Basketball

• Agreed, now how do we get rid of under-the-table payments to these players? [NCAA Should Admit Its March Madness Players Are Professionals]
• Arn Tellem represents Tiago Splitter now, too? Who doesn’t Tellem rep these days? [Spurs' situation with Splitter reminds of Scola]
• From a Merrill Lynch financial advisor.  See, it’s not only agents and boosters giving these kids money [Oklahoma BB Star Scores Questionable Cash].
• Low 5-figures to get Murray State coach, Billy Kennedy, out of his K [The Smallest Coaching Buyout?].

Soccer

• I hope that the players are unified and committed to taking action [MLS Players Vote to Strike, League Has Some Decisions to Make].
• On the bright side… [Soccer In The States Reaches It’s Tipping Point…].

Baseball

• Guaranteed money and security at the age of 26 [Twins lock up Span for five years].
• No baseball players on the list of Top 10 Funniest Athletes [Why Michael Strahan Is Pitching Baseball Bats].

Have you heard anything about Casey Close leaving CAA to start up his own company with David Falk?

Apparently, the rumor had been floating around for a month or so, but after doing some research, I had no way to confirm it.  Thus, I never ran the story.  Now, I come to find out that Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal reported yesterday that Casey Close may, in fact, leave juggernaut Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and may be considering either starting up his own practice, or joining David Falk at FAME.

Casey Close used to be the captain of the CAA Baseball ship, but as of roughly nine months ago, five different CAA baseball agents began splitting the responsibilities of division director.  Those agents are: Nez Balelo, Brodie Van Wagenen, Jeff Berry, Joe Urbon and Greg Landry.  I find that interesting, since Casey Close is still with CAA, has not officially announced that he will be leaving, yet CAA changed the structure of the baseball division.

Here are some of the names you have heard of that are currently represented by Casey Close (some are split between Close and another agent): Ben Sheets, Jason Jennings, Aaron Hill, Derrick Lee, Josh Vitters, Connor Jackson, Buster Posey, Jeremy Sowers, Jamey Wright, Ryan Zimmerman, Justin Maxwell, John Lannan, Jeremy Guthrie, Chris Lambert, John Mayberry Jr., Jeff Clement, Jeff Niemann, Gil Meche, Alex Gordon, Josh Fields, Michael Cuddyer, and some guys named Ryan Howard and Derek Jeter.

Talk about a client list.  It will be interesting to see which players stay with CAA and which ones leave with Casey Close, and if any battle ensues between the entities prior to or after Close leaves the agency (if he leaves at the culmination of his current contract).  Time to pull out the employment contracts!

Besides the competition, I also worked on numerous tasks for Dynasty this week. Darren has been putting in work to sign a top NFL prospect for marketing purposes. Along with the other interns, our task was to design a marketing plan in order to show the prospect exactly what Dynasty had to offer him in terms of marketing. My part involved a lot of research relating to competition and why, despite competition, Dynasty was the best option for the player.

In addition to the marketing plan, I contacted several companies regarding sponsorships for our clients. I also contacted other companies specifically to work out endorsement deals for three of our bigger baseball clients. I received responses back from a few of these companies. The response I received was quite normal, the standard “we’ll take a look at what you have given us, make a decision and get back to you as soon as we can.” Other companies have not responded yet. For some of these companies, they had no contact information for individuals that would be helpful to me, so I had to send emails to their generic email accounts. For those that don’t respond to me, my next step is to call the phone number listed and ask for someone in the marketing department.

The best advice I can give on this matter is to keep pressing to find the correct contact person and then just made an honest proposal. The worst they can do is say “no.” The best is that you get a great deal for your client. At the very least, maybe you make a contact that you can use in the future. With the economy still recovering from recession, it won’t be easy to find sponsorship deals for clients. However, if you at least make contact, when the time is right for the company to start spending money on sponsorships again, you might be at the top of their list.

