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].

Arbitration season is now officially over.  Overall, the teams were victorious in 5 of the 8 arbitration hearings.  The teams won in the following hearings: Ryan Theriot (Cubs), Wandy Rodriguez (Astros), B.J. Upton (Rays), Brian Bruney (Nationals), and Sean Burnett (Nationals).  You read that correct; the Nationals had two hearings and won both of them (saving the team a total of $500,000 before attorney costs).  But in the end, who really wins from the hearings?  I think the following statement (from MLB.com) is very important to read.

[Sean] Burnett said Thursday night he was not upset about the arbitration process but wished he had come to an agreement with the team. He declined to say what the Nationals said about him during the hearing.

“It was interesting,” Burnett said by phone. “I learned a lesson. I don’t want to deal with it again.”

The three players who won their hearings were Cody Ross (Marlins), Corey Hart (Brewers), and Jeff Mathis (Angels).  Corey Hart’s win surprised some, but after he won, most people predicted that Cody Ross would have an easier job proving his case by just comparing his numbers with Hart’s.  Mathis is an interesting win.  His win proves that the arbitrators do not look only at a player’s main offensive categories.  For them to choose his $1.3 million offer, they had to look more at his defense and clutch hitting.

So let’s take a quick look back at the whole process.  128 players filed for arbitration, 44 players exchanged figures with their organizations, and only 8 went to hearing.  History suggested that the teams would have a narrow margin of victory vs. the players.  This turned out to be true.

The biggest win for the players was Corey Hart ($4.8 million vs. team’s offer of $4.15 million).  The biggest win for the teams was Wandy Rodriguez ($5 million vs. player’s offer of $7 million).

Last year, only 3 players went to a hearing.  In 2008, 8 players went to hearing (the same as this year).  In 2008, the clubs had a slightly better record (6-2).

Pete Parise is that kind of guy.  He wasn’t even drafted in the 50 round MLB draft.  How can you call that kind of guy a “prospect”?  But again, who cares?  He is down in Jupiter right now, fighting for an opportunity to start the season in Major League Baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals.  And while a year ago, many people did not know if he would even start above Double-A in 2010, some people think he has a chance to break camp in the Big Leagues.

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is one of the head honchos who covers the Cardinals.  He lists Parise in his top 5 Cardinals prospects to follow this Spring Training.  Whether Parise is or is not a prospect, he is someone to keep track of leading up to the season.  As Goold notes in his piece,

An underrated righty who hasn’t been heralded in the multitude of prospect rankings, Parise earned a nonroster invitation the old-fashioned way — he earned it. The bulldog righty sports a quality sinker, and he seized the closer job with Pacific Coast League champ Memphis last season.

Busy weekends is the norm over at Scott Boras Corp. headquarters.  This past weekend was no exception.  Scott Boras has been busy playing with the media concerning Johnny Damon negotiations, but he also had a client fire him and subsequently was hired by a different professional player.

Johnny Damon is not the only Scott Boras Corp. free agent waiting to sign an term sheet with an organization.  Felipe Lopez watched as Orlando Hudson signed a 1-year, $5 million deal with the Minnesota Twins and started wondering when his pay day would come.  No longer interested in playing the waiting game and happily placing the blame on his agent, Lopez fired Boras and picked up Dan Lozano of Beverly Hills Sports Council as his representatives on record.

But Boras also gained a new client.  This one came by way of Hendricks Sports Management, which cannot be having fun defending itself in this pending lawsuit.  The Hendricks Brothers are being sued by Edwin Mejia and Athletes Premier International after Edwin and API lost Cuban defector, Aroldis Chapman, to the Hendricks Brothers.  When Chapman made the switch, many inferred that Hendricks client, Kendry Morales, played a big role in the change of agents.  Interestingly, Morales has now fired the Hendricks Brothers and has signed with Scott Boras Corp.

Is there no allegiance in this business?  Okay, stupid question.

Football

• I would imagine that Lawrence has been pretty busy [Everett-based sports agent Paul Lawrence sees a bright future for his client Tracy Porter after Porter’s big Super Bowl play].
• Even sports agents are wearing the mouthpiece? [Jaw dropping performance? Personal Best with Performance Mouthpiece].
• Andy Reid calls him the assistant commissioner [Reno's Bob LaMonte among NFL's most powerful].
• Still not a fan of the restrictiveness of the franchise tag, but it exists, so let’s acknowledge its presence [Teams can use franchise tags starting Thursday].

