Pat Burrell

The 32-year old Burrell is likely to be the Rays’ designated hitter. Last year with the Phils, Burrell hit .250 with 33 home runs, 86 RBIs and 102 walks in 157 games.

Burrell had hoped to sign back with the Phillies this year but those dreams were shattered after they signed outfielder Raul Ibanez.

“With (Carl) Crawford and (Evan) Longoria going down simultaneously, I thought I’d make one last vain attempt to reach out to Tampa Bay, and to no avail,” Borris told FOXSports.com.

And then Borris returned to his normal shpiel…that of collusion.

“That’s because Major League Baseball has been successful in their pursuit in blackballing Barry out of the game.”

In the midst of all of this, Borris may be burning bridges with Tampa Bay execs by going public about his text message campaign.

“I’m not sure what Jeff Borris is trying to accomplish by saying he sent me a text message,” Friedman said. “But our longstanding practice is not to comment on anything speculative.”

When beginning my search I noticed that Sports Law Blog did a similar comparison with salaries and success, but I could not find other comparisons after 2006.  I will attempt to continue their analysis for the first half of the 2008 season.

To start, I will analyze the top salaries, which includes 2/3 of the top AL East teams, the Red Sox and the struggling Yanks.  As many of you know, the Yanks are the most expensive team in baseball, spending a total of $209, 081,577 on their 2008 roster according to USA Today.  The next team on the list is the other New York team, the Mets, spending $71,288,201 less than the Yanks with a total of $137,793,376.  The Red Sox are fourth on the list spending $133,390,035 on their roster after winning the World Series last season.

The surprising Rays are second to last on the list, spending a mere $43,820,597 on their total roster this year.  That roster has earned them the best record in baseball. The Rays are 53-32 so far and are currently in first place by 3 games over the Red Sox, proving to the league that a low salary does not mean low quality players. Evan Langoria is having a Rookie of the Year type season, but no other Rays are really having a breakout year. This is a scary thought for the rest of the MLB with the second half of the season on the horizon. The Rays play as a team, with the heart and patience to hang in games and come back late in a match if they need to, unlike that of the Yanks so far and many other high paid rosters.

Another surprise team so far this season has been the other Florida squad, the Florida Marlins.  I remember hearing on opening day that the ENTIRE Marlins salary for 2008 was less than the salary of Alex Rodriguez alone this year.  The Marlins management has spent the least in the MLB, paying their players $21,811,500 to start opening day.  After A-Rod and his agent, Scott Boras, worked out a new contract with New York last season, A-Rod was guaranteed $28,000,000 for 2008.  I only analyzed and discussed a couple of teams.  If you want to view the entire list with all 30 MLB teams and their salaries click here.

Using the USA Today data and the results from the past several regular seasons and playoffs, I can conclude that a high payroll does not guarantee success. I have learned after watching March Madness, the NBA, MLB, NHL and just about every sport, that earnings and prior statistics that commentators and gamblers use to handicap games really mean nothing. It is all about the desire, dedication, training regimen, persistence, a little coaching and the overall mindset of the team that wins games.

Look at the NY Giants Super Bowl run and success last season. They came out of nowhere to prove everyone wrong and beat the heavily favored Patriots. Going by all the stats in the NFL, the G-men had no shot at beating Brady and the undefeated Patriots. The only thing they had on their side was the confidence from the great run they were on during the playoffs.

Since baseball does not have a salary cap, teams in New York can spend whatever they want on big name players. However, the only thing that matters at the end of the day is getting wins. Baseball is a team sport and as we can see from the Yankees past 6 seasons, big names (and paychecks) don’t always forge together to win big games. All a team needs to do is get into the playoffs and then anything can happen.

Although the MLB season is only almost half over, it still pays to point out that money does not correlate with success.  Darren looked at how this may eventually affect MLBPA agents in a post that he made back in 2006: Will The Yankees Success Hurt Agents?

