter leagues.  There are the Arizona Fall League (AFL), Puerto Rican Winter League, Dominican Winter League, Mexican Pacific League, and Venezuelan Winter League.  These are the leagues recognized by Major League Baseball.  In addition to the leagues mentioned, there are a few that have recently sprouted and are hoping to attract talented players to their offerings.

The Florida Winter Baseball League (FWBL) has four teams that cater to Rookie and Single A level ballplayers.  The leagues listed above attract many higher level players.  The FWBL started only a year ago, and will start play in October this year.  Competition will last until January.  Sixty games will be played, with opening day scheduled for October 30.

There have also been rumors that a Junior Arizona Fall League will be developed in the future.  In the meantime, players on the West Coast who were not invited to the AFL may want to look into what people are calling the Advanced Instructional League and the Arizona Parallel League.  Several Farm Directors have put together this makeshift league, which will play all of its games in Arizona.  Play begins two days from now and ends on October 16.  Most players will be taken from Class A and Double A squads.  Only players from the following organizations are invited to participate: Royals, Rangers, Padres, Mariners, Reds, Indians, Dodgers, and White Sox.

Imagine that you are a professional baseball player and you’ve just signed a deal with a major-league team. In your contract, $18 million is guaranteed only if you appear at the plate for a minimum number of times. As you step up to bat for the 1,080th time in two seasons, you have just realized you are guaranteed to receive that $18 million in the future…no matter what.

This is what happened to the Detroit Tigers’ Magglio Ordonez. Tuesday night, he stepped up to the plate for his 1,080th time in two seasons. By doing this, Magglio satisfied a big portion of his contract which now guarantees him his $18 million 2010 option.

Many teams such as the Tigers are using these types of clauses so that they might be able to have some sort of control over funds being paid out to players. Although sneaky, managers sometimes bench or platoon a certain player (Ordonez was benched AND platooned); of course, the teams must have a legitimate reason for doing so.

I know that if there was $18 million to be had in my favor, I’d make sure I was practicing and staying healthy to get those appearances or at-bats.

At Class AA, Atahualpa Severino, one of Dynasty’s newest clients, received a call-up to the Harrisburg club earlier this year.  At first, Ata had a rough time adjusting to the new level.  In July, he had a 7.11 ERA with the team, but nobody was worried.  He bounced back to have a ridiculous August, where he was inserted into 9 games, threw 13.1 innings, and only allowed the opposition to bat .146 against him.  In the 9 games, he picked up 2 saves and 5 wins.  And he did not give up a single earned run in the month.  Ata has already begun to put together a solid September, picking up a win in his first appearance of the month last night.  He went 1.1 innings and struck out 3 batters.  Remember that 7.11 ERA in July?  It’s now sitting at 2.14, which looks very good next to his 6-0 record.

One class below Ata, and a former teammate of Severino, Dan Leatherman has been the staple of the High A Potomac Nationals.  No reliever on the team has logged more innings this year than Dan, who has a total of 69.2 after last night’s performance.  Last night, he came into a tie game in the 8th inning, and pitched 2 innings of no hit, no walk, no run ball, to keep the P-Nats in contention.  Dan also had 3 strikeouts.  The P-Nats won the game in the 11th.  The P-Nats have relied on Dan all season.  He has finished 20 of the 41 games he has appeared in and boasts a very impressive 1.25 WHIP.  His K/BB ratio is also right about 3/1 and Dan’s ERA is a respectable 3.23.  Dan also has 5 saves to go along with his 6-1 record.  While we have been hoping to see Dan called up to AA Harrisburg for quite a while, we know that it is just a matter of time before he is given a chance at a higher level and impresses with that team, as well.

And then there is Gary Amato, formerly of the Pirates organization.  He was cut only two days after we decided to bring him on as a client, and instead of worrying, we found him a new home in the Nationals organization.  He developed some new pitches and worked on his technique in Extended Spring Training.  When he was ready to move on, he was placed in Class A Short-Season Vermont with the Lake Monsters.  Amongst relievers on the team, he is 2nd in innings pitched, with a total of 35.1.  In that span, Amato has yet to give up a single homerun, has a little better than a 4/1 K/BB ratio, and has only allowed the opposition to bat .180 against him.  In August, opponents really couldn’t hit Amato.  Collectively they had a.145 batting average against him in the month.

All three players have very bright futures ahead of them.  The Washington Nationals have a huge need for pitchers with the big league club.  Severino, Leatherman, and Amato will be ready to help out as they continue to rise up the ranks of the organization.