In addition to these tasks, I did my regular tracking of college baseball players. There are a few guys on the list having stellar seasons and hopefully they make the right decision to go with Dynasty. One note on this assignment, I have one or two high school players to track as well as college players and I find it is incredibly hard sometimes to find stats for these kids. This week I did manage to contact one of the player’s coaches. He was very receptive and quick to respond with stats. He had no problem with me contacting him weekly to get stats on the player. If all coaches were this receptive to agent interns, it would be great.

I am ending this week working on two other side projects. I am researching a few prospects that were passed along to Darren as referrals to see if any have draft potential. I am also putting together a compilation of stats, highlights and a biography for one of our players to be sent to someone with ties to Japan. Hopefully it works out and our player can start a new chapter to his career.

So until next week, Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone.

Baseball

• A battle between Jose Julio Ruiz and his former agent, Jorge Luis Toca [Ruiz, Ex-Agent Clash Over Split].
• Pretty pointless, but could prevent future long negotiations if both sides are content [Are Mutual Options Baseball's New Fad?].
• Mike Lupica mostly targets Scott Boras [With controversial doctors like Tony Galea, sports agents seem to walk away without fault].
• Always good to recognize the great things that host families do for players [The next Giants' prospect could be staying in your guest room].
• Really interesting to see how the holding may affect New Era hats in baseball [Practical Effects of American Needle v. NFL on a Minor League Baseball Team].
• Is the answer really more scholarships? [Hunter was wrong, but had valid point].

Sports Law

• Has NCAA bylaw 12.3.4.2 helped create a new agent selection counseling industry? [The Wild Card – 12.3.4, USC, and You]

Coaches

• CAA may quickly attain the most successful coaching division in the industry [Wesley to become rep for coaches].

Joe Rosen’s big client is Hideki Okajima.  It doesn’t hurt that he is based in Boston (allows for a lot of face-time with his major client).  Rosen started out as a Corporate and Securities lawyer after graduating from law school.  He worked at a couple of big firms in Boston.  One of the firms allowed him to build a sports and entertainment practice.  A point Rosen makes that I believe in, as well, is this – “Not every agent is a lawyer, but you need to be associated with one to do a good job.”  A big benefit of going to law school is being able to effectively negotiate, analyze, and evaluate contracts.  Morals clauses, termination clauses, etc. are important clauses beyond the core money clauses.  Rosen’s first client in the sports business was a female Olympic bobsledder.  He helped her negotiate an endorsement contract.  He then did some naming rights deals.  His big moment was when the Red Sox were sold in 2001.  He represented the primary New England based group looking to buy the Sox.  While that group did not win the rights to the Red Sox, that was when he decided he needed to be in this business.  Rosen is trying to learn Japanese in order to better communicate with Okajima.  Good luck with that!  Rosen says his big goal right now is to make Okajima more visible in the community, and he believes that him being based in Boston will help with that effort.  Rosen talks a little bit about his minor league players and how there is little contract negotiation involved between being drafted and becoming arbitration eligible.  The equipment deals are important, though.

Jeff Frye is a former Major League player who is now a baseball agent.  His best friend (Jay Franklin, brother of Ryan Franklin) played professional baseball, went on to work at Scott Boras Corp, and ended up teaming up with Frye to start an agency.  Frye believes that having someone who played in the Major Leagues is invaluable as far as representing athletes.  He rocks an anti-agent look (tennis shoes, blue jeans, and a ball cap) and he says that he is not a salesman.  Interesting distinction that Frye makes when he says he advises the family, not the player.  One of Frye’s clients is Ian Kinsler.  They seem to have a real good relationship; they even play Wii Bowling together.  Frye takes his clients hunting and fishing as their client “getaway”.

The interviews are pretty long, but the hosts do a good job with the questions.  I will be doing an interview with Hot Stove TV tomorrow.  Look out for it.