Baseball

• Not sure that fingerprinting is the answer, but it’s nice to see the MLB getting serious about problems in the Dominican Republic [Baseball Considers Plan to Curtail Age Fraud].
• Even Scott Boras cannot master the system in all situations [Did Boras Fail Damon, Washburn, & Lopez?].

Sports Business

• The discovery process will make this very interesting [NCAA Loses Motion To Dismiss Suit From Former UCLA F Ed O'Bannon].
• Tax issues are not the easiest things to understand [AN OFTEN OVERLOOKED TAX SAVINGS].

Baseball

• Great stuff here about revenue sharing.  Also check out the agents leading the 3+ year free agent deals [Early warning for potential labor unrest].
• A good case is made that teams benefit quite a bit from the arbitration process [Debunking Salary Arbitration Myths - Part 1].
• The new agreement will last until 2013 [Officials pass new Winter League agreement].

Basketball

• Arn Tellem is not fond of trade-demand fines [A Fine Mess].

Football

• It sure seems like DeBartolo has lost a lot of clients in the past year [Smith looking for new contract with new agent].
• If you do not see your name on this list, you will not be participating at the combine [Official Invite List].
• Always nice to get pre-draft deals [Nike Inks Ex-Nebraska Defensive Lineman Ndamukong Suh].

Bowling

• Ludacris, Hines Ward, Lamarr Woodley, Jack Del Rio, along with Dynasty’s Jason Belmonte and Norm Duke [Sunday’s Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational Features A-List Lineup].

With the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl XLIV in Florida this year, it is hard to imagine any more star power in the Sunshine State.  However, the 2010 UF Sports Law Symposium defied the norm and did exactly that, bringing some of the top names in the sports industry to Gainesville.

The symposium was titled “Bargaining Collectively,” and covered all areas of collective bargaining agreements in the MLB, NBA, and NFL. For those of you unable to attend or watch the event LIVE on ustream, here is a brief recap of each of the panels.

The moderators for each panel took slightly different approaches on how to conduct the sessions.  This was a great idea and kept the audience and panelists on their toes and active during the discussion.  Dr. Harvey Schiller, President of the IBAF and CEO of GlobalOptions Group started the symposium off with a bang, addressing the crowd of around 60 or more with some opening remarks on professional sports and CBA’s.

Following Dr. Schiller’s opening remarks and a fifteen-minute food and networking break, speakers for the first panel on MLB collective bargaining issues began taking their seats.  The panelists in attendance were Marc Edelman, Gabe Feldman, Bob Ruxin, Nick Ohanesian, and UF Law Professor Thomas Hurst, who served as the moderator.

Mr. Hurst introduced the panel and gave a brief introduction of each of the four astonishing panelists before giving them the floor one at a time to speak.  Each panelist addressed a different issue relating to major league baseball and the current CBA that will expire on December 31^st of 2011.  Mr. Ohanesian (Resident Officer at the Jacksonville Resident Office of the NLRB) gave a transitory recap of the labor law process and layed down the foundation to discuss collective bargaining issues.  Following Mr. Ohanesian was Bob Ruxin, Harvard Graduate and astute author of An Athletes Guide to Agents, with contributions by SAB’s own Darren Heitner (this is my plug for everyone to go out and buy the book).

Mr. Ruxin led off with the story of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale’s decision to negotiate their contracts with the Dodgers together in 1966.  After an amazing season by both players, Dodgers management met with the two separately and used their demands against each other. The two stars then sat down for dinner and discussed their contract issues, when Drysdale’s first wife, Ginger, suggested that they negotiate together.  Like any good husband would do, Don listened to his wife and the dynamic duo battled the Dodgers together.  Koufax and Drysdale did not like management’s stance on their contracts and they decided to not report to spring training.  In the mean time, the Dodgers trashed the two stars and their tactics and staged a public relations war against the two in the media.  After four weeks, Koufax told Drysdale he could negotiate new deals for the both of them. Koufax ended up getting $125,000 and Drysdale $110,000, which were the two highest salaries in baseball at the time.  This story is important because it represented one of the first situations in baseball where contracts were collectively negotiated between players and management.  The ramifications and fallout from that deal opened up the eyes of everyone involved in MLB and helped create the first ever collective bargaining agreement in professional sports in 1968 (emphasis added).