I have some great news to share early in the game.  The Tampa Bay Rays had expressed interest in Alvin’s work recently.  For weeks, I had been going back and forth corresponding with multiple people in the organization.  Finally, I received word that Carl Crawford had checked out Alvin’s work and liked it, and the Rays had plans to use it.

I am excited to announce that the Rays will use signed prints of Alvin’s original 22″ x 30″ illustration of Carl Crawford, featured at the top of this article, as raffle items for their season ticket holders.  Additionally, I arranged for Alvin to meet Carl Crawford at Tropicana Field in July.  We were told that Carl would sign the original illustration.

The original is a mixed medium piece, with a combination of colored pencil, watercolor, and acrylic.  The illustration presents Crawford batting with a sunburst from the new logo in the background.  Alvin is one of the first artists to capture a Rays’ player in the new team uniform.

It was music to my ears to hear that I made Alvin’s day after I told him the news.  As a sports attorney, I have learned that representation comes down to building good relationships, no matter if it involves an artist, athlete, or musician.  Even though the work can become tedious at times, I really enjoy the personal side of representation.  It was a great feeling to celebrate this milestone with Alvin.  We are heading in the right direction and I hope to establish Alvin as a premier sports artist in the near future.

Any thoughts on the size of the bonus?

An agent like Scott Boras may think that the recent deal signed by Evan Longoria for six years and a total of $17.5 million is a bad deal. But then there are agents like Paul Cohen, who just secured his client, Troy Tulowitzki a six-year, $30 million contract with the Rockies. Longoria is also a client of Cohen’s. The Tampa Bay Rays may have gotten a steal with Longoria’s contract, but Tulowitzki has a chance to receive a lot more money over the next few years than he would have received without the long term contract. Take a look at his current numbers in this young season.

So the question is, should the agent in the hypothetical presented at the beginning of this post take the Scott Boras approach and not lock up a young player to a long-term deal or take the safe route like Cohen advises? Obviously, there is no answer. It all depends on your style, which will be the reason that a certain type of player selects you to be his agent. Most likely, Boras and Cohen have very different clients. They probably recruit different types of players and players understand what kind of agent they are getting before they sign their name on a representation agreement.

Cohen’s theory is, “Unless you want to live in the middle of Beverly Hills or Fifth Avenue, you’re set for life. If you just get 5% of your investment, you never have to work another day in your life.” While Cohen’s clients may give up the grandeur of Beverly Hills, Boras’ players may want nothing less than a mansion on Miami’s Star Island.

The best comment was made by agent Tom O’Connell: Anybody can play Monday morning quarterback. As an agent you should fully research the situation and then do what you feel is best for your client. No reason to doubt yourself after that decision is made. Hindsight is 20/20. O’Connell may look like a genius for getting his client, Manny Corpas, a four-year, $8 million contract last off-season, but did he really know that in that time period Corpas would lose his closing job and face a potential designation to a Minor League affiliate? This is an example of where the safe route paid off. But what if Corpas was leading the league in saves right now with a 0.53 ERA. Everyone would be jumping on O’Connell for signing the safe deal. The important thing is to be on the same page with your client so that no matter how things turn out, he was buying into your theory before any contract was signed. The rest, you should leave up to fate.

The Rays are busy talking internally about proposing an offer to Bonds’ agent, Jeff Borris, but have kept all conversations in house for the time being. And Borris is not exactly a wealth of knowledge for the time being. He had this to say:

“I talk to Tampa Bay all the time for a variety of reasons. I won’t comment on that [Bonds] one way or another. … There’s only so much I can say.”

Yet, the St. Pete Times still tried to get more information out of Borris. They asked him if he will meet with them while he is in Tampa/St. Pete. Again, a thought provoking response when he said, “I can’t say.”

But while Borris does not give much for us to chew on the Rays situation, he did make sure to tell the media that Japan is an option if no American team takes an interest in Bonds.

The thought of Borris driving from training camp to training camp trying to sell Bonds to GMs is quite humorous in my mind. But that is what you are committed to do if you take a player like Bonds into your stable of clients.