Agent Scott Boras: Tanking, MLB's 'competitive cancer,' led to Atlanta Braves' World Series title
Baseball's most influential agent said the sport was the victim of a "competitive cancer" caused by teams unloading veterans to accumulate draft picks, and that the Atlanta Braves' World Series title was a direct result of tanking.
In an outdoor news conference in front of a steakhouse at the general managers meetings, Scott Boras backed the demands of the players' association for changes in the collective bargaining agreement that expires Dec. 1. The sport is braced for a lockout that would be baseball's ninth work stoppage but its first since 1995.
"This is the Easter Bunny delivering rotten eggs," Boras said Wednesday. "Every team says, 'I need to do this because it's my only option, knowing I can't reach a divisional crest, I can't get in the playoffs.'"
Atlanta made a series of July acquisitions and went on to its first World Series title since 1995.
"We have seen the championship in 60 days," he said. "The rules allow them to be a less-than-.500 team at Aug. 1 and add four players, five players from teams that no longer wanted to compete and for very little cost change the entirety of their team and season.
"And we saw this unfold to the detriment of teams that create at vast expense, planning and intellect and won over 100 games. In doing all this, we have now created an understanding that a fan would not know who the true team is until, frankly, the trading deadline."
Boras blames the turn toward tanking on restraints imposed on amateur spending in 2012. The caps came as the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros undertook painful rebuilds that resulted in World Series titles, informing decisions by other clubs to tear down. Boras represents many top draft picks and has lost revenue because of the system of draft signing pools.
"It created an incentive for the race to the bottom, because now we have half the major league teams at some time during the season being noncompetitive, trading off their players, making the game and the season very different than what it was intended to be, and that was having an incentive to win every game that you play," he said.
Entire article:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...-cancer-led-atlanta-braves-world-series-title
Just a greedy agent whining because some teams (that tanked and are now in a rebuilding process) are not bidding on his free agents which would help drive up the offers, etc.