Following Mr. Ruxin, Gabe Feldman addressed the group. Each speaker had about 10-15 minutes to speak, which was followed by questions from the audience. The four panelists complimented each other very well and hit on many of the major areas that will be mentioned at MLB collective bargaining negotiations.

All four panelists had some great points to interject.  This session also included some additional commentary from Donald Fehr, the former Executive Director of the MLBPA, who was sitting in the audience enjoying his time and waiting for his turn to speak at the closing ceremonies.

I could obviously write much more about the great comments and suggestions the panelists made during the MLB discussion as well as the rest of the symposium, but in order to save time, I will leave you with a semi brief recap of the remaining panels.  If you have any questions about the symposium feel free to ask Darren or myself any questions (email: zakurtz@gmail.com or Twitter: @zakurtz).  Darren will also be posting video of the event as it becomes available.

After the conclusion of the MLB session, it was time for the NBA to step into the spotlight.  The moderator for this panel discussion was UF Professor, Mark Fenster.  Mr. Fenster took a different approach and directed questions to the panel and specific panelists.  The panelists in this session included Sports Illustrated Legal Analyst and Vermont Law School Professor Michael McCann; renowned author and advisor Marc Isenberg; sports litigator Alan Milstein, and Patrick Muldowney, attorney from Baker Hostetler and counsel for the Orlando Magic.  This panel discussed recent news such as Gilbert Arenas’ gun issue, Brandon Jennings and the “one and done” rule and ended with a discussion on revenue sharing and other possible issues that could cause an NBA lockout.  All of the individuals on this panel were not afraid to share their opinions and beliefs, even if they differed from other panelists.  This caused for some great debates and passionate discussions.  The brilliant minds of Michael McCann and Marc Isenberg worked well together and seemed to agree on many issues…more specifically, revenue sharing and the role of the NCAA on future NBA athletes.  Patrick Muldowney was viewed as the “pro-league” representative, although he did render neutral opinions that covered both sides throughout the discussion.  Professor McCann discussed his research regarding arrests of NBA players and their age, stating that no correlation exists between younger NBA players and arrests (Check out the Sports Law Blog for Professor McCann’s article on this topic).  Overall, the energy from these professionals was great and was certainly palpable by the audience.  Although the NFL panel covered more interesting topic areas to me, the NBA discussion was my favorite panel to listen to.  Not only were the debates exceptionally intelligent, but also each of the four speakers were very spirited while arguing their side.

Last but certainly not least was the NFL panel discussion.  This panel consisted of eight individuals, and like the previous two discussions, the amount of knowledge on the subject areas was overflowing from the UF Law School covered tables.  The moderator was a UF Levin College of Law professor Jeffrey Harrison.  Panelists were Ralph Cindrich of DeBartolo Sports & Entertainment; former VP of the Green Bay Packers and President of the National Football post, Andrew Brandt; J.I. Halsell, salary cap analyst and expert formerly with the Washington Redskins; Ryan Morgan, President & CEO of Morgan Advisory Group; Glenn Schwartzman, CEO of Alliance Sports Management; J. Richard Burnoski, President and CEO of Empire Sports Agency; and Paul J. Healy, Agent/Advisor and Partner at Healy Stone & Zahler.

Mr. Harrison had his own unique approach to moderating his panel.  Mr. Harrison posed several questions throughout the hour and fifteen-minute pane, and allowed any/all panelists to chime in on issues they were familiar with.

Ralph Cindrich kicked off the last panel by showing a marketing video that he and the DeBartolo Sports team made for Notre Dame safety Tom Zbikowski.  Cindrich went on to talk about how new media outlets such as YouTube are being used by agents to market unknown athletes and even stars with notoriety.  He mentioned that NFL scouts and managers actually do watch these videos.  Using Rex Ryan’s 27 views of the Zbikowski video is a prime example.