One thing that Panama City is definitely not known for is its quality of baseball.  Pick any school in Florida, and you are bound to find some good baseball being played.  The top baseball schools include University of Florida, University of Miami, Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University, University of Tampa, Florida Southern, Chipola College…need I go on?  Pretty much pick a school in the state of Florida, and you are bound to see at least one future Major/Minor leaguer on the field.  Even Florida Gulf Coast has a kid (Chris Sale), who is projected to be a first-rounder this year.  Chris Sale is a monster on the mound, and he deserves to be taken in the 1st, but I also think that there is a gem hidden in Panama City, the destination for Spring Breakers, who also has first-round potential.  Cross off the word “Florida” in Chris Sale’s school’s name and you will find the smaller Gulf Coast Community College, where a kid named Andrew Morris is pitching his heart out.

Gulf Coast Community College has to thank Morris, because he is a huge factor in why the school is ranked #7 in the nation according to March 3rd’s National Junior College Athletic Association Top 25 Poll.  Last year, Morris was an Honorable Mention All American and named Panhandle Conference Pitcher of the Year.  My guess is that this year, Morris will be a 1st Team All American and possibly win ABCA Player of the Year.

What is so special about the 6′3, 190lbs right-handed pitching Sophomore out of Prattville, Alabama?  In his Freshman year at Gulf Coast, he went 10-2 with a 2.77 ERA.  He had more strikeouts than innings pitched, fanning 107 batters in 94 innings.  His strikeout total was more than double his number of walks (42).  And he only gave up 65 hits on the season.  In 14 appearances as a Freshman, six were complete games and one was a shutout in 14 appearances.  On April 21, 2009 Morris was named the FCCAA Pitcher of the Week after tossing a complete-game, 12 strikeout, two-hitter in a win over then-No. 9 Northwest Florida.  Morris showed up to play whether he was facing a better or weaker team.

After a strong Freshman year campaign, Andrew Morris was drafted in the 44th round by the Milwaukee Brewers.  Looking at his performance in 2009, you may ask why he slipped so far in the draft.  My assumption is that it was an instance where a player could have been picked in the top 4-8 rounds, but thought that he was not being properly valued and ended up slipping in the draft.  Anyway, Morris went out to play Summer Ball with the Slippery Rock Sliders of the Collegiate Wood-Bat Prospect League.  Morris picked up where he left off with Gulf Coast.  Once again, he struck out more batters (86) than the amount of innings he pitched (76).  A whopping 4 of the 12 games he started were complete games, and he added another shutout to his achievements.  His ERA was 2.25, and check out the opponents’ batting average against him – .182!  Not surprisingly, Morris was named an All-Star.

Now Andrew Morris is back at Gulf Coast for his final year with the team, but has already committed to Auburn, should he not sign with a professional team after this year.  The way Morris is pitching, I would think that he will jump to being taken in the top 5 rounds and get the money he deserves.  I see him as a first rounder, but that’s just my opinion.  Andrew Morris’ numbers in his Sophomore campaign are just ridiculous.  As of March 5, he has seen action in 6 games.  4 of those games were complete games, and 2 of them were shutouts.  He has 5 wins in those 6 games.  Morris’ ERA is 1.51 and opponents are only batting .160 against him.  His strikeout/walk ratio has improved, as well (58/19).  And the strikeouts are WELL above innings pitched, once again.

Can you tell that I am a fan of Morris?  I am one of the few who have been tracking Gulf Coast while others ignore the school for Panama City’s beautiful beaches.  Morris’ coach as Gulf Coast had this to say about him – “A coach’s dream, super talent combined with an unbelievable work ethic.”  Can’t beat that.  And Conor Glassey of BaseballAmerica.com wrote this about Morris on February 16, 2010 – “He throws in the 88-92 mph range and also has a good splitter and a big curveball with a lot of depth.”

One thing I noticed that some scouts may have looked over is that Morris was born on August 5, 1990.  He is one of the youngest players in his class at only 19-years-old.  I know the Brewers picked him last year, but I’d love to see my Florida Marlins bring him in.

