The Boras Roundup

In an effort to get MLB teams to outrageously overpay for "star [sic]" talent, Scott Boras signed Carlos Lee to help him corner the market in post arbitration players. Lee already turned down a 4 year, $48 million offer from Milwaukee, which punched his ticket out of town to the Rangers. Lee (30 yrs old), a lifetime .286 hitter who has only hit 100 RBI's twice in his previous 7 years (CWS and MB), is putting up career numbers in his contract season.

Joining Carlos Lee in the soon to be overpaid club are Alfonso Soriano, Barry Zito, and Japanese star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Soriano, if you will remember, was dumped by the Rangers last season after hitting .268 and making 3,762 errors at second base. Since joining the Nationals, Soriano has also put up monster numbers at the plate in a contract season. He also has managed to increase his fielding error rate , (total chances : errors) of 36:1 to 28:1, while moving to left field and having to deal with those pesky fly balls. And please pay no attention to that career .326 OBP. Its not like the Yankees and Rangers had good offenses or anything.

Former Cy Young winner, Barry Zito, will hit the market in high demand despite only having three pitches, a fastball that tops out at 88, and a reputation for not being able to win the big game. He does have very good career stats and the ability to beat Seattle at any time he wants. Some team will surely shell out Pavano, Burnett, Clement type money for Zito. But will he follow their example and really live up to the expectations for first 1/2 year on a multiyear contract?

Expect Boras to recruit a couple more big name players to add to his yearly free agent powerplay list and hold them out for as long as possible in order to cash in on desperate teams (cough: Jeff Weaver and the Angels: cough) all at once.