This star studded panel tackled the hard issues relating to the upcoming collective bargaining agreement that ends in March of 2011.  The panel unanimously agreed that the owners and NFLPA are unlikely to come to a decision by the end of this March, thus making this next season an uncapped year.  This would mean that the NFL would act like the MLB, with no ceiling or floor in regards to team salaries.  According to the panel, the players are asking for transparency and want to see the books.  They are asking management to take less than the 18% they currently are taking.  Both of the requests are unlikely to be accepted, which will most likely bring an uncapped year to the NFL.

Salary cap expert J.I. Halsell and Andrew Brandt discussed the ramifications of an uncapped year.  Halsell mentioned that this would drastically decrease the number of unrestricted free agents.  The uncapped year will add two more years to player’s contracts, making them unrestricted free agents in six years instead of the usual four years that we are accustomed to.  Mr. Brandt followed with a discussion on revenue sharing and discussed the wide disparity between teams in baseball and how that could occur in the NFL next year.

Glenn Shwartzman, J. Richard Burnoski  or “Bruno” and Paul Healy also discussed the role of agents during collective bargaining agreements.  The three took turns discussing how important it is to communicate effectively with your client right from the start.   Bruno mentioned that if an uncapped year is a likely possibility, like it is here, the agent may handle the players contract differently.  Healy discussed the ability to have players paid over a 30 week period instead of the more traditional 17 week period, which would help tremendously if a lockout were to happen.

Overall, the large NFL panel worked great together and covered almost all areas that I was interested in learning about.  They even threw in some helpful hints to future agents about being honest and truthful at all times with your client, even if it is something he may not want to hear.  The panelists all agreed that they would rather lose a client, than take on someone with unrealistic goals or visions of themselves or their agent.  The panel concluded with a Q and A session that was very informative.

After three great panel discussions, the symposium was finally ready for the great Donald M. Fehr to address the crowd.  The insightful words of Mr. Donald Fehr were an amazing way to end a great symposium.  Mr. Fehr worked as the MLB Players Association’s Executive Director for 26 years.  He recently (2009) passed the title over to Mike Weiner.  During his tenure with the MLB, Mr. Fehr successfully negotiated two collective bargaining agreements with the MLBPA and the league (2002 and 2006) and has a tremendous amount of knowledge in the areas of collective bargaining, contract administration, grievance matters, arbitration issues, and pensions and health care matters.

Mr. Fehr is an amazing speaker.  He not only discussed the many different areas that would be covered in collective bargaining agreements, but was able to connect with the majority in the room (law school students) and all others through his use of specific comparisons and diagrams on the white board.  He began his dialogue talking about the draft and recited one of my favorite comparisons of the day to describe how ludicrous the whole draft thing really is.  He compared the teams taking part in the draft with prestigious law firms and the college or draft eligible athletes with the law students.  He compared the fairness of the draft system on NCAA student athletes with a hypothetical situation where law students could only get a job offer from one of thirty possible law firms.  The law firms would interview with students, research the top students, test the students, and rank them or choose them based on those tested areas.  The students who were picked by those thirty schools would be lawyers while ALL others have to choose something else.

As I mentioned throughout this article, all the panelists were very insightful.  I could not possibly recap all the great speakers or discuss the conference in its entirety.  That is why everyone reading this should plan on attending next year’s symposium at UF and find out for themselves what all the fuss is about.

I would like to thank Darren, Adam and the rest of the UF EASLS crew for putting together such a wonderful symposium.  I would also like to thank all the wonderful speakers who dedicated much of their time and energy to the symposium. It certainly was a success to everyone.

In a previous article, I predicted that Aroldis Chapman would go to the Angels or at least another big market club. I was wrong. Chapman signed with the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday for 6 years and $30.25 million. Apparently the Reds had been “going after him like crazy” according to a source. The December 15th workout that took place in Houston rapidly increased his stock. Initial bids for Chapman were made by the Marlins and Red Sox and hovered around the $15 million mark. So its apparent he impressed scouts.

He immediately becomes the top prospect in the Reds organization. He will be groomed as a starter. Some predict that he will end up in the high minor leagues while others think he could start the year in the Reds rotation. More than likely, he will start in the minors to work on his delivery. The Reds envision him as an eventual top of the rotation guy.