Besides school related matters, I also did numerous tasks for Dynasty. I spent much of the week researching contacts for several sports equipment companies that Darren had given me so that we could potentially get some bats, gloves, etc. sent to our players. He also asked me to start working on finding baseball card deals for our players. There were several companies where I couldn’t find anything but a generic consumer email as a way to contact the company. I used the generic email. I am hoping to hear back from someone soon. Hopefully this information leads to our guys getting some great products to use during spring training and beyond. So far I have only heard back from one inquiry that I made regarding baseball cards. Panini America (formerly Donruss) responded to our inquiry that it only puts out one baseball product each year and it is in the fall. However, the women was familiar with our company and seemed to indicate that we may possibly get our guys come baseball cards this Fall.

I did manage to find a contact from a bat company on LinkedIn. Joining the different groups related to baseball, and sports in general, can be very valuable. It has led a contact with a bat company. The company has supplied 2 bats to our players so far. Hopefully this is the beginning of a good relationship with them. However, I am not stopping at this one bat company. There are a few other bat companies that I’ve been trying to contact, to no avail so far. If I do not hear a response back from the emails I sent this week, the next step is to call and try to talk to someone on the phone. In today’s email age, sometimes the best way to make a contact is actually via the telephone.

Other than trying to make equipment and baseball card contacts, I also did my daily updates on college players we are targeting. I emailed a few of the teams that these individuals play on to try to get them to update their statistics. Most schools update daily, but some of the smaller schools have not yet updated their scores and stats. In addition, I realized that two of the players on our watch list play relatively locally to my location in Harrisburg, Pa. One is actually playing an away game at my alma mater Lebanon Valley College in April. I am planning on at least getting to that game and perhaps more. The other individual is playing about an hour north of me near Williamsport, PA. When I indicated that I would be willing to see these guys and get some tape, Dynasty seemed happy for me to go meet the players. I have a new MinoFlip HD video camera that I want to try out and this would be the perfect opportunity.

One final note, yesterday marked the beginning of Spring Training games for most teams. Good luck to all our players as they begin a very promising baseball season for Dynasty. That about sums up my week. I am off to continue studying. Have a great weekend.

Football

• NCAA ban aside, football coaches may want to think twice before selecting Dez Bryant [Bryant comes with a caveat emptor tag].
• Mike Ornstein vs. Bill Henkel [Wilson: Marketing reps confirm altercation at combine].
• Yes, the NFL has to follow state laws when they are applicable [The Star Caps Saga Continues].
• Please read what Head Coach Marvin Lewis had to say about the NFL Combine [Inconsistent Measureables].
• Some will over spend, some will go the cheap route, others will pretend there is still a cap [NFL free agency begins Friday without cap].

Baseball

• Never seen Garrett Broshuis pitch, but I am sad to see him leave the game [Suitcase Chronicles: Not Crash Davis].
• Some love for Arn Tellem as a baseball agent [Hideki Matsui in Anaheim: "Man, I feel comfortable here"].

Soccer

• So now that Major League Soccer and its players’ association is not bound by a collective bargaining agreement… [McCarthy’s Musings: The Friday Five Explains The Demise Of The MLS CBA].

Here is a little bit about Johnny Lujan’s past in MLB-affiliated baseball.  Lujan was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 15th round of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft.  In 2007, he move to the Chicago White Sox organization after being traded for catcher Chris Stewart.  He spent the past three years with the White Sox, but the Sox never protected Lujan by putting him on their 40-man roster.  Lujan was eligible in this past year’s Rule 5 Draft, and the New York Mets snagged him in the Triple A phase.  Johnny will be reporting to Major League Spring Training this weekend, a little bit late, due to the birth of his first child as mentioned above.  Without a doubt, though, he is ready to play, and he now has an extra incentive to make it up to the big leagues.

If Johnny can limit his walks and maintain his control on the mound, he will definitely be called up by the end of the year.  From 2008 to 2009, Lujan was able to increase his K/9, decrease his BB/9, and decrease his WHIP to a respectable 1.35.  I was shocked when I read that in 58.2 innings pitched, Lujan only gave up 1 homerun.  We are excited to represent our second player in the Mets organization, and one who is close to the big stage.

This will be the first player that Dynasty represents in conjunction with an outside entity.  Steve Weinberg, who has represented Johnny Lujan in the past, will continue to serve as Johnny Lujan’s primary agent.