What Boras Wanted For A-Rod

$350 Million Over 11 Years

You have to admire the chutzpah of a guy who brazenly asks for this much money for a 32 year old player. Yeah, he's historically great with a good chance of retaining most of his value, but that sum is insane.

Before Alex Rodriguez opted out of his contract with the Yankees earlier this week, the team was told that it would not be able to meet with the third baseman unless it presented an offer of at least $350 million, sources say.

The Yankees had hoped to meet with Rodriguez this week, and would have presented him with an extension offer close to five years and $150 million, to begin at the conclusion of his 2008-2010 contract, through which he would have earned $81 million. Through the Yankees' proposal, then, Rodriguez would have made about $230 million over eight years, and during the last five years of the contract, sources say, he would have earned the highest annual salary in Major League Baseball history.

But team executives were told, sources say, that in order to arrange a meeting with Rodriguez, they would have to be prepared to make an extension offer that would take the third baseman's deal up to a total value of $350 million. That means that the offer the Yankees intended to propose would have been more than $100 million short.

This A-Rod thing is already getting pretty stinky, like a fish corpse in the sun.
Well here it goes, I've been resisting the sour grapes for days, but I can't resist their allure:
I liked having him on the team but you know, the Yankees never even got to the World Series with this guy. So maybe it really is a blessing in disguise that A-Rod and his grandiose self-image marches right out of the clubhouse into a greenback sunset somewhere else where he can pad his numbers and gild his legacy with gold. There's something of a King Midas in A-Rod, including the tragic bit where he turns his daughter in to a lump of gold.

SORT OF AN UPDATE: Peter Abraham writes the amazing LoHud Yankees blog which is written from the perspective of a beat writer covering the Yankees. He had this insight:

Some people want to believe Boras has some sort of hypnotic hold on his clients and the poor player is a somehow a pawn. But these are adults. If A-Rod is capable of living to the age of 32, getting married and having a child, he is capable of telling his agent what he wants.

In the two seasons I have been around the Yankees, only one player has talked about his salary time after time after time. About how being the highest paid player in “pretty cool”, about the pressure of being the highest paid player and about the responsibility of being the highest paid player.

One guess who that is.

Scott Boras wasn’t above him manipulating any strings. If you want to be angry about Alex Rodriguez turning his back on the Yankees, be angry at Alex Rodriguez.
Blame Boras? That’s just what they want you to do.

That, tells me far more than I ever needed to know. A-Rod would be a shit of a guy to share a dugout with if everything he does or says is couched by him talking about his salary and then cries uncle when beat writers roast him for not living up to his own billing.

Incidentally, I've been playing with the RLYW's Lineup Toy for projected 2008 lineups.
When one fixes the other parts of the lineup as:

Bobby Abreu
Derek Jeter
Jason Giambi
Jorge Posada
Hideki Matsui
Robinson Cano
Melky Cabrera
Johnny Damon

...and substitute various 3B men, the RC/27 is invariably in the 6.5 range.
Indeed, I've shoved names like Eric Chazez, Hank Blalock, Morgan Ensberg, Wilson Betemit, Alex Gordon (not that he's available) Andre Ethier, Nomar Garciaparra, Eric Hinske, (please no!) and the number stays pretty much at 6.5. In fact, I've substituted in Eric Duncan, Norihiro Nakamura (for kicks) and even Drew Henson (LOL!) only to find it only drops to 6.2. At 6.2 runs per game, that's well over 1000 runs in a 162 game season. Of the available 3B men, with A-Rod alone, the number spikes to 6.8; although David Wright would make it 6.7.

So if the Yankees can re-sign Jorge Posada, and expect the vets to lose 5-10% of their effectiveness to age, regression to the mean, reduced playing time and all that, the offense is still going to be pretty formidable without A-Rod.
Also, if Wilson Betemit plus platoon partner is going to be as effective as any choice at 3B, then it behooves the Yankees not to get another solid bench guy.