The signing by the Reds surprises me. For instance, Chapman never watched a single MLB game and couldn’t name all the teams in the league. He even had to look at a map before he decided. It is surprising because the Reds have not had a winning season in nine seasons. They are also not a high revenue team ($72.6 million last year and expected to drop).

Apparently once he learned about the Reds, he became deeply interested. The fact that manager Dusty Baker, catcher Ramon Hernandez and pitching coach Bryan Price all speak Spanish probably factored into his decision, as Chapman speaks no English. The team also has 10 other players from Latin America.

One reason Chapman chose the Reds had to be because they offered the best deal. The Reds can afford this deal because of the structure of the contract. The $30.25 million deal includes a $16.25 million signing bonus paid over time. The guaranteed money is paid over a 10 year period. Therefore, the signing doesn’t affect the Reds current payroll. The Reds could also shed more payroll by not picking up options for Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang in 2011.

Congratulations to Randy and Alan Hendricks. Team officials involved in the deal praised the Hendricks brothers for the transparency they applied to Chapman. This was by far the most anticipated signing of the off-season and it seems to be a good fit for both parties involved.

Editor’s Note: The full breakdown of Chapman’s contract is below.

• Signing bonuses: $1.5 million when contract approved by MLB, $1.5 million November 1, 2010/2011/2012/2013 , and $1.25 million November 1 2014/2015/2016/2017/2018/2019/2020.
• Guaranteed salary of $1 million in 2010 and 2011, $2 million  in 2012 and 2013, and $3 million in 2014.  Within 5 days of the 2014 World Series, Chapman must decide whether to exercise a $5 million player option for 2015.
• If Chapman is eligible for salary arbitration after the 2012 season, he would get $5 million converted to a bonus and become eligible for arbitration.
• If Chapman is arbitration eligible after the 2013 season, he would get $3 million converted to a bonus and then be eligible for arbitration.

Nick Brockmeyer also started his agency when he was a student.  In his case, he started Platinum Sports & Entertainment Management as a 3L (final year of law school) at St. Louis University School of Law.  In October 2008, Brockmeyer joined forces with Scott Casanover of MAC Sports & Entertainment.  We had interviewed Mr. Casanover as a part of our Interview with the Agent feature.  We also covered the merger on SportsAgentBlog.com.

In this edition of Ask The Expert, which we host in conjunction with AccessAthletes, Nick is very gracious to answer our ten questions, as he just got back from working the busy MLB Winter Meetings.

Questions and Answers

(1) What is the process like when one of your clients gets added to a 40-man roster? Run us through what calls and arrangements you had to make on behalf of Estarlin de los Santos when he was recently added to the 40 man roster by the Minnesota Twins.

This can happen in different ways. I have had it happen where a guy that is not on the 40 gets called up to MLB during the middle of a season and makes the 25 man and 40 man on the same day. I would say this requires a little more work than a guy simply being added to a 40 man during the off-season. Kenneth Powell (an owner and agent at Platinum Sports) handles all of our Latin American clients, so he was the main guy dealing with the Estarlin de los Santos situation. Estarlin’s addition to the 40 was kind of a surprise to us to be honest (a pleasant surprise). We also signed Juan Abreu (minor league free agent with KC Royals) to an MLB contract with the Atlanta Braves that same day. The main things you have to worry about are making sure they fill out their paperwork for pension plan, insurance, 401K, etc. If they get called up in the middle of the season then you have to help them with transitioning into the life of a MLB player in a very short time period (less than 24 hours). This may include travel, lodging, car movers, apartment rentals (on both ends), and of course the agent trying to make it to the player’s MLB debut if possible.

(2) When your minor league clients get discouraged, what sort of things do you tell them to reassure them that they have a chance of making a 40 man roster?

This is a tough one. I am not a coach, counselor, or psychiatrist. However, sometimes being an agent requires you to kind of play that role. You just have to instill positive ideas and thoughts in the player and explain to him that minor league baseball is a long process. I had that situation last month with a couple of guys that we really thought had a good shot at making a 40 did not get that call they were looking for. At that point you just reassure them that maybe they will get picked up in the Rule 5 draft in December. The bad part is that the Rule 5 draft is talked about by all minor league players hoping to someday make it to a MLB roster, but in reality I bet less than 1% of all professional baseball players are ever effected by it. I mainly try to demonstrate to them through examples I have encountered with past players that they can still make it to a 40 and the 25 the following season and tell them stories about clients I represent who went through this before them and eventually made it.

(3) How many minor league players did you have to represent before you had one make a 40-man roster?

When you are starting an agency from scratch like I did you can’t be too picky at first. You realize that many of your first clients will probably never make it to MLB. However, you need some clients in order to sell yourself and your agency to future clients. Trying to get a client and explaining to them that you represent “zero” or “one” client makes for a hard sell. So, I understood that many, if not all, of my initial clients may not ever make it to MLB. I ended up getting kind of lucky though. Of my first five clients I signed back in 2004, 2 have made it to MLB (one of them is going to be starting his 4th year in MLB in 2010). I think I kind of beat the odds on this topic.

(4) Is it possible to make a profit representing minor league players?

I would say no and yes…it depends on if you represented them through the draft and how high they were selected. If you pick up a guy who is just in the minors then the answer would be no. You may make a few dollars off endorsement deals (baseball cards, equipment, etc.) for you and your client, but you can’t take any of his salary (not that there is much to take anyway). If you advise a guy through the draft and then represent him through the minors then you could count that draft money. Kind of a tricky question because I don’t know if you can count the draft money you make as making money on a minor league player for the sake of answering this question.

(5) How do you go about recruiting players to advise for the draft?

We represent players from all over the US, Latin America, Australia, and the Netherlands. When it comes to the draft we have represented guys from coast to coast. Our main strategy is geographically based recruiting. With us being the largest baseball agency in the state of Missouri and very few competitors in bordering states we really focus on the Midwest. There is a lot of baseball talent in the Midwest. We figure if we can beat the other agencies on the Midwest players that they can have their east and west coast players and we will do just fine. We also find that we can relate to the players and their families more in the Midwest. It is easier to go see them more often from a traveling standpoint. Finally, when we get in with many of the Midwest schools it kind of creates a pipeline effect. If we have advised the past five players that came out of College “X” it is very likely we will get the next five players as well out of that same school.

(6) What services do you offer potential advising clients?  What do you offer that other agencies do not provide?

I believe that most agencies are offering the same services for the most part. Having said tha,t a client should pick an agent/advisor based on who they think they could get along with best and do business with. Agencies will phrase their “services” in different ways, but at the end of the day you are usually getting the same services. We offer the following services:

Contract Negotiation
Endorsements
Legal Counsel (4 lawyers on our staff)
Marketing
Equipment Contracts
Draft Preparation
Career Development/Guidance
Salary Arbitration
Financial Planning
Taxes
Personal Training

In addition we buy our player’s equipment for them. I would say the thing that sets us apart is the personal attention our players get from us. We tell players that they can go to a bigger agency, but they may end up being a small fish in a big pond. With Platinum Sports we give each player the personal attention they deserve.

(7) How often do you travel during the season to watch your players perform?  Do you go to Florida and Arizona to check on your players during Spring Training?

The entire company travels to Florida and Arizona for most of the month of March. I always tell people that during the off-season our players are living throughout the world. During the season they could be in any of the fifty states. During March they are all corralled in two states (FL and AZ). During March we get to see every single player in our company. In Arizona we operate out of a centrally located hotel. In Florida we spend 2-3 days in each town and then move to the next town. March involves a great amount of planning for our company. We are orchestrating fifty player meetings in two states with eight agents over a one month period.

During the season we try to see the players as much as we can. We try to make all the all star games we have players in as well as MLB debuts. We see all of our MLB players that come through St. Louis to play the Cardinals. We also go see players if the trip makes sense logistically (example would be two players playing against each other within five hour drive).

(8) Do you have any players playing in the Caribbean Winter Leagues?  How would you rank the leagues and how much involvement do you have in getting your players signed with those clubs?

We do not have any American players playing in Winter Leagues this year. We may be sending a guy down on a short contract next week, but that has not been finalized yet. This is probably the first year we don’t have an American player playing winter ball. We have placed players in the past in Dominican, Venezuela, and Mexico. We are usually very involved with that process for our American players.

On the flip side, we have probably ten of our latin players playing winter ball in their respective countries this year (and every year).

(9) Are you exclusive with a particular offseason trainer?  Do you pay for the cost of sending your players to a trainer?  Explain the process.

We are not exclusive with a particular offseason trainer. We do use Jason Rulo at Pinnacle Personal Performance Training a lot though. Jason is an old college friend of mine that has worked with the Yankees and several MLB players. Some of our players use him if they are based in St. Louis. For our non-St. Louis players Jason still generates workout plans for them if they desire. We have also worked with numerous other trainers throughout the country depending on the player’s needs and location. A big issue is the teams will often send the players home for the offseason with a generic workout for “pitchers”. The problem with this is that not all pitchers should be doing the same workout. Some need to gain weight, some need to lose weight, etc. That is where Jason comes into play. He finds out what the goals of the player are and generates a workout plan specifically for the player and his needs.

(10) Since agents are not able to charge their clients any fee on a minimum salary contract, how do you make money once your clients first make the big leagues?

Simple answer, you don’t! I remember when one of my players reached MLB. I went out to San Diego during his first week in “the bigs”. We were at dinner and he said “I’m glad I can finally start paying you for your work now”. That was in 2007 and I still cannot legally accept payment from him and he has been in MLB 2007, 2008, 2009, and will be again in 2010. You can make money off of them through endorsement contracts you negotiate for them and things along those lines, but the answer to your question is “you don’t!”.

We would like to thank Nick Brockmeyer for participating in this edition of the Ask The Expert Series. If you have any questions for Nick, you can email him at nbrockmeyer@psemagents.com. If you are a sports professional or professional athlete and would like to participate in the Ask The Expert Series, please contact Darren Heitner or Matthew Allinson for more information.

As for the 2009 Meetings, the big event on the last day is always the Rule 5 Draft.  Quick bullet points to help explain the Rule 5 Draft:

• It is not the Amateur Draft, also known as the Rule 4 Draft, where high school, junior college, and juniors/seniors in 4-year universities are selected in the 50 round draft.
• To be eligible to be drafted a player must not be on the 40-man roster and must have been in the organization for 4 years if signed at 19-years-old or older, or 5 years if signed at 18-years-old or younger.
• Triple-A players selected must be added to that team’s 40-man roster and kept on that team’s 25-man roster (and active for at least 90 days) for at least one full season.  This is known as the Major League Phase.
• That player may be waived by the new team.  If he clears waivers, the team that lost him in the Rule 5 draft has the option to take him back.
• Double-A players (or lower level) may be selected to play on a team’s Triple-A squad and Single-A players (or lower level) may be selected to play on a team’s Double-A squad.

This year’s Rule 5 Draft was pitcher-heavy.  Of the 17 players selected in the Major League Phase, 14 were pitchers (8 RHPs and 6 LHPs).  15 of the 21 players taken in the Triple-A Phase were pitchers (9 RHPs and 6 LHPs).  All 4 players grabbed in the Double-A Phase were RHPs.  Teams need pitching!  They should take a look at my company’s arsenal of arms.  Speaking of which, one of the pitchers selected in the Triple-A Phase may soon be joining the Dynasty family.  If it happens, we will announce it here.

The New York Mets were extremely active during the Rule 5 Draft.  They took Carlos Monasterios from the Phillies organization in the Major League Phase and followed up that pick by taking three more pitchers and a first-baseman in the Triple-A Phase.  They also took an RHP in the Double-A Phase.  This tells me that they were not too happy with the state of their farm system.  Out of 42 players selected in the draft, the Mets grabbed 6 of them.  Before you read too much into that statement, make note that Monasterios has already been shipped to the Dodgers.

The Nationals were also very active; the team added 4 new players to its organization.  They got a couple of pitchers and a couple of outfielders (including the #1 overall pick of the Major League Phase – Jamie Hoffmann).  That said, the Nationals also lost 4 non-protected players to other teams in the draft.

Want to see how your team/players fared?  Here is the list of all players taken in the draft.